Creating A Healing Garden

Gardens have a long history of being used for healing. From Zen gardens in the 6th century that allowed monks to meditate without distractions to modern gardens in hospitals, arrangements of living plants have been used to make people feel better for centuries. Create your own healing garden with these tips.

Purpose of the garden

Healing gardens can be primarily restorative or enabling. Restorative gardens help healing by giving someone a place to sit or walk in nature. The person does not participate in the growing of the garden.

Enabling gardens are gardens that use plants to connect patients with nature and give them some exercise at the same time. While people do sit and contemplate in an enabling garden, they also maintain the plants. Many enabling gardens have vegetables in them as well as ornamental plants. Raised beds and wide paths make gardening easier for people with disabilities.

Laying out your healing garden

Plan your garden to get started. Use graph paper to draw the area the garden will be in. Mark any items that are not moving. The empty spaces are yours to use to construct your healing garden. Use soothing elements that engage all the senses. Here are some things to incorporate into your healing garden.

Hardscapes

Lay out the landscape beds and paths first. The paths should meander around the space, surrounding the landscape beds. If the garden will be used by people with disabilities, make sure the paths are five feet across to accommodate wheelchairs. Use paver stones or other hard, flat, surfaces instead of gravel or mulch, which bog wheelchairs and walkers down. Some healing gardens incorporate a labyrinth with steppingstones to slow a person down. Make sure the labyrinth is accessible to people with walkers or who use wheelchairs, or it will become a source of frustration for people who can’t use it.

Add water and sound

The sound of moving water is very soothing. Moving water can be a simple bubbler in a large container of water all the way up to a stream or small pond. Each possibility creates a slightly different sound. In addition to water, hang chimes around the garden to make soothing sounds in the wind.

Don’t forget to plant your watering strategy. Most healing gardens use drip irrigation so people don’t get wet when the plants are being watered. Drip irrigation is also more effective than overhead sprinklers. You can conceal the irrigation under mulch, so it does not detract from the beauty of the garden.

Light the garden

Seeing the plants is important if the garden will be used in the evening or at night. Small LED lights can illuminate paths and other features. Do not use too large a light as it will glare. You can use small lights to illuminate a fountain, seats, and focal points in the garden. Many people string fairy lights inside the garden to give light without being too intrusive.

Add food for pollinators

Butterflies, hummingbirds, and the buzz of bees can be fascinating and soothing to watch. Be sure you plant some plants that provide nectar and pollen so these creatures will visit the garden. Try to plant enough plants so that some nectar and pollen are available from early spring to late fall.

Wellness Resorts Offer Renewal from Head to Toe

Add birds and animals

Attract birds by putting out a variety of birdhouses. You can also build mouse houses that will shelter small mammals while they raise their young. You can disguise houses for small mammals as fairy houses. The plants you choose can also be one used by nesting birds.

Add a focal point

A focal point can help center your thoughts while you contemplate the sounds and sights of the garden. This can be a sculpture, a special plant, or anything that will engage your attention.

Add seating

Seating is vital to your healing garden. Choose comfortable benches or outdoor chairs and place them in nooks. If people who use wheelchairs will be visiting, make some pads in nooks and crannies for them to park their wheelchairs on and contemplate the garden.

Choosing plants for a healing garden

The plants you choose are very important to the garden. Native plants will require the least maintenance. They are adapted to living in the area on whatever rain falls. Once established, you will only have to water them during a drought.

Colors

Decide if you want colorful flowers or only want shades of green. Flowers that attract birds and pollinators tend to be colorful. Shade gardens are often planted in different shades of green. You can do both in different landscape beds.

Smell

Planting things with fragrant flowers can help to engage all the senses. However, some people may be allergic to some fragrances, so don’t overdo the smells. Make sure that plants that flower at the same time don’t have fragrances that clash.

Texture

Plants have different textures, from the soft fuzz of lamb’s ear to the hard shininess of holly. Try to choose a variety of textures. Gardens in shades of green really benefit from contrasting textures. If children are going to be in the garden, make sure that plants within reach of the path do not have thorns or other traps for unwary hands.

Ornamental grasses

Ornamental grasses can contribute to a healing garden. They sway in a breeze and many change colors in the fall. Small animals nest in the clumps of grass, too.

Incorporating food plants

Many healing gardens incorporate food plants. From planting a vegetable garden to using fruit producing trees and shrubs, a garden with good things to eat is a joy. Food plants don’t have to be segregated from ornamental plants. Put a few vegetables in the landscape beds beside the flowers. Use trees like persimmons, pawpaws, and mulberries. Shrubs like elderberries are also nice. Leave the bramble producing berries like blackberries out of the healing garden because they have thorns.

Growing herbs in the landscape beds is also easy. You can grow mint, chamomile, and lemon balm to brew into teas. Make sure you put the mint in a pot. It is very aggressive and will spread fast if in the ground.

Some gardens that have an Asian influence plant bamboo. Put it in a pot and bury the pot so only a little sticks up. Bamboo is very aggressive and will take over your garden if you plant it in the ground. Your neighbors will hate you when it goes into their garden, too.

Memories

Including plants that smell like someone or some place you remember fondly can help people with dementia remember their past. If your grandmother grew iris, planting some can remind you of her when the fragrance from the blooms blows toward you.

Garden Plants Nursery is staffed by people who love gardening. We can suggest native plants that would work for a healing garden in your area and answer your gardening questions. Call 931-692-7325 and get started.