Programs > Horticultural Therapy

Horticultural Therapy

Participants in the NCBG horticultural therapy program tend their gardens and their spirits. Since 1978, the North Carolina Botanical Garden's Horticultural Therapy Program has provided training, consultation, and therapeutic programs to groups and individuals throughout North Carolina. We are committed to promoting the horticultural therapy profession and to supporting programs that improve the quality of life for people of all abilities through gardening and interaction with the natural world.

What is Horticultural Therapy? ↓
What are the benefits of Horticultural Therapy? ↓
Who benefits from the Horticultural Therapy Program? ↓
How does the Horticultural Therapy Program work? ↓
How can I support the Horticultural Therapy Program? ↓
Outreach Programs ↓
On-site Programs ↓
Training ↓
Volunteer Opportunities ↓
Gardens & Facilities ↓
Related Sites ↓

"I went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."
— John Muir

What is Horticultural Therapy?

Horticultural therapy is the purposeful use of plants and gardens to promote individual mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and intellectual well-being. While the therapeutic use of plants is an ancient art, horticultural therapy as a named profession was established in the United States in 1973 by the American Horticultural Therapy Association.

What are the benefits of Horticultural Therapy?

Benefits of horticultural therapy include physical activity, relaxation and enjoyment, skill development, creative expression, sensory stimulation, intellectual and personal growth, social interaction, a sense of productivity and self-satisfaction and a spiritual connection with life. Horticultural therapy is low-cost, effective, and versatile in meeting therapeutic goals of both individuals and groups through task adaptation and environmental modification. Activities can be applied to almost all situations, indoors or outdoors-in homes, schools, hospitals, prisons, and residential care facilities.

We've provided a sample horticultural therapy activity analysis [PDF] for further information.

"When I look at these flowers, I feel the stress going right out of me."
— Prisoner, age 44

Who benefits from the Horticultural Therapy Program?

Older adults in senior centers, nursing homes, retirement communities, and adult day-care facilities.
Children with special needs in hospitals, school-based programs, and residential treatment programs.
People with disabilities in residential, day treatment, and rehabilitation programs.
Many others, including prison inmates, hospice clients, and at-risk youth.

How does the Horticultural Therapy Program work?

The Garden's staff provides individual or group therapy sessions, program consulting and development, staff training, workshops, conference presentations and demonstrations, and activity classes. Please inquire for fee for services. The Program's resources include credentialed horticultural therapists, a reference library, an accessible greenhouse and adaptive tools, Horticultural Therapy Gardens and Facilities, a Healing Herb Garden, and a network of horticultural therapy contacts.

How can I support the Horticultural Therapy Program?

Horticultural therapy offers a unique opportunity to individuals, corporations and foundations to become involved in a program that meets important needs of people. We depend on your support to continue offering this engaging and creative service. Your donation to the Botanical Garden Foundation may be designated to support new and innovative efforts in our Horticultural Therapy Program.

For more information about the North Carolina Botanical Garden's Horticultural Therapy Program, please contact:

Nancy Easterling, HTM, MSW
Horticultural Therapy Program
North Carolina Botanical Garden
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
CB 3375, Totten Center
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3375
Phone: 919-962-0522
Fax: 919-962-3531

Outreach Programs

The NCBG horticultural therapy staff provides consultation and support services for horticultural therapy programs in our community to include areas of accessible garden design, plant selection, activity analysis and program planning.

On-site Programs

On-site programs include horticultural therapy sessions with persons in adult day care, children at an inpatient psychiatric hospital, and persons with developmental disabilities, mental illness, traumatic brain injury and depression.

Training

"Serving your Community Through Therapeutic Horticulture" offers training to persons who will assist in the implementation of therapeutic horticulture programs in our community. These workshops are offered semi-annually. Our program also serves as a site for internships for students of horticultural therapy, recreational therapy, social work and occupational therapy. For more information contact Nancy Easterling at 919-962-0522.

Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteers are a valuable support to our program. We offer a variety of ways to participate, including direct work with participants, planning and program development and training assistance.

Gardens & Facilities

The Horticultural Therapy Demonstration Garden includes five 4-foot by 4-foot, 24-inch-high raised beds and illustrate gardens designed for persons with limited mobility and reach. Gardeners who use wheelchairs, who have difficulty standing for long periods of time or who must stand upright are able to enjoy working in these gardens. The gardens are planted with heirloom vegetables and flowers varieties that have been handed down from generation to generation and help preserve our biodiversity.

The Mercer Reeves Hubbard Herb Garden: The Garden of Plants and People offers a garden for active and passive interaction, and includes a variety of herbs for sensory stimulation and seasonal interest, outdoor rooms and spaces for privacy and social interaction, safe and stable surfaces, raised beds, shade and seating, playful areas and natural distractions that elicit emotional responses, including, moving water, art, and animals. The Herb House is a re-creation of a wooden cottage that is used for indoor horticultural therapy activities.

The North Carolina Botanical Garden's greenhouse is accessible to all participants and includes a concrete pad and walkway, and working benches designed for persons with wheelchairs.

The Botanical Garden's Piedmont Nature Trailsand Habitat Display Gardens offer beautiful woodlands and plant collections for use by the horticultural therapy program.

Last updated by Laura Cotterman on February 20, 2008 at 05:04:07 pm.

Your support is crucial to our continued success. Become part of the Botanical Garden through volunteering or becoming a member.

Horticultural Therapy Workshop Offered

Garden for Life: A Horticultural Therapy Workshop, March 23, 2007, 9 am - 3 pm

Over the past decade, allied health professionals have become increasingly aware of the positive benefits of human interaction with plants and gardens, and as a result, plant-related activities are integrated into treatment programs. In this workshop, designed for allied health professionals, Nancy Easterling will describe horticultural therapy theory and practice, provide an overview of horticultural therapy tools and techniques, provide specific seasonal hands-on horticultural therapy activities, and help you develop strategies for integrating horticultural therapy into health care settings. (Qualifies for .50 CEU.) Fee: $50 per person, lunch included. Pre-registration is essential! Call 962-0522.

Nancy Easterling is coordinator of horticultural therapy activities at the North Carolina Botanical Garden and president of the American Horticultural Therapy Association.

hands holding seedling

Accessibility

The Totten Center is wheelchair accessible. Visitors can enjoy an accessible pathway through the gardens. If you have special needs that could be accommodated to enable you to visit the Garden or participate in one of our programs, please let us know in advance by calling 919-962-0522.

Please see the parking map as a guide.

Several marked accessible parking spaces can be found next to the pedestrian entry gate that serves as the public entrance to the garden. To get to these accessible parking spaces drive through the parking lot onto Laurel Hill Road; the spaces are on the other side of Laurel Hill Road. OR, driving south on the US 15-501/NC 54 Bypass (Fordham Blvd.), turn left onto Manning Drive ; go 1 block and turn left on Coker Drive; go 1 block and turn left on Laurel Hill Road; go straight 0.2 mile and look for designated spaces on your left, just past the pedestrian entrance gate. If you require assistance in moving from a parking space to the building entrance, please call (919-962-0522) and tell us when to expect you, and a member of the staff will be available to assist you.