Healing Garden « Therapeutic Landscapes Network

Book Review: Open Spaces Sacred Places

November 28, 2008 | by Naomi Sachs

The Therapeutic Landscapes Resource Center takes a broad view of therapeutic landscapes, or what we call Landscapes for Health.™ According to our definition, any outdoor space that fosters health and wellness is a Landscape for Health. While we tend to focus more on healthcare design, we see great value in other spaces that put people in contact with nature: Community gardens, sensory gardens, public parks, nature preserves, gardens in prisons, and even indoor gardens and atria. It’s not often that you find a book that covers this breadth of examples, and that’s because there aren’t many organizations out there devoted to supporting this breadth of Landscapes for Health.

Enter the TKF Foundation (www.tkffdn.org), founded in 1996 by Tom and Kitty Stoner. TKF’s mission is “to provide the opportunity for a deeper human experience by supporting the creation of public greenspace that offers a temporary place of sanctuary, encourages reflection, provides solace, and engenders peace.” The T and K stand for Tom and Kitty, and the F stands for “Firesouls,™” leaders and individuals “who have the spark of hope and energy to find a way…to foster the creation of places that can become sacred and embedded in nature.” TKF has worked hand in hand with these Firesouls, often in ongoing relationships that go far beyond just donating funds, to build these open spaces and sacred places (see http://www.tkffdn.org/what/what_is_a_sacred_space.php for more on this).

In the past twelve years, TKF has funded more than 120 projects in and around the Maryland/Washington D.C. area, where the Stoners are based. Twelve of these projects are lovingly described, in words, photographs, and drawings, in the new book Open Spaces, Sacred Places (2008), written by Tom Stoner and Carolyn Rapp. These include nature preserves, vacant lots transformed into community gardens, an arboretum, gardens in healthcare facilities, a prison garden, and even a tree-planting project.

In each of the gardens, a bench made from recycled pickle barrel wood (originally designed by Chuck Foster and Paul Willey and now created by the inmates at Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland, MD) offers a place for people to sit, reflect, and connect to nature and each other. A yellow journal and pencil are tucked into a built-in pocket beneath each bench, and Open Spaces Sacred Places is filled with journal entries from people of all ages and walks of life who have been touched by the place they are visiting. Here are three examples: “I give thanks to whatever spirits whispered in my ear today and gently led me through the gate of this very special garden. I will try to carry its energy in my heart and consciousness when I am outside the walls,” and “My daddy moved his finger today,” and “Places like this make me feel like everything will be OK.”

Tom Stoner’s inscription in my review copy of Open Spaces Sacred Places was “Be inspired!” And I truly am, every time I look at the book and think about TKF’s amazing work. But we can learn a lot from this book, too, and I’m sure I’ll refer to it again and again. For anyone who has waged the uphill battle of getting something built, especially something that involves the collaborative process with designers and community members and administrators and red tape and bureaucracy, these stories provide something of a road-map, hope, and yes, inspiration.

You can learn more about Open Spaces Sacred Places at this site: www.openspacessacredplaces.org, where you can also buy the book. And for those of you who missed the earlier blog posting about TKF, click HERE for a nice article by Anne Raver of The New York Times about the organization.

Leaves! Raking for Health (yours and your garden’s)

November 19, 2008 | by Naomi Sachs

It’s getting cold here in the Hudson Valley (23 degrees this morning) and it’s really starting to feel like winter. The weather has been not only cold but rainy for the past few days, so I didn’t mind this morning because it was bright and sunny – a good day to tackle a chore I’d been putting off for weeks – raking leaves. As a child, this was one of my favorite activities (well actually, “helping” my parents rake and then jumping into the piles of leaves on my hoppity-horse). Now, I tend to dread it, despite the fact that I usually feel good after. In general, I enjoy putting the garden to bed for the winter. Cleaning up, deadheading (though I always leave some seedheads for the birds and for “decoration” – they look beautiful in winter, especially poking out from a blanket of snow with little snow-hats of their own), mulching, and dreaming of next year’s garden. Raking is a big part of that. And it’s good exercise!

