• Horticultural therapy

• Horticulture is therapeutic Horticultural therapy is a treatment for a variety of diagnoses. Working with and around plants improves quality of life through psychological and physical changes. Nurturing a plant into maturity from seed is rewarding and builds self-confidence. Various horticulture-related tasks such as carrying plants, planting trees, or arranging flowers are used to improve coordination and motor control of injured or disabled individuals.

• Landscapes heal. Restorative gardens offer an environment for people who are sick, injured, and under stress to recover and regain confidence in themselves. Such landscapes are also currently used by hospices in treatment of Alzheimer and AIDS patients. Roger Ulrich showed through a study of hospital patients that those whose rooms overlooked vegetation recovered faster and required less pain medication than did patients without a view of nature.

Landscaping for the Future

Landscaping is an integral part of our culture and plays an essential role in the quality of our environment, affecting our economic well-being and our physical and psychological health.

If we are to keep our communities strong and prosperous, we must take responsibility for our environment. Environmental responsibility is a step beyond awareness, developed only through experience. Through our gardens and landscapes, we acquire a personal awareness and responsibility for the environment while we relieve the tensions and frustrations of everyday life.

Landscaping offers many opportunities for the encouragement and education of responsible, productive citizens. School grounds represent the world environment of a child and should be designed and integrated into the curriculum to instill responsibility, knowledge, and experience in caring for the environment, while teaching the math, science, and art associated with the cultivation of plants.

Public and commercial landscapes have a major influence on our environment, and on peoples actions and attitudes. Sustainable landscape maintenance techniques can be used to protect the environment while enhancing economic development and improving worker productivity.