Success Story - Title: The Healing Place Garden Growing Plants and Expanding Horizons

Title: The Healing Place Garden Growing Plants and Expanding Horizons

Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home

Plan of Work: Commercial and Homeowner Horticulture Education

Outcome: Initial Outcome

The substance-use epidemic touches all areas of the commonwealth, and treatment programs are using creative, research-based approaches to assist those impacted.

Taylor County Nutrition Education Program Assistant, Angela Freeman, and Extension Horticulture Agent, Kara Back, collaborated with The Healing Place during the 2023 - 2024 fiscal year to teach both gardening skills and nutrition education. The gardening, meal planning, and cooking skills learned will be useful to participants, both in the short term and after they leave the recovery center.

Therapeutic horticulture is defined as a practice that uses living plants and gardening to improve people’s spiritual, mental, and physical health, according to the American Horticulture Therapy Association. Working with the Horticulture Agent, 61 recovery center residents participated in the garden. The garden consisted of herbs, garlic, lettuce, onions, tomatoes and peppers in 50 sq. Ft. Of raised bed gardens. The produce from the garden was utilized primarily for use in the recovery center kitchen. Also, the produce is used in the EFNEP assistant's weekly nutrition class.

Participants tended the garden by watering, weeding, and harvesting vegetables. In addition, some residents were assigned to construct a new raised bed for the 2023 - 2024 season. These leadership roles aided in the participants’ substance-use recovery because gardening promotes connection with other participants, fostering social inclusion and community belonging—which are essential to substance-use recovery. 100% of participants learned how gardening can contribute to substance use recovery. The Horticulture agent noted that the best part of the program is teaching participants how to plant a garden who have never grown anything before,

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“The participants loved being outside and the raised beds are easy to take care of.”, (reflection of Horticulture Agent on Recovery Garden program).

At the end of the program period, participants completed a post-test administered by the agent. All participants reported that participating in the Recovery Garden Program helped them feel more self-confident and that they gained new leadership skills. Furthermore, one participant reflected that they liked the garden program because, “… gardening reminds me of my grandma who also had a big garden.”

At the end of the season, 58. 6 pounds of produce were harvested, yielding 175.6 one cup servings of vegetables, according to USDA calculations. Medical research indicates that proper nutrition, such as increasing intake of garden fruits and vegetables, can support physical healing of damage caused by substance use and stabilize emotional states, thereby decreasing the risk of recurrence. After harvest, participants had the opportunity to consume the produce through the recovery center kitchen and learned about the important role of food in recovery through classes lead by the NEP Assistant. According to one participant, “[The Garden] made our food taste better”.

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