An article in Martha Stewart Living from way back in March 2007 (“Reap the Benefits of Gardening,” by Peter Jaret) discusses the psychological and physical health benefits of gardening. Raking is one of many gardening activities that, if done for 30 minutes a day, can increase metabolic rate, reduce blood pressure, improve cholesterol levels, tone muscles, improve flexibility, and even improve cardiovascular fitness – enough to reduce the risk of heart disease and type-2 diabetes. Gardening, including raking, burns between 265-415 calories per hour, depending on the level of activity (pushing a hand-mower or raking leaves will be more strenuous than light weeding; for comparison, jogging burns about 430 calories per hour). And that’s just the physical exercise. The psychological benefits of working outdoors are myriad (and, of course, they’re all connected anyway). Many horticultural therapy programs include raking; it’s something most of us have done at some point in our lives, and often brings back fond memories – in addition to the physical activity, the smell and sound of leaves is very evocative and can trigger positive memories and feelings – which is particularly important for people with dementia.

And if all that isn’t enough to make you want to grab a rake and go to it, remember that the old-school way of dealing with leaves is a lot better for the environment than standing behind a leaf-blower, using expensive gasoline, inhaling fumes and going deaf while enraging all of your neighbors in the process.
As with all garden work, take care not to overdo it by lifting too much, working more than you feel up to, or exposing yourself to the elements (sun, heat, wind, cold) for too long. The Martha Stewart Living article (link above) is chock-full of good information, including pointers on lessening the risk of strain or injury while you’re getting that good garden work-out.

Book Review: Your Home, Your Sanctuary

November 13, 2008 | by Naomi Sachs

I’m always on the lookout for books that show the benefits of nature in a new light. While garden books are the usual fare, once in awhile something like Clodagh’s new Your Home, Your Sanctuary catches my eye. Unlike most “shelter” publications, which focus on interior spaces, this new book demonstrates how Clodagh, an architectural and interior designer based in New York City, blurs the boundaries between indoors and out, bringing elements of nature inside (through materials, colors, plants, fire, water, and views) and pulling home comforts (such as furniture, places to cook, privacy, fire, water, and views) outside. Of course, this inside-outside concept is not new; architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson, and landscape architects like Garrett Eckbo and Thomas Church, inspired us to live in harmony with nature. Still, it’s an idea that sometimes gets lost in cycles of fashion and technology, and we’re lucky to have contemporary designers who remind us of its continuing importance.

Clodagh’s primary message is that your home can be a sanctuary for you and your family and guests. In addition to providing examples, handsomely illustrated by Daniel Aubry’s photographs, of how she does it for clients, the book serves as a kind of “how-to” for the rest of us. In the introduction, Clodagh poses several questions that people should ask about their home; they remind me of the kinds of questions that landscape designers should be asking their clients about their garden: “Is it harmonious and balanced? Does it enhance my life and bring me joy? Does my heart lift with pleasure when I think about it? Is it comfortable? Is it a place for healing and wellness? Can I invite anyone there at any time without stress? Do I get upset when I think about it? If so, what are the problems?”

Most of the book is devoted to interior spaces, with ideas about how to create harmonious and nurturing environments. Clodagh uses many natural materials and environmentally friendly principles that make rooms feel warm, soft, and comfortable. Not surprisingly, “Beyond the Window” is my favorite chapter. It contains an introductory overview, a set of nine “essentials” (which in this case are labeled privacy, texture, maintenance, plantings, food preparation, meeting, water, pets, and storage), a page on the importance of water and windows, and an additional “Nine details for creating a perfect outdoor sanctuary” (I’m not going to give those away, too – go buy the book!). Clodagh wants us to think about what kinds of spaces are right for us (or our clients)–not what we think our garden should be, but how we want it to function so that we can live fully in it: “Think about what you love to do in the yard and garden.” Do you love to entertain, play with your kids, grow your own food, do yoga, or simply put your feet up and listen to the wind and the birds?

This is an “inspiration” book, not a textbook, and its focus is residential design. For designers and health and human service providers who want facts, case studies, and concrete examples of therapeutic gardens, there are other books out there that will be more useful (see, for example, this blog posting: “Psst! Wanna buy a book?”). However, many of the principles discussed and illustrated in Your Home, Your Sanctuary – comfort, human connection, joy, balance, harmony, safety, and responsibility to our environment – are excellent reminders of what all designers should bear in mind when creating restorative environments and meaningful places.

Your Home, Your Sanctuary is available wherever fine books are sold, or online at Amazon.com.

