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Growing to Heal Designing a Wellness Garden

By: Ashleigh Smith for True Leaf Market

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Just imagine, it's the perfect spring day with a slight breeze tumbling through the trees overhead. You hear the fresh green leaves brushing against each other as a robin swoops to the ground, coaxing the young to follow them. One by one, each fledgling hops around the freshly spread mulch. As you sit back, you notice how nice the cool stone feels as you enjoy a rest after transplanting a few more blooms into your healing garden. Doesn’t that sound delightful?

You see, nature holds the power to heal and revitalize the mind and body from the persistent chaos of our everyday lives. The secret to accessing this natural healing power is to bring your attention to the senses. Feel the sunlight warming your skin. Hear the gentle tumble of water flowing. See the bright unfurling of assorted spring blooms. Every sensory cue is a gateway to greater peace and serenity. But how can you create this experience within your own garden? Consider the ways you can implement these 10 features of a healing garden with your own space and style.

10 Features of a Healing Garden:

Purpose - The most important feature of a garden designed for restoration and relief is its functionality. Make your healing garden a place that fits your unique needs and wants. Pairing activities that help you to unwind, relax, and rejuvenate alongside plants, views, and materials known to do the same will compound these benefits. Do you enjoy yoga, reading, drawing, writing, or other activities? Design a space that allows you to engage in these in a way that promotes solitude and introspection.

Functional Zones - Once you have outlined the purpose of your garden, you can start designing it. The first step is to create zones for the activities that will fulfill the purpose of the garden. Depending on the amount of space you have to work with, this may include one or more functional zones. Then, specify what you will include in this space to make it comfortable and fulfilling, such as sitting areas, hammocks, or a space to sprawl out. These spaces are the focal points of your plan; then, you can flush out how you will enter, travel through, and connect these zones.

Pathways - The journey is just as important as the destination. Gardens are curated spaces connected by pathways and visual lines that create structure. This structure highly influences how we feel within the garden space. Curved pathways and designs can encourage calmness, mindfulness, comfort, and reflection, while structured straight lines demand attention and awareness of the mind. Healing gardens should utilize meandering paths and gentle curves to reduce stress and relieve mental tension. The power of the curved line can further be used when outlining planting locations and selecting furniture styles or other decor.

Light and Shade - Sunlight can offer many physical benefits, including increased Vitamin D levels and improved mood. These benefits can be further enjoyed with a balance of shade and filtered light to help control ambient temperatures throughout the garden. You don’t want to find yourself with a beautiful garden that is unbearably hot because a lack of shade prevents it from being enjoyed. Map out the hours of sunlight each area will receive and where you may want to utilize plants for more shade or clear existing plants and structures for more light. Be sure to match plants with the available sunlight within your growing area. Whether you are growing in full sun or shade, wildflower mixes are a great selection.

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Water - One of the hallmarks of a healing garden is the presence of water. This may be a natural pond or creek, but you can also build your own structures. In many gardening styles, water is used to cultivate a specific feeling and experience. For example, still water can generate feelings of soothing calm, reflection, and rest. Alternatively, moving water can help rejuvenate and release feelings of emotion. Whichever direction you feel is best for your healing garden, the addition of a water feature will ultimately aid in reducing stress and regulating the nervous system.

Fragrance - Scent is one of the most powerful senses. It can instantly transport our minds through time, trigger physical responses in our bodies, and influence our emotions. Incorporating fragrant plants strategically throughout the healing garden is an incredible tool for calming the body and mind, reducing anxiety, processing emotions, and elevating mood. Consider adding elements of fragrance by placing aromatic plants around sitting areas, as groundcovers over walking paths, or within reach where their scent will be released.

Plant Selection - Plants are the bread and butter of any garden design, but especially a healing garden. Perhaps the greatest reason for this is the self-balancing nature of diversity. Between plants, insects, weather, and so many other factors there are checks and balances that drive the dependent relationships between living organisms. When designing a healing garden, you can harness the benefits of these relationships by maintaining a diverse choice of flowers, herbs, and native selections. Plus, this will help support pollinators and provide an appealing display throughout the seasons. When designing for specific areas of interest consider what scents, textures, and colors you would like to interact with. Do you enjoy using freshly grown herbs in your cooking, teas, tinctures, or other uses? Include these in areas that are easy to access and use.

Wildlife Interaction - Did you know that hearing birds chirping can improve mental wellness and happiness for up to eight hours? Integrate wildlife interactions into your design by placing sitting areas and plants that attract birds, butterflies, squirrels, and more nearby. Pairing water features in these spaces provides calming benefits while supporting beneficial insects and wildlife.

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Interactive Features - When designing a garden, most people focus on selecting plants and creating a layout, but attention should also be given to how you will interact with the space and stimulate the senses. Consider what textures you enjoy. Do you like the cool touch of a stone bench or the give of sand under your feet? Do you want to hear the rustle of leaves overhead or feel the warmth of the sun against your skin? While the minimalist design has its place, healing gardens should be unique and cater to your personal style and needs.

Natural Materials - The key to tying everything together is the use of natural materials, including wood, stone, rope, etc. Just as a plant's natural scent has the power to connect us with memories and emotions, the materials we experience through physical touch and visual displays affect the body. Avoid using man-made materials when possible, as they can distract from your garden's function and create a sense of displacement.

While a garden cannot simply heal us of all our ailments, it can improve our healing journey. In fact, studies have found that hospital patients who are receiving long-term care and have a room viewing a green space or who regularly spend time in a green space heal faster. This connection can be instrumental at every level of healing, from processing trauma to overcoming burnout. Let nature work for you.

About the Author:

Ashleigh Smith is the Managing Editor at True Leaf Market with a bachelor's degree in Horticulture from Brigham Young University - Idaho. True Leaf Market is a nationally certified organic, non-GMO seed and horticultural company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The True Leaf Market staff specializes in supplying a large selection of conventional, heirloom, and organic seeds to home gardeners everywhere. Learn more about our seeds, supplies, and other growing ideas: www.trueleafmarket.com.


All articles are copyrighted and remain the property of the author.

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