The Financial Times (UK) just published a wonderful article, linked here, about therapeutic gardening for British combat veterans with PTSD.
The article, written by the FT's longtime gardening columnist, Robin Fox, makes the extraordinary claim, which we are bound to dispute on a lack of evidence, that "in nearly two-thirds of the American states, the state Veterans Administration runs designated 'horticultural therapy' programs." If so, that is the first we've heard about this!
Nevertheless, gardening for veterans and its near-relation, farming for veterans, both have their enthusiastic adherents.
In the UK, Anna Baker Creswell, featured in the article, sounds like she's doing tremendous work for veterans with her nonprofit, Gardening Leave, linked here. The FT article describes her work:
"Three years ago, Anna Baker Cresswell began her charity, Gardening Leave, in the belief that “horticultural therapy” might be a way out of soldiers’ PTSD. Now in her early forties, she is admirably forthright about her aims and ideas and “naturally bossy”, as she describes her impressive practicality. Since 2007, Gardening Leave has already helped 200 veterans with individually targeted work and social support. It has grown to employ nine salaried staff and to deploy an annual budget of £300,000, all of it fund-raised by Anna and her team."
Closer to home, here are the remarks of Dale, a Vietnam vet:
"I have been flower gardening for a few months now since I've moved to Southern California from Chicago. I was depressed in Chicago, as one can imagine with the long winters stuck indoors. I do feel better now that I'm doing my yardwork, planting seeds and flowers that I get from the very large nursery nearby. I have even been posting photos of my roses and others on Facebook. Not so depressed anymore; I don't have time for it!"
Having high hopes for gardening...are those realistic? Fortunately, it's not being suggested in lieu of other treatment -- that's important -- but in addition to, as a worthwhile endeavor for the veterans. There are many ways an experience can be "therapeutic," after all, if we broaden the definition of what that is, and horticultural therapy definitely has its benefits.
As Gardening Leave writes on their website, "Non-clinical interventions such as Gardening Leave and fishing which help to get veterans together again, also play a big part in helping to reduce the social isolation and exclusion which affect many veterans." YES! Absolutely...
A newspaper in New England talks briefly about horticultural therapy for veterans:
"Lorraine Brisson is president of the Northeast Horticultural Therapy Association, a nonprofit organization located in Massachusetts but with a membership that covers all of New England and New York. She also has worked as a horticultural therapist for 22 years at the Northampton Veterans Administration Medical Center in Leeds.
“I've had veterans leave my program who are totally different individuals from when they came in,” she says. “I had someone in a wheelchair a few years ago and we built a special raised bed for him and he had his own garden, and I'll tell you it was the most beautiful raised-bed vegetable garden I ever saw. Before that, he was not taking care of himself. That improved and he got himself a companion dog and starting taking the bus to work. I see a change in their whole attitude about themselves and what they can accomplish.”
Source: The Cape Cod Times, article linked here.
According to the American Horticultural Therapy Association ("AHTA") horticultural therapy has a long history in the United States, starting with one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. From the AHTA website:
"Horticultural therapy (HT) is not only an emerging profession, it is a time-proven practice. The therapeutic benefits of peaceful garden environments have been understood since ancient times. In the 19th century, Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and considered to be the "Father of American Psychiatry," reported that garden settings held curative effects for people with mental illness.
Rehabilitative care of hospitalized war veterans in the 1940’s and 1950’s greatly expanded the practice of HT. Today, HT is recognized as a practical and viable treatment with wide-ranging benefits for people in therapeutic, vocational, and wellness programs."
Here's another article talking about the benefits to veterans who experience gardening through a VA facility in Brockton, Massachusetts. For the veterans cited in the article, "horticultural therapy nurtures their spirit, and it helps them move forward." Here's the link.
And Kellie, a former Marine in the Midwest who served in Iraq, says her husband, also a Marine, enjoys his time in the garden.
"My husband has an amazing green thumb. He enjoys his garden so much. It is very therapeutic for him."
Editor's note: For more about the American Horticultural Therapy Association, click here.