All quotes © CLODAGH: Your Home, Your Sanctuary, by Clodagh, Rizzoli New York, 2008.

Sally Schauman on the Bloedel Reserve as a Therapeutic Landscape

November 6, 2008 | by Naomi Sachs

The Reflection Pool at Bloedel Reserve

Richard A. Brown photo

In school, most landscape architects learn about The Bloedel Reserve, often because of its association with Richard Haag, who worked as the Reserve’s landscape architect for five years, from 1979-1984. Geoffrey Rausch and Melissa Marshall have been the Reserve’s designers since 1984, and Virginia and Prentice Bloedel had a strong hand in the design as well. Thomas Church was also involved in some aspects of the design, including the Reflection Pool, above, a joint venture between Bloedel and Church, with input later from Haag.

What they usually don’t teach in school is that Virginia and Prentice Bloedel had a strong commitment to creating restorative environments in the landscape, as Sally Schauman, FASLA, articulates in the essay below. Richard Brown, Executive Director of The Bloedel Reserve, contacted me recently about adding this national icon to the Therapeutic Landscapes Database. We’re honored to have such a culturally and historically significant garden as a new entry on our Gardens page.

Japanese Garden at Bloedel Reserve

Photo Richard A. Brown

Sally Schauman, FASLA, is Adjunct Professor in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and Professor Emerita in Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington; she is writing on a book on the subject, so this essay is a sort of sneak-preview; the working title is Earth Body Healing – keep on the lookout for its publication!

The Bloedel Reserve

A 1995, New York Times article described The Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Washington, as “one of this country’s most original and ambitious gardens.” Virginia and Prentice Bloedel did not create an estate garden to display horticultural specimens, their wealth or examples of European garden designs. I think they did not intend to create an estate garden at all. The recent listing of the Reserve as a therapeutic landscape is long overdue, as I believe it is one of the first, if not the first, private garden in the U.S. created mainly as a place for people to gain wellness. The arrays of healing niches to discover are wide, but they include a moss garden, reflecting pools, meadows, a skunk cabbage bog and wildlife ponds. These designed spaces cover less than half of the 150 acres, the rest is second growth forest. Several landscape architects have designed parts of the Reserve, but the overall vision and indeed, many of the details emanated from Prentice Bloedel himself.

This private and modest man did not share his motives as he created this place over 30 years, but we can surmise them from his actions. The Times writer noted that he had a “mystical reverence” for the land. A likely source for Bloedel’s deep feelings about nature was his prep school experiences in the innovative curriculum of the Thacher School in Ojia, California. Bloedel graduated in 1917. Then and now Thacher uses camping, horses and hiking to connect each student with the natural landscape. For many, this becomes a life-long bond.

As a young man, Bloedel contracted polio. In the 16 years I knew him until he died in 1996, he walked with a limp and needed a walking stick on the Reserve paths.

“Therapeutic landscape” is not a term he used as no one else did almost 40 years ago. But I believe he felt increased wellness in the Reserve landscape and wanted to share what he felt. Most importantly, he want to intellectually explore these feelings. After giving the Reserve to the University of Washington in 1970, he created a “People-Plant Relationship Committee” within the Arbor Fund, the Reserve’s governing board and persistently explored creating a new People-Plant curriculum at the University. Unfortunately, his thinking was ahead of the University’s leadership. In 1977, Dean Philip W. Cartwright responded to Bloedel’s urging by stating “no such group of scholars existed on campus and there was little likelihood that it ever will.” Bloedel sought out the leading thinkers in environmental psychology and the emerging disciplines of horticultural therapy and landscape theory. He had a close personal friendship with Charles A. Lewis for decades and supported his book, Green Nature—Human Nature. He also funded research by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, and Jay Appleton’s U.K. Landscape Research Group. All these scholars made several visits to the Reserve and the UW’s Department of Landscape Architecture in the 1980’s. My own special memory is a lunch I joined with only Bloedel and the Kaplans at the Reserve. Looking back and thinking about the exciting conversation, I know now I was in the presence of three pioneers.

