It is the depths of winter and it is time to talk
gardening.
click on the cabbages to enlarge
Since the times the pharaohs
ruled ancient Egypt the therapeutic benefits of gardening has been documented. In the 19th century, Dr. Benjamin Rush - a
signer of the Declaration of Independence and Father of American Psychiatry - documented
the positive impact gardening had upon individuals with mental illness.
In the 1940s and 1950s, rehabilitative care
of hospitalized war veterans significantly expanded acceptance of the practice.
The 1950s and 1960s brought the first
degree in horticultural therapy at Michigan State University. In 1972, Kansas State University created the
first curriculum that provided students with dual training in both psychology
and horticulture. The first graduate
degree program was offered by Clemson University in 1973 and in that same year the
Council for Therapy and Rehabilitation though Horticulture (NCTRH) was
established by a group of horticulture therapy professionals. In 1988, the organization was renamed: the American Horticulture Therapy Association
(AHTA).
Nowadays, horticultural therapy
is accepted as a beneficial and effective therapeutic modality. It enhances
individual cognitive abilities such as memory task initiation, language skills,
and socialization. It also contributes
to physical rehabilitation strengthening muscles and improving coordination,
balance, and endurance. In a word gardening
is more about raising your own produce and vegetables – it is therapeutic on
many different levels.
Which reminds me –
I have to order my seed stock for the 2018 garden.
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