Therapeutic Gardens: Design for Healing Spaces Hardcover – May 19, 2015

While this book looks and reads like a University level textbook for a landscape design class, the pages are packed with information that I plan to put to use as a home gardener. The "design considerations" throughout the book provide both insight into the needs of the people who will use the gardens and advice on how to meet the needs.I like the way the book is organized:At times, I have physical challenges. I want a place to reflect, remember, and take refuge. I am a learner. I want a garden that nourishes my sensory system. I don't have cancer, dementia, or PTSD, but there is useful information in this book for designing a garden for people who do. This books answers the questions, "What garden design elements does this particular person need?" "What design elements should be avoided?" "Why?" and "Why not?"The examples shown in the book provide for clear understanding of the underlying design principles.

I have several books on therapeutic gardens but as an Occupational Therapist, I really wanted to find something that would show how to use a natural space to invite and promote various ways of engaging in nature for different ages and populations. This books is terrific -- nothing else like it. Thank you for such a lovely and instructive guide.

Made my class projects much easier! Arrived in great condition!

This is not for the lay person or beginning gardener/homeowner wanting to learn how to plan and design. This is more of an overview/introduction for professionals who are already familiar with landscape designs and the different methods for drawing them. Although the language used sounds very "therapeutic" in itself, I prefer something that cuts through the gobbledy-gook and gets to the nitty-gritty of plant lists, material lists, planting methods, and where to position them and when to plant them. To be fair, I may be overthinking what I want to do to, that is a woodland setting and the philosophy of "all gardens are therapeutic" and just do what's appealing to me. But I'm also trying to save myself a lot of wasted time and money from mistakes, that's what I was hoping to get from this book.

Hreat!

Gardens can be healing in several ways; they can have a soothing effect on stressed people, they can have features that actually work as physical therapy, they can be geared towards those with limited sight (having tactile and olfactory stimulus), they can increase a person’s sense of worth and independence by having workspaces that those who use wheelchairs or walkers can use easily. Studies show that patients who have a view of plants or plants in the room heal faster than those who don’t, so it makes sense to have gardens attached to hospitals and convalescent homes. The authors state what features must be in place to make such gardens safe and accessible for all users, right down to discussing what paths should be made of and how different lighting affects people with low vision or PTSD. I didn’t really think this book would be more than a casual look through for me but I ended up reading the whole thing, drawn into the details.While most of the gardens they reference are attached to healing institutions, they also write about community gardens and how those can heal whole neighborhoods. Crime actually goes down in areas with more plants. They also devote some space to gardens for prisoners, those with dementia, gardens for teaching and for those lacking sensory integration. There are a lot of photos as well as plot plans. There are chapters on the nuts and bolts of building the gardens, such as grades, paths, and actual plants. I recommend this book for anyone designing a garden for any of the populations mentioned, even if it’s just for a person in your family. There was a lot of stuff I would have never even thought of.