Bloedel sought answers to penetrating questions about the relationship between humans and landscapes, but he wrote little about his intentions for the Reserve. Charles Lewis repeatedly urged him to amplify what he meant by the word, “enjoy” in the 1976 Statement of Purpose for the Reserve. In 1978, Bloedel wrote, “The omission of the words emotional, aesthetic, and spiritual in the Statement is unfortunate.” If he was alive today, I am confident Prentice Bloedel would be an enthusiastic student and supporter of the therapeutic landscape movement. He and his wife, Virginia, are buried in the Reserve near the Reflecting Pool, a space that speaks to those who enter–“be still and feel.” For me this is the quintessential message of wellness and the Reserve.

– Sally Schauman, FASLA

Serviceberries Make Me Happy – Planting the Healing Garden

November 1, 2008 | by Naomi Sachs

If a person can be in love with a plant, then I am in love with my serviceberry trees.

I’ve got five planted in our rain garden (which collects all the runoff from our roof–see that hole in the stone wall? That’s where the water pours out when it rains – fun stuff!). Serviceberries (Amelanchier x grandiflora) are one of those wonderful four-season plants that I mentioned a few postings ago (Planting for Seasonal Interest – Fall Color): Their buds in early spring are delightfully soft and fuzzy, almost like pussywillows, that open into pretty pinkish-white blossoms; they leaf out into a lovely green in the summer and then around June (hence their other common name, Juneberries) they produce delicious, edible berries which attract so many birds that you’ll be lucky if there are any left over for you to eat; they turn the most gorgeous colors in the fall – and not just one color, but an ever-shifting panoply of reds, oranges, and yellows that changes daily; until the leaves fall and then for the rest of the winter, you have the delightful privilege of gazing upon the trees’ graceful forms, all smooth grey (with a touch of rose) and sinuous curves.

If you’re planting your own healing garden/sanctuary garden, think about the plants that make your heart sing, the plants you already adore or know you’ll fall in love with. If you don’t know what those are yet, make a point to visit a nearby garden, arboretum, or even large plant nursery at least once during each season (spring, summer, winter, fall) and take notes and pictures of what makes you smile, go ooh and ahh, even clutch the person next to you as you fall into a swoon. If you’re planting for clients, ask them to do the same. You and they will be rewarded with a garden that is meaningful and delightful for all of its days.

Yup, that’s the view from my office

To see more images of my serviceberries through the seasons–as well as an image of the rain garden fountain in action–you can go to the “showcase” page at www.naomisachsdesign.com.

Upcoming Event: “A Verdant Psyche: The English Gardens of Jinny Blom”

October 30, 2008 | by Naomi Sachs

If you can get to New York, Lake Forest, or Beverly Hills this month, this looks like a great event: “A Verdant Psyche: The English Gardens of Jinny Blom.” Part of the Royal Oak Foundation‘s Seed for Thought series, this event is of particular interest to us because Jinny Blom designed a healing garden with The Prince of Wales. Bet you didn’t know HRH even knew what a healing garden was! In fact, he is quite passionate about gardening and the healing power of nature. In one interview about the Chelsea Flower Show garden, Prince Charles said: “All my life I have wanted to heal things, whether it’s been the soil, the landscape or the soul.” You can read the Guardian article where that quote came from (“Charles Designs Healing Garden”), and here’s another one from the BBC News: “Charles Unveils Chelsea Garden.”

Here’s what the Royal Oak Foundation says about Jinny Blom:

“Winner of both the Gold and Silver Gilt Medals at the Chelsea Flower Show, Jinny Blom has a growing reputation for her striking and thoughtful creations, such as the HEALING GARDEN designed with HRH The Prince of Wales. She has also created designs for the Chelsea Harbour Design Centre and a 1920s garden featured in the film The Hours.”

You can also visit her website: www.jinnyblom.com.

If you go to the talk in New York, perhaps I’ll see you there!

Healing Gardens at City of Hope Cancer Center

October 29, 2008 | by Naomi Sachs

Japanese Garden at City of Hope Cancer Center. Photo by Markie Ramirez

“City of Hope Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, has several lovely healing gardens. I work as an administrator in cancer care and was out there for a job interview. The place is very desertlike and so these gardens are absolute oases!”

I recently received this email recommending that City of Hope in Duarte, CA be added to the Gardens page of the Therapeutic Landscapes Network. I visited their website, and sure enough, they do have several lovely gardens: two formal gardens–a rose garden and a Japanese garden–along with three informal spaces (a statue garden and two open park spaces along the front of the campus).

