Cherry blossoms at Dia:Beacon. Photo by Naomi Sachs
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April: Autism Awareness & Landscape Architecture Month
April 13, 2011
April lilac buds. Photo by Naomi Sachs
April is both Autism Awareness and Landscape Architecture Month, so it seems fitting to do a blog post about the intersection of Autism and the way that the natural world can help people of all abilities. There isn’t a whole lot of research specifically on how interaction with nature affects people with Autism, but we’re getting there, and the TLN is glad to be able to share what resources we do know about. See the attached pdf at the end of this post, as well as our Get Out and Play! page. If you have any that aren’t on our list, please let me know!
In addition, for Autism Awareness Month:
Carol Krawczyk has been writing a series of articles on her blog, The Engagement Zone: How people engage with the environment. Carol has also written a (not yet published) TLN Blog guest post, so be on the lookout for that.
And Tara Vincenta and I have just finished an article based on last year’s KaBOOM! webinar, “Prescription for Play: Nature-based Learning and Play for Children with Autism and Other Special Needs.” The article will be published in the next issue of Implications, InformeDesign’s newsletter. If you don’t yet know about InformeDesign, now you do, and your world is now a better place. InformeDesign is one of the best resources for anyone interested in the intersection of research and design – in other words, a treasure trove for evidence-based design (EBD). To get to the original webinar, go to KaBOOM’s Hot Topics in Play page and scroll down to the one with the above title (“Prescription for Play: Nature-Based…”). They have produced many other great webinars since, so you’ll need to scroll down a ways. Tara Vincenta is Principal at Artemis Landscape Architects and is also creator of the Sequential Learning Outdoor (SOL) Environment. A Sequential Outdoor Learning Environment is specifically designed to support children and families living with the challenges of Autism and other special needs. These unique spaces, which are equally engaging for any child, offer a fun, safe and secure outdoor play and learning environment, while also presenting an array of opportunities to overcome common challenges.
And for Landscape Architecture Month:
To celebrate LA Month, Landscape Architecture Magazine is allowing everyone access to this month’s magazine online (click HERE to access). If you go to page 10, you can Letters to the Editor in response to Bradford McKee’s February Land Matters article “Reading, Writing, and Radishes,” including one my me. And here it is, in case you don’t want to thumb through the Zinio file:
Great article! Sure, the sky is falling in many ways, but I firmly believe that this is also an exciting time when good grassroots work is being met by “top-down” players such as government, policy makers, designers, and health providers. A confluence of movements – sustainability, locavore, children and nature, healing landscapes, livable cities – are meeting and building on each other to create meaningful change in our time.
Click her to access the pdf mentioned above: Resources on Autism and Access to Nature
The Healing Garden in Early Spring: A good time for planning
March 31, 2011
Photo courtesy of Chiot's Run, www.chiotsrun.com
Just a little green
Like the color when the spring is born.
There’ll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow.
– Joni Mitchell, ‘Little Green’
Every year at this time, I kick myself for not having planted spring-blooming bulbs last fall. Other people are mooning about their snowdrops and crocuses, and I spy them blooming gayly, in spite of the cold, from gardens all over town. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s crocuses…
So don’t follow my example. In other words, do as I say, not as I do: Now is the time to look at your (or your clients’) garden – as depressing a sight as it may be if you live in northern climes – and think about what and where you might like to see things that will tide you over until everything starts going gangbusters in April or May. Take notes so that when fall rolls around, you will remember what to buy and where to plant. Write yourself a letter or a poem pleading with your future self to follow through with your plans. Take pictures of the barren ground from which, in your mind’s eye, you see brilliant sparks of hope waving to you like little beacons, and attach them to your letter/poem. I would (will!) plant crocuses and other early bloomers where I could see them from my kitchen window, which is the window that I most often gaze out of all year long. Perhaps also near the front door and outside my office window.
Crocuses, March. Photo by Philomena Kiernan
Also think about other plants, like evergreens – where could they be placed, as large statements or as small whispers tucked in here and there to provide green relief from the monotony of winter’s browns and greys? (more…)
Wordless Wednesday (almost), 3/30/11
March 30, 2011
A bit heavy on the Wordless Wednesdays and light on the content-rich blog posts these days, I’m afraid. I’ve been traveling almost non-stop and playing catch-up in between. Lots of good stuff to report, just no time to report it! Stay tuned for posts on the Making It Better symposium on the intersection of art, design, health and healthcare; the Environments for Aging conference in Atlanta, GA; forcing branches; guest blog posts; and more. Soon!
Happy National Horticultural Therapy Week!
March 20, 2011
Eastern redbud, Atlanta, GA, March 2011. Photo by Naomi Sachs
Greetings from Atlanta, GA! Environments for Aging started today (Sunday) and I flew in a couple days early to visit my 94-year-old great-aunt, Stefanie. She embodies a person who is aging joyfully, in a wonderful Continuing Care Retirement Community just outside of Atlanta – Park Springs, in Stone Mountain. But more on that another time. Today, I want to talk about National Horticultural Therapy Week, which started today.
