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Horticultural therapy: Using a green thumb to grow healthy kids By Rachel Potucek
Looking for a solution to child obesity, stress, youth violence or an alternative to competitive youth sports? Look no further than your own back yard.
According to Mattson, horticultural therapy is an interdisciplinary approach to healing that integrates social and behavioral sciences and horticulture. This means that the people/plant relationships developed through gardening can improve ailments ranging from depression and high blood pressure to chronic pain. Mattson says many children need physical exercise and feel better about themselves by working in a garden. "Some children are angry," he says. "Chopping weeds in a garden gives them a chance to reduce their frustrations and stress." If a child is too obese to play on a sports team, gardening can be a good first step towards reducing weight and improving physical health, for example.
Blooming Programs: Horticultural Therapy in Manhattan As the K-State horticulture therapy Web site notes, "Getting dirty is a part of growing up." Manhattan-area people are taking this advice to heart, with help from K-State horticulture students and professors. Mattson describes the one-acre garden northwest of Lee Elementary school in Manhattan as "world class." "I bring international visitors to the school garden for tours," he says. Since the early 1980s, K-State horticulture students have been using the site for pre-internship experience. College students work with teachers and children in gardening activities and experiments. "Kids research questions such as, 'How many seeds are in a watermelon?' Or, 'How much water is in a watermelon?'" Mattson says. Each class
at the school has a plot in the garden in which to grow flowers, herbs
and vegetables of their choice during the school year as a part of the
curriculum. During the summer, teachers maintain the garden. The program
has blossomed with great popularity since the first Arbor Day trees were
planted 15 years ago. "There's something new and exciting about a roly-poly or an African night crawler. Natural curiosity is a part of it," Mattson says. Students learn how to care for plants through weeding, watering and other gardening activities. However, Mattson says the school garden can teach much more. Students learn nurturing skills by having responsibility for other living things, and they can gain a sense of ownership and pride for foods they normally may never eat at the dinner table. "There's nothing like eating the first tomato or sweet corn from your own garden," he says. Kids also develop a sense of sharing by giving herbs, flowers and vegetables to family members. "Children want to participate and contribute to their family," Mattson says. Gardening can be beneficial to parents and instructors, too. "It's fun to hear the children interact," he says. Plus, student behavior in the garden can reveal how they feel about other issues. For instance, Mattson recently helped children plant red, green and yellow peppers in Manhattan's Community Garden. He asked the students, "Should we separate the peppers into separate rows, or mix them up in each row?" The students chose to mix the peppers up instead of separating them. Mattson says this decision revealed the children's perceptions of diversity and inclusion. While such programs can face financial barriers in this era of tight government budgets, schools like Lee Elementary use alternate funding techniques such as fundraising and donations. Orscheln, a gardening supply store in Manhattan, donated a greenhouse to the school project.
How Can I Use Horticultural Therapy? According to Mattson and the K-State horticultural therapy program's Web site, developing horticultural therapy can be easy -- if you have a vision.
The horticultural therapy Web site offers some basic tips for gardeners working with children: * Show, don't tell. Show the children how to plant -- don't tell them how to plant. * When working with young children, have a variety of activities available to hold their short attention spans. Digging holes is one thing that seems to hold endless fascination. * Instant gratification helps the children appreciate their work. Try planting radishes - the shoots appear in three or four days. * Be a good role model. Work with the children instead of directing them. * If you are working with a large group of children, break them up into smaller groups. It makes group discussions much easier.
Current and Future Research in Horticultural Therapy When K-State's horticultural therapy program started in 1971, it was thought that plants could only offer mental health benefits. Current research has proven otherwise. In hospitals, horticultural therapy can reduce pain perception and speed up recovery from illness or injury. Mattson and
other researchers have found that merely walking in an arboretum can reduce
blood pressure. Pat Owen, a former graduate student at K-State, published
the results of a medical study in the 2002 edition of Interaction by Design,
a collection of articles from the Symposium at the Chicago Botanical Garden.
Owen found that blood pressures were significantly reduced among participants
during their visit to "Botanica," the Wichita Gardens. K-State graduate student Seong Hyun Park found that placing flowers or houseplants in a simulated hospital room can help patients cope with pain. Hyejin Cho found that gardening can boost a person's immune system. Based on research relating horticultural therapy to landscape architecture, K-State horticulture graduate student Minnie Shelor is applying her undergraduate architecture background to Manhattan's Mercy Regional Health Center. Shelor is working with contractors to build the Healing Garden, a therapeutic center for patients and visitors. The pediatric unit of the Health Center is planning gardens for children as well.
Images: (Top left) Clutched in the hand bearing the "I love you" sign language message is a handful of native wildflowers from the Kansas prairies. This symbol represents the essence of horticultural therapy. Image courtesy Richard Mattson. (Middle right) Alex and Caleb dig holes to plant flowers in their grandmother's yard. (Middle left) Jonas pats down the soil around a freshly planted flower. (Bottom right) Alex looks on as Jonas puts a new flower in the ground. Photos by Cheryl May. Summer 2003 |
Richard
Mattson, a professor in Kansas State University's horticulture, forestry
and recreation resources department, says horticultural therapy can provide
children with stress reduction, exercise, nurturing skills and a host
of other benefits. 
"You
should have a respect for nature. You should have awareness to preserve
and interact with the environment," Mattson said. Otherwise, it can
be as easy as bringing a potted plant indoors. 