Charles Lewis Garden of Opportunities

Wanted to share a few thoughts that seem to be getting some traction in the past couple months.  I welcome your thoughts, suggestions and ideas. The following is little more than a wish list at this point.  We need to find a location and funding before we can get serious. 
A model home for accessible gardening
What if we created a "Model Home" for accessible gardening and horticultural therapy in New Mexico? This could be a place to serve the special needs in every community, improve quality of life, and demonstrate ways we can to work together to cultivate peace within ourselves and throughout the community. This can be combination of classroom and garden setting for the healthcare community, senior services and children with special needs. This can be a site where research can be conducted and professionals can gain insight into the value of the people-plant connection and the healing garden while individuals can be empowered.

Empowerment, quality of life, individual, family and community health are all the harvest we can reap from a truly accessible garden that goes beyond food production to cultivate hope, pride, interaction, cooperation and improved diet.

It would be only right to dedicate this garden to the memory of Charles Lewis, a true visionary in the exploration of the people-plant connection and one of the pioneers of modern horticultural therapy. His Green Nature - Human Nature is one of those pivotal books that provides so much insight into the way the garden can transform people, be a place of healing, and an inspiration. Charles Lewis was a resident of Albuquerque for a number of years and continues to influence the direction of horticultural therapy and the interaction between people and plants. This garden could be used in a number of ways to showcase the possibilities and help to express his dreams. The following could be a part of the Charles Lewis Garden of Opportunities

Vegetable gardensA raised bed does not make a garden accessible.
This could be a place with truly accessible gardens; table gardens, vertical gardens, trellises and arbors. All are simple ways that the art of gardening can be combined with the grand traditions of the kitchen/backyard garden. Here we can learn from each other, share the foods of New Mexico’s diverse cultures and the techniques that make the family garden successful for all. Less than 10% of Americans community gardens are wheelchair accessible.

Horticultural Therapy programsThis could be a site with "classroom" space to conduct indoor horticultural therapy programs for visitors from local senior care communities, adult day care programs, rehab and treatment programs, youth programs and more. A place where elements of the community can be welcomed for specific programs, special needs populations can have on-going programs with activities, engagement and empowerment.

Training programThis could provide a site where classes can be conducted for professionals, senior care, community and educational staff, family and professional caregivers and healthcare professionals. The elders involved are also the resource and the teacher

Research
We could provide a place where research can be conducted on ways that horticultural therapy can be most effectively used in a variety of venues, including:

Hospital healing gardens; Cancer treatment and general surgery recovery
Adult day care
Senior care and progressive care services
Alzheimer’s programs
End-of-Life & hospice
Family caregivers and professional staff
Children and adults with special needs
Victims of trauma, domestic violence or PTSD

Some possible research projects
Ratio of gardening traditions and incidence of Alzheimer’s, initial study
Ways to most effectively promote engagement between family and the one with Alzheimer’s
End-of-Life & hospice, was to make best use of a hospice/grief garden
Value of the people-plan connection for preparation for those facing end-of-life
Ways to use the garden as an element of anticipatory grief and dealing with caregiver stress
Ways to most effectively use a children’s garden setting in hospitals
Cancer patients, rate of recovery times and controlling negative impact of treatments
Family caregivers and stress reduction through passive garden time and active engagement

Elements of the Charles Lewis Garden of OpportunitiesAn enclosed garden area where features of a healing/paradise garden can be created to explore the most effective use of this setting for people with special needs. Features will include:

Enclosure, green, artistic
Walkways & wander paths
Seating and shade
Reminisce gardens
Scratch & Sniff sensory experiences
Water features, pool with fish, turtles, butterflies, ladybugs
Fruit and vegetables
Meditation stations
Conversation stations with sensory elements
Whimsy, feeding the sense of humor
Discoveries, feeding the sense of wonder

Life skills elements