Therapeutic garden - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A Therapeutic Garden is an outdoor garden

Garden

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...

space that has been specifically designed to meet the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of the people using the garden as well as their caregivers, family members and friends.

Therapeutic Gardens can be found in a variety of settings, including but not limited to hospitals, skilled nursing homes, assisted living residences, continuing care retirement communities, out-patient cancer centers, hospice

Hospice

Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.In the United States and Canada:*Gentiva Health Services, national provider of hospice and home health services...

residences, and other related healthcare and residential environments. The focus of the gardens is primarily on incorporating plants and friendly wildlife into the space. The settings can be designed to include active uses such as raised planters for horticultural therapy activities or programmed for passive uses such as quiet private sitting areas next to a small pond with a trickling waterfall.

Types of Therapeutic Gardens

Alzheimer’s Gardens: adult day care programs and dementia
Dementia
Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...

residences
Healing Gardens: acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and other healthcare facilities
Rehabilitation Gardens: rehabilitation hospitals
Restorative Gardens: psychiatric hospitals
Senior
Senior citizen
Senior citizen is a common polite designation for an elderly person in both UK and US English, and it implies or means that the person is retired. This in turn implies or in fact means that the person is over the retirement age, which varies according to country. Synonyms include pensioner in UK...

Community Gardens: assisted living
Assisted living
Assisted living residences or assisted living facilities provide supervision or assistance with activities of daily living ; coordination of services by outside health care providers; and monitoring of resident activities to help to ensure their health, safety, and well-being.Assistance may...

, continuing care retirement communities and other senior living residences
Cancer Gardens: chemotherapy facilities
Enabling Gardens: vocational schools, arboretum
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
Meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....

Gardens: religious institutions and other faith based settings

Design

The design of a Therapeutic Garden is ideally a collaborative effort involving the people using and caring for the garden. The development of the garden is typically accomplished by a design team of healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, recreational therapists, gerontologists and other staff members. Additional stakeholders involved may include, if appropriate, the patients or residents themselves and their respective family members and other caregivers. The design team is often led by a landscape architect

Landscape architect

A landscape architect is a person involved in the planning, design and sometimes direction of a landscape, garden, or distinct space. The professional practice is known as landscape architecture....

or other design professional trained in the design and development of Therapeutic Gardens. Depending upon the actual use of the garden, other members of the design team may include a horticultural therapist, recreational therapist and related disciplines.

The majority of elements in a Therapeutic Garden should be plant related, such as perennials that attract hummingbirds, shrubs that attract butterflies and water features for gold fish and Koi. Plants familiar to those using the Therapeutic Garden need to be non-toxic and non-injurious. Issues related to sustainability of the garden, such as using native plants and rain water harvesting, should also be considered in the overall design. Attracting nature, such as butterflies, gold finch and hummingbirds into the Therapeutic Garden, is important. Nature is referred to as a ‘positive distraction’ by Roger Ulrich, Ph.D. at Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...

. Other considerations include providing ample shade, movable furniture, water features, smooth and level walking surfaces, and year round interest. Consideration should also be given to the maintenance and upkeep of the Therapeutic Garden as safety is an important consideration. An endowment fund can be set up for the perpetual maintenance of the Therapeutic Garden.

Elements

The elements of a Therapeutic Garden consist of the following:

Natural elements:

Familiar plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

ings
Plants that attract birds and butterflies
Ornamental trees, shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

s, perennials, and ornamental grass
Ornamental grass
Ornamental grasses are grasses grown as ornamental plants. They have become increasingly popular in gardens in recent years.-Classifications:...

es
Non-toxic and non-injurious plantings
Vegetables
Annual plant
Annual plant
An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

s
Soil
Sunlight and natural shade
Wind
Precipitation

Constructed garden elements:

Patio
Patio
A patio is an outdoor space generally used for dining or recreation that adjoins a residence and is typically paved. It may refer to a roofless inner courtyard of the sort found in Spanish-style dwellings or a paved area between a residence and a garden....

, courtyard
Courtyard
A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court....
Paved walking pathways
Seating, such as tables, chairs and benches
Landscape lighting
Raised beds
Shade, such as Gazebo
Gazebo
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal, that may be built, in parks, gardens, and spacious public areas. Gazebos are freestanding or attached to a garden wall, roofed, and open on all sides; they provide shade, shelter, ornamental features in a landscape, and a place to rest...

s , Pergola
Pergola
A pergola, arbor or arbour is a garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained...

s or umbrellas with tables
Fountain
Fountain
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....

, water garden
Water garden
Water gardens, also known as aquatic gardens, are a type of man-made water feature. A water garden is defined as any interior or exterior landscape or architectural element whose primarily purpose is to house, display, or propagate a particular species or variety of aquatic plant...

, or other water feature
Water feature
In landscape architecture and garden design, a water feature is one or more items from a range of fountains, pools, ponds, cascades, waterfalls, and streams. Before the 18th century they were usually powered by gravity, though the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon are described by Strabo as...

s
Hose bib or other water source
Electrical outdoor outlet; for music and related activities

Nature

Spending time outside in a garden has been shown to positively affect a person’s emotions and improve their sense of well-being. Access to nature balances circadian rhythms, lowers blood pressure, reduces stress and increases absorption of Vitamin D. Nature has been shown to be beneficial for our overall health and well-being. We are all connected to nature and it is important to maintain this vital connection for our health and well-being, which is described in the work ‘The Biophilia Hypothesis’ by Edward O. Wilson.

Garden Programs

Healing gardens for hospitals have put a new emphasis on creating garden programs where patients can go. This model takes the form of the Swedish Covenant Hospital system . Landscape artist David Kemp has a business on the East Coast of the United States designing healing gardens for hospitals.

Therapeutic Gardens in literature