HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAM

1. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAM Conducted by the Master Gardeners of North Alabama Center for Adult Day Care Davidson Senior Center Huntsville, Alabama

2. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAM What are our Master Gardeners doing here? • Huntsville Madison County Center for Adult Day Care provides • Social and health care services for individuals aged 18 and older. • Supportive services enable the physically or mentally challenged adult to avoid premature institutionalization and offer a respite for caregivers.

3. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAM Whatareourgoals? • To adapt gardening in a safe way in order to involve physically or mentally challenged adults in the joy of gardening • To share ideas, educational information and enjoyment in working together in the garden.

4. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAM Whatfacilitiesdowehave? • An enclosed, fenced courtyard approximately 60 ft by 24 ft. • One section is covered and has benches; useful for rainy or extremely hot days. • Picnic benches, donated by Spirit, Inc., are useful for planting, meeting and socializing. • Two raised beds help the physically handicapped to enjoy gardening. • A third one has been funded for construction this spring by the Master Gardener Association.

5. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAM • What are some of our gardening activities? • On special holidays, clients enjoy planting flowers to take home and share. • Preparing and treating the soil each spring is important!

6. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAM • “We love to plant vegetables, harvest them, and take home to share. • So far this year, we have planted:” • Radishes • Carrots • Squash • Peppers • Tomatoes • Corn • Pumpkins

7. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAM • “We have enjoyed learning about the different smells and tastes of herbs, such as:” • Parsley • Basil • Chives • Rosemary

8. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAM Some of us hate to get our hands dirty, so our Master Gardener, Jane Williams, makes our own individualized garden gloves for us!

10. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAMSpecial Talents Jason is quite an artist. He used garden marking stakes to paint pictures of all the flowers and vegetables we planted.

11. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAMSpecial Talents Jason also drew cards of all the flowers and vegetables. We used them to play a memory game to help learn names of all the plants.

12. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAMRainy Days On rainy days, we enjoy sitting outside under the covered area and singing together as Neeve Weinberger plays her guitar!

13. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAMSpecial Activities (1) • Our pumpkin plants produced two big, beautiful orange pumpkins. • What fun we had drawing and cutting out the faces and cleaning out the seeds!

14. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAMSpecial Activities (2) • We all love to work on making a scarecrow for the Botanical Garden’s Scarecrow Trail. • It takes a lot of work to stuff and dress “Digger Dan”!

15. Digger Dan, with his walker, working in a raised bed, was placed in the Botanical Garden’s Scarecrow Trail this fall. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAMDigger Dan

16. The clients are so enthusiastic and appreciative, regardless of their disabilities. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAM What a rewarding experience for our volunteers!

17. HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAM We know our program is a success • Eight Master Gardeners enjoy participating and teaching. • 25 clients at the Adult Day Care, Davidson Senior Center benefited. • These clients learned about plants, exercised their bodies and brains, and most of all they had fun! • Our $250 budget was well spent!

18. Our group was very honored to receive the 2007 Project of the Year award for Horticulture Therapy locally – presented by the Master Gardeners of North Alabama Now we’ve won the Search for Excellence, Special Audiences award presented by ACES in 2008 HORTICULTURAL THERAPY PROGRAMTwo Awards!