Gardening Helps Adult Day Care Members

By Jill Rowley, U. C. Master Gardener

What is horticultural therapy? If you were to visit the Napa Valley Hospice facility on Jefferson Street in south Napa, you would see an inspiring example. Nine volunteers, many of them Napa County Master Gardeners, spend time every week working with the clients of Adult Day Services. These clients are often physically frail. They may be stroke survivors or have early-stage dementia or Alzheimer’s or chronic mental-health issues. People come to the facility for its many services, one of which is horticultural therapy, held every Wednesday morning and every other Friday morning.

Not all the clients who use the center are interested in gardening, but about 25 participants enjoy the fresh air and the pleasure of watching seeds grow into full-sized plants. They also tend the perennials and keep the beds free of weeds.

Flowers, vegetables, succulents and herbs are all grown in planters within easy reach of the gardeners and accessible for wheelchair users. When I visited in early February, on a lovely warm day, I saw the Adult Day Services clients heading out to the patio, smiling and sporting huge sun hats. Some went to work digging and weeding the planters, some planting small lavenders that they had propagated themselves, and some just talking to other gardeners.

I learned that a cooking group at the center has used tomatoes and herbs grown by the clients to make salsa and the staff has used fruit from the lemon tree to make lemon bars.

In talking to coordinator Anne McMinn, I learned that the garden participants often show improvements in memory function and socialization. Sometimes a certain plant or fragrance will jog a memory. One of the garden beds has a sensory theme with fragrant plants such as lavender and lemon thyme. Once a year, the participants hold a plant sale, pricing and labeling the plants and helping to sell them. Last year's sale raised $250 for garden supplies.

The clients of Adult Day Services may need a little more help than others, but all of us reap the benefits of gardening. In the garden we get quite a workout, bending down to plant, reaching up to trim a bush, lifting mulch and potting soil, stretching to rake beds, and clenching and unclenching our hands to pull weeds.

It is important to bend the knees when lifting, letting the legs do the work, not the back. Bend from the hips, not the waist, when hoeing, digging or planting. Those with arthritis can use tools with large handles. Gardeners with weak backs should use long-handled tools and limit the time spent in the garden so as not to become too tired. 

Gardening is also mentally therapeutic. Just think of the pride you feel when your seeds germinate or when you see your bulbs poke up through the soil or watch a shrub develop its first flowers.  It is so enjoyable to share successes and failures with other gardeners, and so gratifying to taste fruits and vegetables that you have grown yourself.

Even those who are elderly, or not as physically able, can enhance their fitness by work in the garden. Gardening strengthens muscles and improves stamina, balance and coordination. Many studies have proved that muscle tension and blood pressure respond positively to plants, and that planning and planting a garden can provide respite from daily stresses and worries.

Horticultural therapy benefits people of all ages. Children can experience the delight of growing zucchini from seed. Adults can have the satisfaction of growing food for their daily meals. Seniors can work leisurely, cultivating the flowers or vegetables that they love. Gardening offers pleasures for a lifetime.

In the Napa Valley, we are fortunate to be surrounded by beauty. Every season brings visual pleasure, whether it is the daffodils, tulips and poppies along the roads, the mustard in the vineyards, the pink and white blossoming trees along our highways, the roses in our home gardens, or the bronzed autumn foliage on trees in the city parks. These sights give us a mental lift every year, but even greater pleasure can be found by working your own soil. Watching a garden grow can be the best feeling in the world.

Joseph Breck, a 19^th-century horticulturist, wrote, “'Man was not meant to rust out in idleness. A degree of exercise is necessary for the preservation of health, both of body and mind, as his daily food. And what exercise is more fitting, or more appropriate of one who is in the decline of life, than that of superintending a well-ordered garden?”

Garden Tour: Save Sunday, May 15, for “Down the Garden Path,” the Napa County Master Gardeners’ garden tour. The tour will showcase seven unique Up Valley gardens owned and maintained by local Master Gardeners. For tickets and more information, visit http://cenapa.ucdavis.edu.

Mobile Help Desk: Bring your gardening questions to the Napa County Master Gardeners mobile help desk on Saturday, April 9, and Sunday, April 10, at Home Depot in Napa; and Saturday, April 16, and Sunday, April 17, at Orchard Supply Hardware in Napa. Master Gardeners will be available to answer questions at these locations from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Free Workshop: Join Napa County Master Gardeners for a workshop on “Containers and Raised Beds” on Saturday, April 16, from 10 a.m to noon at the University of California Cooperative Extension in Napa. Learn to maximize your limited space by growing ornamentals, herbs and vegetables in containers and raised beds. Regiser online: http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=5920.

Open Garden Days: Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to their demonstration garden at Connolly Ranch on the first Thursday of every month, from April through October, from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer questions. Connolly Ranch is at 3141 Browns Valley Road in Napa.

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