The Therapeutic Garden

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Renaldo guides his wheelchair over the planks laid between two rows of tomato plants. The 8-year-old selects just the right fruit and pops it into his mouth. With a juicy grin, he exclaims, "I grew this! I fed it and watered it, and it grew!"

Although there have been no major scientific studies to substantiate the benefits of therapeutic gardening for special needs children, numerous schools and other facilities are discovering that the "outdoor classroom" can help individuals with mental and physical impairments grow in independence, self-esteem and social skills. Simple adaptations such as raised beds or wheelchair ramps can enable some children to garden, and even the severely disabled who cannot tend plants can help plan and monitor a garden.

Maureen Oswald, a therapeutic recreation specialist at the Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center in Charlottesville, Va., explains, "When kids find that they're doing something functional, they're more motivated to complete the task. When a patient transplants a flower, they have something to show for their therapy that day rather than just stretching their fingers."

In addition to the physical benefits that the children at Kluge gain from their gardening activities, they also feel pride in their accomplishments. "On community outings, they get in the van -- wheelchairs and all -- and take their Indian corn, cucumbers and dried flowers for competition at the county fair," says Oswald.

At Cookeville High School in Tennessee, science teacher Kathleen Airhart sees her greenhouse project as an "equalizer" for students stigmatized by behavioral problems and learning disabilities. One boy who had been dismissed from regular classes for continual episodes of fighting spent two years in a "behavior" class, coming out only to work with Airhart.

"He's moving out of the behavior class next year," she reports. "He'll be in the agriculture program and continue working in the greenhouse."

Gardening as therapy is also being used effectively at correctional institutions. A few years ago, Cathrine Sneed, a counselor with the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, began the Garden Project, in which prisoners and former inmates work on the jail's farms to raise produce for senior centers and soup kitchens. In 1996, the recidivism rate for offenders who volunteered for the project was 21 percent lower than the jail's overall rate.

Gardens for healing young hearts, bodies and minds? "Why not?" says Maria Gabaldo, president of the American Horticultural Therapy Association in Denver, Colo. "When a child cares for a plant, they experience what it feels like to see the consequences of devoting their attention to a living thing. Then, hopefully, they'll understand how that can translate to other areas of their life."