You can click here to read some descriptions of the gardens on their website and to see more images (link to these from the first paragraph). There’s also a lovely image on this page, which I wasn’t allowed to use for this blog but is worth a look by clicking here.

New article by Clare Cooper Marcus on Healing Gardens

October 27, 2008 | by Naomi Sachs

Here’s a new article written by my colleague, friend, and mentor Clare Cooper Marcus, who serves on the board of the Therapeutic Landscapes Resource Center and is Professor Emerita at the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Architecture at the University of California Berkeley. Click HERE to link to the article in Contact Magazine (“Trends: Healing Gardens,” in Contract Magazine, 10/06/08).

If you’re new to the subject of “healing gardens,” this is a good introductory article with some pithy points about where we’re at now as well as where we came from and where this all might be going. Clare touches on many key issues, such as qualities that make a successful healing garden, patient-specific gardens (gardens constructed with evidence-based design (EBD), where research on specific populations is used to design gardens that have the most benefit for that population).

And if you’re an old hand at this growing and exciting field, you may want to read this thoughtful article anyway; Clare articulates many of the talking points that we get asked on a day-to-day basis about “what it is that we do.”

NYT Article by Anne Raver on the TKF Foundation

October 22, 2008 | by Naomi Sachs

Rob Cardillo for The New York Times

The New York Times published a lovely article last week about the TKF Foundation, whose book I mentioned in a recent posting (Open Spaces Sacred Places, 10/1/08). Anne Raver (“Public Spaces Meant to Heal” – click here to read the article) paints a portrait of the TKF Foundation and several of their 120 projects. Since Tom and Kitty Stoner started TKF 12 years ago, the Foundation has funded about $7 million in projects for community gardens, healthcare facilities, prison gardens, and other public places, primarily in Baltimore, Washington, and Annapolis. TKF’s mission is “to provide the opportunity for a deeper human experience by supporting the creation of public greenspace that offers a temporary place of sanctuary, encourages reflection, provides solace, and engenders peace.”

The images in the article and in this posting are from the Amazing Port Street Sacred Commons in east Baltimore, which is one of the many projects in TKF’s new book, Open Spaces Sacred Places. I’ve received my copy, so stay tuned for a more thorough review of this beautiful and inspiring book.

Rob Cardillo for The New York Times

Planting for Seasonal Interest – Fall Color

October 13, 2008 | by Naomi Sachs

Witch Hazel and the Technicolor Dreamcoat

Way back in January of this year, one of my first blog postings (“Backyard Sanctuary,” 1/21/08) was about my dear little witch hazel, Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Jelena,’ who was budding (and who bloomed a few weeks later…in March! How cool is that?). I wrote about that, too, in a post titled “Winter Landscapes: Planting for Winter Interest,” (3/5/08) and included a photo of ‘Jelena’ in her strange and wonderful fringed burnt-umber glory. I meant to write more about plant material this summer, but never quite got to it, and I apologize for that. I will attempt to make up for it in the dark days of winter by providing some juicy images and ideas for the spring and summer garden (the blogger’s equivalent to sitting in front of the fire with a cup of cocoa in your hands, poring over seed catalogs).

In the meantime, it’s peak leaf-peeping season here in the Hudson Valley, and I can’t help but extoll the virtues of planting for year-round seasonal interest. Flowers in spring and summer are wonderful for all sorts of reasons, but whether you are planting for your own garden/backyard sanctuary or for a more public space such as a healing garden in a hospital, the landscape at a nursing home or retirement community, or even the grounds in a public park, it’s best to consider plants that will provide year-round interest. After all, if we’re going to appreciate the landscape for the entire year, whether by being in it or by looking at it from a window, we should plan for it to delight in every season.

Above is a picture of our other witch hazel, Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold’s Promise’ (Jelena isn’t doing her thing yet – earlier to flower and slower/not quite as showy with fall color). Some plants, like dogwoods (Cornus florida), are beautiful in every season – they bloom in the spring, they are a rich green in the summer, they turn a gorgeous burgundy in the fall, and then their berries last at least part-way through winter (while also attracting birds and squirrels, which is why the berries don’t usually last all winter long). Their form is also attractive year-round, especially in winter when you can really see the gracefully spreading branches.

