What successful practical cases of horticultural therapy exist abroad?

As the pace of urban life accelerates and work pressure becomes excessive, the number of people in China with sub-health conditions and high mental stress has increased, bringing about enormous conventional medical costs. Therefore, drawing on foreign experience to carry out horticultural therapy is an inevitable trend. Over the past decade, through the efforts of experts and scholars, the concept of horticultural therapy has gained recognition in China.

In China, horticultural therapy is at the stage of theoretical research, and gardens built specifically for horticultural therapy are rare. Due to the lack of practical research sites for horticultural therapy, feedback from user groups cannot be collected, which has also caused theoretical research to encounter a bottleneck. Therefore, analyzing successful cases of horticultural therapy practice abroad, and taking the implementation space and environment of the therapy as a specific starting point, has reference significance for the application of horticultural therapy in China and the construction of rehabilitation environments.

I. Sites and Practices of Horticultural Therapy in the United States

The United States is the birthplace of modern horticultural therapy, and its research and practice are at a leading level. In addition to institutional developments such as the training and qualification certification of horticultural therapists and the establishment of dedicated horticultural therapy disciplines at universities, the practice of horticultural therapy is also extensive and in-depth. Sites cover various types, and year-round themed activities and related courses keep it thriving.

Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center

This institution is a comprehensive facility dedicated to providing veterans with a range of medical services including internal medicine and surgery, neurology, psychiatry, and rehabilitation, and the use of horticultural therapy runs through clinical applications to outdoor recreation. The institution established multiple healing gardens in 1998. These gardens include: a vegetable garden with raised planting beds, a shade garden planted with native plants, a shaded shelter for activities, and a sensory garden designed specifically for patients with dementia, among others.

Burlington Center

The Burlington Center is a horticultural education center located on a hilly area that was formerly a nursery, with an excellent natural environment. The education center mainly serves children and adolescent students, providing practical knowledge of horticulture and botany, while also being a beautiful and tranquil garden for strolling. The center contains a multi-purpose hall, a greenhouse, a workroom, as well as an arboretum, a flower garden, an herb garden, and a therapy garden designed for students with physical or mental disabilities.

Spring Creek Gardens Scenic Area

The scenic area was first established in 1986. In 1995, at the call of local non-profit organizations, the government funded the introduction of a community gardening program. At present, the scenic area includes a children's garden, a botanical garden, a rock garden, a wetland display area, and community gardens that local residents have claimed and cultivated, among others. The scenic area advocates a series of healthy public welfare themes, including sustainable gardening and ecological education, recreation and rehabilitation, care for nature and local culture, interpersonal communication, public participation, and community service.

II. Sites and Practices of Horticultural Therapy in Canada

Canada is also a country where horticultural therapy is well developed, with a situation similar to that of the United States. Over the past 60-plus years, it has placed great importance on basing therapeutic practice on research. Due to its vast tracts of pristine natural terrain and its characteristics of a vast land with a sparse population, the practice of horticultural therapy often has broader sites and places greater emphasis on integration with the natural environment.

Guelph Rehabilitation Garden

The purpose of building the Guelph Garden is to serve residents within the community, especially the elderly, children, and people with disabilities, achieving physical and mental rehabilitation through labor, interaction, and contact with nature. The community gardening area, as the core of the garden, is an area that provides horticultural instruction, hands-on operations, and plots of plants claimed for cultivation. Various activities are also held here, such as carefully designed horticultural courses and lectures. In addition, the garden also includes static viewing areas, such as the "Spiral Garden" where one can gaze at the river view, while the arboretum creates an environment for getting close to nature and quiet reflection. The overall plant selection is intended to fully stimulate sensory experience.

Providence Farm: A Therapeutic Community

The farm is located in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. People with physical and mental disabilities can carry out a series of horticultural and agricultural activities here, from sowing to harvesting, all the way to processing and selling products, thereby promoting comprehensive physical, psychological, spiritual, and social rehabilitation. The farm also has a therapy garden serving elderly people with Alzheimer's disease; specially designed environmental elements include natural scenery for gazing, a figure-eight walking path, and raised flower beds, among others.

