Therapeutic Gardening

Last year, as part of my fall break, I decided to attend a community service trip to New Orleans where we spoke with victims who had been affected by hurricane Katrina. We visited the ninth ward in New Orleans, an area that had been hit particularly hard by the Hurricane. In this neighborhood, a family had started a local garden which served as a meeting place for the community induced local residence to participate in a healthy hobby…gardening!

One Sunday afternoon, I had the pleasure of volunteering at the garden. Everyone greeted me so warmly and told me why they started gardening and that they hoped to continue with it in the future. At the time I attended, they had just begun composting and planting apple trees! I felt fortunate that I was able to talk community members, hear their emotional stories, and learn how they benefited from working at the local garden.

Prior to this event, I had never really thought about how beneficial gardening could be, but this experience showed me how gardening can be therapeutic. Many studies have pointed to the cognitive and health benefits gardening can provide; but there is nothing like observing these salutary effects first hand. After my experience in New Orleans, I knew that the gardening apprenticeship program was something that I would want to try as my first project at the College. I learned about different types of plants, and the small gardens that were being tended to on campus. I even had the opportunity to get my hands dirty and do some gardening with the help of other members from the Grounds Department.

This experience has heightened my appreciation of Nature and I only wish now that I had taken up gardening earlier! My mom was always enthusiastic about gardening. When growing up, and my family vacationed at our house in Upstate New York, my mom could be found outside the front of the house every morning gardening for hours. My mom always told me that gardening was her own form of meditation a change for her to replenish her spirit. I now am beginning to appreciate what she meant.

–Christina Hughes, Project Rotation Intern