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Okay you flower addicts, nature lovers & freeloaders, sit on the couch & listen up. It is time for therapy! The experts have confirmed that gardening, my favorite addiction, is therapeutic. Hallelujah! “Horticultural Therapy” is a multidisciplinary program of study involving fields such as horticulture, psychology, landscape architecture, education, gerontology, sociology & urban planning.

Here’s a shallow example of HT at work in my superficial life: Many moons ago, I worked with the actor James Woods on a film shoot. Let’s just say he was ?high maintenance.? I came home on Friday nights in tears, mumbling obscenities as I rehashed ?another week at the office? to my kind, patient boyfriend. Saturday mornings, I could not speak till I had cleansed the demons. I would spend two hours sitting in my garden, alone, meticulously & fiercely pulling weeds, in a silent ethereal trance. Monday morning I had be ready to face the egos again . . .

Last week I visited the wondrous garden at The Cedars Textile Art Center to see horticultural therapy at work, right here in Marin County. Since 1919, the Cedars has provided a special community for much more than 2500 individual persons with developmental disabilities. In 1981, the Cedars Textile Art Center was created by founder & Director Connie Pelissero. Her dream was to combine her interests in textiles & special education. With the help of longtime Co-Director, Denise Colwell, over 70 clients a day are provided with training & employment in textile weaving, organic gardening & animal husbandry on 21 spectacular rural acres. And it all looks so organized, peaceful & healthy! (Nothing like a film set . . .)

I met with Amy Whelan, the Garden Coordinator/Queen Bee, who has been teaching & working at the garden for over sixteen years. She refers to the land as a ?mini-garden of Eden.? When you first enter the Cedar’s garden, traveling along the winding path down the hillside, you know you have just crossed the threshold to a sacred place. Fruit trees, wild roses, hollyhocks, iris, lavender, penstemon & various tall, climbing beans & peas surround you… A painted sign reads ?The Earth Laughs in Flowers.? Here new clients are taught how to make compost, grow seeds, water plants, weed, prune & nurture the earth. Many of these clients will go on to teach these same valuable skills to schoolchildren who come visit. The cycle of life is demonstrated here starting with compost, a seed, a flower, a wilted flower & back to the compost pile to begin again.

In the Cedars garden, clients of all ages ranging fro 20 to 80 yrs. old use horticultural therapy to promote healing & learning. Working in the garden gives a positive sense of wellbeing, problem solving, teaches new skills, social interaction & communication. Whelan sees the benefits from working in a garden first hand with her clients. ?Everyone who enjoys gardening knows that working with plants fulfills basic human needs. There is more. Through horticultural therapy, you can facilitate these benefits with people on many levels.?

She explains the three main areas of horticultural therapy: social development, psychological & physical.

Social Development:
Gardening teaches new skills & vocabulary, helps people gain independence, helps them make new friends as they work cooperatively towards common goals, & increases attention span & concentration in easily distracted individuals.

Psychological:
Gardening meets nurturing need through taking care of living things (plants), encourages creativity, self-esteem & responsibility by project selection & design, & decreases stress, anger & aggressiveness.

Physical:
Gardeners enjoy activities as they increase strength & range of motion using fine & gross motor skills. There is more. They also have access to near limitless opportunities for year-round exercise & relaxation in serene garden settings.

Whelan adds, ?In the spring we have many schools visit the garden. The children observe individual persons with developmental disabilities teaching, working, planting & caring for a garden. There is an awareness of healthy eating & living. It is fun, beautiful & outdoors!? Schoolchildren who visit may be taught by Todd Williams, a client who is supervising the greenhouse on the morning I visit. We bond immediately over the magic of seedlings. ?I like to teach the children about planting seeds. I share their excitement with what may sprout. And I like their high energy!,? says Williams.

The schoolchildren also visit the friendly sheep & goats, & the beautiful Angora rabbits, whose cages sit on the worm composting bin below them! The Angora rabbits are groomed daily by the clients & the fur is used in weaving. Do you follow? The fruits & vegetables grown in the garden are used to serve a daily homemade lunch, created by the clients, to virtually everyone at the Cedars.

Whelan adds, ?Over the years at the Cedars garden, I have observed & heard clients say things about the garden such as: increased happiness, it is relaxing, interesting, there’s always something to do, productive, you can always see something growing & it is a place that they are proud of being a part of.?

You can be a part of it too! If you had like to have your classroom visit The Cedars, or become a volunteer, contact the main office at 454-5310. Come on down to the Cedarchest in San Anselmo, at 603 San Anselmo Avenue to shop! There are gorgeous crafts (rugs, blankets, belts, napkins) the gifted weavers at the Cedars have created.

Raised in the asphalt jungle of New York City, Annie Spiegelman moved to the Bay Area over ten years ago & became a passionate environmentalist & Master Gardener. She is the author of two previous books on gardening (and life). Annie’s Garden Journal: Some Thoughts on Roses, Life, Weeds, & Men (Carol Publishing, 1996) was a selected Borders Books title by promising new writers & her second, Growing Seasons: Half-baked Garden Tips, Cheap Advice on Marriage & Questionable Theories on Motherhood was published in 2003 by Seal Press/Avalon Publishing Group. She is presently working on her third book entitled “The Dirt Diva’s Almanac.” Visit Annie at http://www.dirtdiva.com

And lastly, Does anyone have two alpacas to donate? Seriously, that is what they are looking for. If you know someone, have their people call my people at 453-5310.

Visit Annie at dirtdiva.com