The healing power of gardening
by MATT CHANDLER
There has been an explosion in recent years in the number of Americans transforming a portion of their yard into a garden.

While many consider it a "hobby," others point to their ability to grow their own vegetables free of pesticides and other chemicals as a key factor in their decision to plant their own vegetables. With the growing trend in America toward healthier living, the opportunity to eat more vegetables, often cheaper and more conveniently than buying them from the local store, has aided in the gardening boom.

While these are also key factors in Americans' desire to harken back to their forebears' days of growing what they ate, there is another interesting health benefit gaining more awareness .

"Therapeutic gardening" is gaining widespread acceptance as a viable form of therapy being promoted by mental health professionals nationwide.

The roots of the art of the garden as a healing tool date to the Middle Ages. Restorative gardens, as they were called, were used in prisons and asylums as a way to soothe those with various afflictions.

A thousand years later, doctors at universities in Chicago and Maryland, among others, are trumpeting the health benefits of the therapeutic garden.

Nationally, therapeutic gardens are sprouting up in many assisted living facilities and senior centers. They are viewed as a valuable tool in aiding people suffering from depression, loneliness and even Alzheimer's disease.

Locally, the Life Transitions Center, a facility for those coping with terminal illness and the loss of a loved one, has embraced the concept of a therapeutic garden. It is including a therapeutic garden where people will be able to walk or sit and reflect as a means of coping with their circumstances at its new facility that is under construction in Cheektowaga.

So, the next time you are fighting traffic, standing in long lines, lugging your groceries home and attempting to wash off the layers of chemical film covering them, stop and ponder the benefits of dedicating a small portion of your yard to your own therapeutic garden.

You'll find that with a little homework and a bit of extra effort on the frontend, you will soon be experiencing the calming, soothing benefits of becoming one with the Earth while growing your own vegetables, flowers and herbs.

There will be a certain satisfaction that washes over you the first time you sit down at the dinner table to eat a meal that you created literally from the ground up.