Horticultural therapy is a vehicle to meet wide-ranging goals, and it successfully enables and empowers individuals to achieve their maximum independence in settings such as mental health, rehabilitation facilities, hospitals including veterans, adult daycare, vocational schools, nursing homes, substance abuse rehabilitation, developmentally disabled day programs and group homes, day and residential housing for adults with autism, community and county parks, gardens and arboreta. (Photo: ~Courtesy of Laura DePrado)
It’s Horticultural Therapy Week in the Garden State to coincide with the Vernal Equinox and the beginning of spring.
Since 2016, New Jersey has been the only state to designate the third full week in March as Horticultural Therapy Week to increase public awareness and the importance of horticultural therapy in improving the quality of life for all and increasing opportunities for each individual to experience the endless benefits of the people-plant connection.
Horticultural therapy is the process of connecting people and plants through vocational, social, and therapeutic programs under the direction of a horticultural therapist, who is trained and skilled at creating customized activities, with, or without a garden space that accommodates people with a wide range of abilities. It is the process of engagement through an activity with guidance that creates the benefits, not the end product.