Emory Report homepage  

February 9, 2009
Wesley Woods raises gardens

By Kelly gray

Patients at Wesley Woods can now find gardening more comfortable and enabling, with the recent donation of four raised bed planters from the Pine Tree Garden Club of Marietta. The club also donated funds for garden supplies.

“For patients and students with disabilities, raised planters allow them to be seated and garden because of the extra height,” says Kirk Hines, horticultural therapist at Wesley Woods Hospital. “The plants are closer to the gardener making it easier for them to plant, maintain, and most importantly, harvest.”

Brilliant red-orange tomatoes, fragrant basil and traditional southern vegetables are the typical vegetation being planted in the raised beds, as part of the educational garden effort with the Office of Sustainability Initiatives.

“Once the plants are harvested, samplings and tastings will be provided to patients,” says Hines.
What’s on the horizon for the gardens at Wesley Woods Hospital? Through the Foundation of Wesley Woods, the neuropsychiatry unit therapy garden is being redesigned, with the help of a landscape architect, after receiving $45,000 in grants.