Horticultural Therapy (HT) uses plants, gardens, and other aspects of nature to improve people’s social, spiritual, physical and emotional well-being. According to the American Horticultural Therapy Association (AHTA) website, it is “the engagement of a person in gardening-related activities, facilitated by a trained therapist, to achieve specific treatment goals.” And from Rebecca Haller, HTM, “Horticultural therapy is a professionally conducted client-centered treatment modality that utilizes horticulture activities to meet specific therapeutic or rehabilitative goals of its participants. The focus is to maximize social, cognitive, physical and/or psychological functioning and/or to enhance general health and wellness” (from the Horticultural Therapy Institute website).
The Therapeutic Landscapes Network has an HT page where you can find links to relevant organizations (including the American Horticultural Therapy Association, the Canadian HTA, and the German Association for Horticulture and Therapy, as well as the Horticultural Therapy Institute) and resources online and in print. The AHTA publishes a very fine peer-reviewed journal, the Journal of Therapeutic Horticulture, and that alone is worth every penny of AHTA membership. Any designer or researcher involved in this area of the field should really be a member of this organization.
Which brings me to an announcement about AHTA’s fall conference, which will be in Asheville, NC from 10/21-10/23/2011. Call for submission is open until April 15 – have something you think would be interesting to horticultural therapist regarding HT, research, case studies, design, or work experience? Give it a shot! The conferences are always good for learning and networking. For more info, visit the AHTA website, www.ahta.org.
Today one of the tours at Environments for Aging was of Wesley Woods Center, a specialty geriatric care component of Emory Healthcare with a 64-acre campus with an excellent HT program. Because of schedule conflicts, I wasn’t be able to attend the group tour today (which I heard rave reviews about), but I will have the good fortune of getting a private tour with horticultural therapist (HTR) Kirk Hines on Wednesday afternoon. I’m looking forward to finally meeting Kirk in person, after many years of email correspondence, and to sharing what I learn on the blog.
So enjoy this week, National Horticultural Therapy week; take some time to learn about it, perhaps even take advantage of an event in your community or region being organized by AHTA or one of their many regional chapters.
And as always, I’ll be posting “live” from the Environments for Aging Conference on Monday and Tuesday via the TLN Facebook page (facebook.com/therapeuticlandscapes) and Twitter (@healinggarden).
Horticutural Therapy at Wesley Woods. Kirk Hines, HTR/Wesley Woods Hospital of Emoryhealthcare
Wordless Wednesday, 3/16/11 – Happy Nat’l Wildlife Week!
March 16, 2011
Black and White Warbler. Photo by Henry Domke, www.henrydomke.com
Some links to help you celebrate National Wildlife Week:
National Wildlife Federation, www.nwf.org
Not So Average Mama, on the book Fifteen Minutes Outside: 365 Ways to Get Out of the House and Connect with Your Kids,
Therapeutic Landscapes Network’s Sensory and Wildlife Plants page, www.healinglandscapes.org/resources-sensory.html
Beautiful Wildlife Garden, www.beautifulwildlifegarden.com
Horticultural Therapy Exhibit at Philadelphia Flower Show: “Liberte, Egalite, Accessibilite”
March 6, 2011
AHTA Exhibit at the Philadelphia Flower Show. Photo by Task Force Chair Sarah Hutchin
Happening now! I wish I could go to the Philadelphia Flower Show (March 5-13) this year. But since I can’t, I can at least publish a post about it, right? Here’s a blurb from the AHTA website:
The American Horticultural Therapy Association (AHTA) is delighted to sponsor the Horticultural Therapy Exhibit for the 2011 Philadelphia International Flower Show. This will be the second consecutive year for a horticultural therapy exhibit in the Show. Last year, the local network group, Mid Atlantic Horticultural Therapy Network, sponsored the first exhibit, drawing in many people and winning two prestigious awards.
The exhibit, in keeping with this year’s theme “Springtime in Paris” is titled “Liberte, Egalite, Accessibilite” (Freedom, Equality, Accessibility). Featured will be a Parisian Potager showcasing ideas for recycling, sustainability, plants, and ways to garden in small spaces . The goals of the exhibit will be to educate the public about how horticultural therapy (HT) can enhance one’s well- being, teach new skills, distract from pain, reduce stress and isolation, to provide fun and meaningful work in a way that is life-affirming.
Gabriela Harvey posted this update on the TLN Facebook page:
“AHTA Exhibit at the 2011 Philadelphia Flower Show won “Best in Show” in the Non-Academic Educational Category. A special thank you to the committee and to each MAHTN and AHTA member who will man the exhibit as a volunteer. Special kudos to …Sarah Hutchins, Pam Young, Peg Schofield, Jack Carman and Martha Heinze and Carol Lukens!!! Hope I did not miss anyone?”
And Carol Hutchin, Task Force Chair, updated us on Sunday with this:
“I just heard from co-chair we have also received an additional award, a special achievement award from The Garden Club Federation of PA (education exhibit under 1,000 ft.). People have been pouring through our exhibit all yesterday and today (Sunday)! The response from attendees and several judges, who spoke to us yesterday, was very supportive and congratulatory! A very special thank you to all the committee members ( MAHTN and AHTA) who worked so diligently and well together to create the exhibit, as well as all the volunteers who are manning and maintaining it, the donors who gave us so much to make it come to life, AHTA who sponsored it this year and MAHTN who started it all by sponsoring the HT exhibit in the Flower Show last year.
Congratulations, and thank you!