III. Sites and Practices of Horticultural Therapy in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom represents the European school of horticultural therapy, focusing on exploring and practicing horticultural therapy from the religious aspect as a kind of charitable undertaking. The British tradition of enthusiasm for gardening activities has laid a good foundation for the practice of horticultural therapy.

Thrive's Trunkwell Garden

"Thrive" is a small national charity founded in 1978, whose main purpose is to use gardening activities to improve the physical and mental health of people with disabilities. The organization not only provides therapy delivery and technical training, but also carries out empirical research on horticultural therapy, and owns two dedicated horticultural therapy gardens.

Trunkwell Garden is located in the village of Beech Hill in Berkshire, adjacent to Thrive's headquarters. The garden has planting areas, a pond for wildlife breeding, and a specially designed display garden area containing 5 small gardens adapted to people with different physical and psychological characteristics.

The "Garden of the Mind" serves patients in the recovery period after stroke and heart disease;

The "Garden of Delight" serves adolescents aged 14-19 who require special education;

The "Garden for the Visually Impaired" is designed for people with visual impairments;

The "Journey Garden" is a site carefully designed for people with mental illness and intellectual disabilities;

The "Curiosity Garden" is a combination of novel creativity and thoughtful functionality, and won the gold award at the 2010 Chelsea Royal Horticultural Society annual show.

Thrive's Battersea Garden

Thrive's other dedicated garden was built in 1984, located within Battersea Park in London, and is the first horticultural therapy garden in the UK explicitly built for people with disabilities. The projects it carries out are closely integrated with the community, and its service area covers the southwestern region of London. Battersea Garden has been widely welcomed and has a large number of participants, and was expanded at the end of 2011. The goals of the new garden are further expanded: to train young people's skills, enhance their sense of responsibility, and reduce their crime rate through gardening activities; to increase service programs for stroke patients and people with intellectual disabilities, enhancing communication abilities through gardening activities; and to cooperate with local enterprises to train people with disabilities and help them find jobs.

IV. Sites and Practices of Horticultural Therapy in Japan

Although the history of horticultural therapy in Japan is only more than twenty years, its momentum of development is strong. As the country with the highest degree of aging, Japan generally considers the use of green space by vulnerable groups in green space construction, and various training sessions and research organizations conduct in-depth and meticulous discussion and research on horticultural therapy.

Nishino Hospital

Nishino Hospital is a combination of a rehabilitation hospital and a health village for the elderly. In addition to diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation, the hospital also conducts research on the use of horticultural therapy in the field of anti-aging. The hospital does not establish a separate horticultural therapy garden; instead, it uses the beautiful mountainous environment in which it is located and the interior of the buildings as sites for carrying out horticultural therapy. Therefore, the site selection and design of the buildings place great emphasis on integration with the natural environment and fully consider good viewing sightlines. The service recipients of horticultural therapy are basically elderly people in long-term residence and day care.

Keikoen

Keikoen is a welfare facility for people with intellectual disabilities, founded in 1957. It provides a series of services including placement, medical care, vocational training and education, home care, and day care, and is an institution that integrates medical care, welfare, and education to assist people with intellectual disabilities. The natural environment and gardening work are important means of helping these groups, so the site selection and design of the environment strive to bring into play the therapeutic effects of nature. On the basis of the natural environment, Keikoen has built 26 activity units with different themes, connected in a circuit-style manner, which can effectively train the interpersonal interaction, self-care, and adaptability abilities of people with intellectual disabilities.

V. Insights

By analyzing the above practical cases of horticultural therapy in Europe, America, and Japan, insights can be generated for China's future practice.

(2) Breadth of sites: The sites for implementing horticultural therapy include institutional environments and natural environments, and can also be divided by scale level into indoor environments, garden environments, and countryside environments. Each environment has suitable populations and a necessity for existence.

(3) Richness of content: The practice sites of horticultural therapy should not be merely a physical environment; reasonable arrangement of rich programs is a necessary condition for success. Program activities are not limited to horticultural courses and operations; contact with and exploration of nature, ecological and environmental protection education, and others are all themes closely related to horticultural therapy.