There are many good websites to get information on designing for fall color, including About.com and the University of Illinois Extension. Some plant databases, like the University of Connecticut’s Uconn Plant Database (go Huskies!) let you search for specific attributes like fall color – Uconn’s even lets you look for which specific fall color you want. Lots more where those came from, just Google away.

Some good books: Fallscaping: Extending Your Garden Season Into Autumn; Autumn Gardens by Ethne Clarke; Gardening with Foliage Plants: Leaf, Bark, and Berry, also by Ethne Clarke; The Year in Trees: Superb Woody Plants for Four-Season Gardens; The Autumn Garden; Fall Foliage: The Mystery, Science, and Folklore of Autumn Leaves by Charles W.G. Smith isn’t so much a planting guide but looks like a really fun read. Michael Dirr’s Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs is one book I use all the time because each plant gets several images, giving you a sense of what it looks like through the seasons. I’m sure there are more out there, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Go on, add a few to your Christmas/Channukah/Kwanzaa/Winterfest list!

Here are some tips to keep in mind for fall color (note: this posting is geared to people like me who have “seasons” – if anyone from L.A., Miami, etc. wants to submit a similar entry for their area, I’m all for it):

1. Use plants like the dogwood mentioned above that give a good show in more than one season: Shrubs and trees that bloom in the spring or summer and put on a good fall show with their foliage, and/or brighten up the winter landscape with berries, or seedheads, or bark, or an interesting form. Of course, some plants are amazing enough that they don’t have to do double, triple, or quadruple-duty. If the site is right, who would say no to a red maple in October? Still, many people tend to fall back on the old stand-bys instead of looking for the multi-season gems.

2. Think about what color the leaves turn (yellow, orange, red, burgundy, or technicolor like my witch hazel) and design for the effect with other fall foliage plants or with late-blooming perennials and bulbs – lavender asters and sepia mums look stunning next to brilliant yellow autumn leaves; yellow goldenrod (Solidago) dazzles against a backdrop of dark-red foliage. Of course, also find out when they turn – if you planned for your goldenrod-and-sweetspire (Itea virginica) combo but the flower is done by the time the shrub has turned, the effect is not quite so powerful.

3. Try all-in-one-show plants with contrasting berries and leaves, like the spicebush pictured below (Lindera benzoin), Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), some viburnums, like Viburnum dentatum, beautyberry (Callicarpa spp.), and crabapples with yellow rather than red fruit.

4. Some perennials and vines get great fall foliage, too: true geranium (geranium sanguineum‘s common name is bloody geranium because of its fall color), plumbago (ceratostigma plumbaginoides), and many ferns are some examples.

5. Don’t forget grasses! Many ornamental grasses like little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) and switch grass (Panicum virgatum) turn beautiful colors in the fall, and unlike those maples and that burn bright and then drop their leaves for you to rake up, grasses keep their foliage all winter long – the colors usually soften to blondes and russets, but they are still a beautiful contrast to the brown mulch (or mud) and white snow.

6. Think about the site and how it’s all going to work together – if your plants are in front of a dark building or a row of evergreens, something that turns bright yellow is going to have a lot more impact than a deep red that will get lost in the depths; if your hardscape (walls, paving, steps) or furniture is a distinct color, think about what colors of foliage will either complement that or help to set it off (and not clash – for example, I’m not wild about lavender and burgundy together, but maybe that’s just me).

7. If you want glorious fall color and you have a shady site, make sure that the plant you choose will still perform in shade – many, but not all, plants require full sun for the best display. Others (like my witch hazel above) don’t seem to care. This on-line Houston Grows article mentions a few that will perform even in shade, but there are more beyond that, too.

8. If you’re designing for any type of healthcare facility, safety comes first! Always make sure that what you’re specifying is not poisonous or thorny or otherwise harmful – those berries might look very attractive to a young child out for a stroll in the garden when she’s visiting her sibling…see more on this subject on the Therapeutic Landscapes Database Plants page, including some great links to poisonous plants databases.

9. Don’t let any of these suggestions intimidate you – most designs have at least some “bonus” or “happy accident” element. You buy a rose in the nursery because it’s blooming and it smells delicious and then you discover in the fall that it’s borne these gorgeous orange “hips” (fruit) that also attract all manner of birds and are also, should you care to harvest them, rich in Vitamin C. As with all gardening, designing for fall color and seasonal interest takes a healthy combination of curiosity, research, experience, passion, and luck.