Friday, May 7, 2010

Horticultural Therapy


It's cold today. Here it is May and we're looking at a possibility of snow. Yeah, you heard me, snow. It's not a big deal, it'll melt right away but what a mess. Yuck! I hope it doesn't hurt the trees and plants.


Happy Friday, everyone! TGIF! We'd planning on brats for supper tonight but brrrrr. Guess we'll eat leftovers and hope tomorrow is warmer. No point in watching the weather really ... it's either bad news or wrong news ... am I right?


Ryan raked up his horticultural therapy beds yesterday. We built (compliments of IRIS) some amazing raised beds for him to garden in. He's so excited he can hardly wait to start planting. He raked up the soil, picked weeds and put a tiny scarecrow in one of them. I was proud of him. Of course he went out and retrieved the scarecrow before bed last night and put it in his room. He was afraid it would get ruined. We'll talk later. For now, I just said fine and wiped up the dirt.


I did a feature article on the benefits of horticultural therapy for my column in Family Times a few years back. (I still can't believe I've been writing that column for over 10 years! Where does the time go?) The benefits are staggering. Hospitals, nursing homes and other medical facilities find the evidence indisputable and are putting in gardens as well.


Ryan wants to plant organic vegetables and I'm all for it. The one thing he wants, that he can't grow, is corn. He just doesn't have the room. At any rate ... on Monday it's off to the greenhouses to buy some seeds and onion sets. He's so excited about it. It opens up all manner of common language for him. He can talk to employees about what to grow, chat with the men at church about "farming" albeit on a small scale and in general have stories to tell. All are perks of horticultural therapy.
The beds were made to be accessible for Ryan, as it turns out they'll be better for me too now with the new hip. Isn't God awesome? He worked it out for both of our benefits.
I'll let you go. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget that there is blog candy at stake here! Contact me by the end of the day to enter the drawing!!!
Much love and joy,
Karen

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