Generations Gardening Together

Bring a Sensory Garden to life in a structured therapeutic horticulture program!

Intergenerational gardening programs bring the generations together. This book presents a tested, hands-on, easy-to-use activity plan that benefits the development of relationships between adults over 70 and school-age children. It shows how to limit frustration for both groups, how to plan activities that are functional and non-contrived, and how to assure that the interaction between elders and children is rewarding and pleasant for both. The activities rely on inexpensive, readily available tools and resources available throughout the growing season.

While other books have discussed designing a Sensory Garden for people with disabilities, Generations Gardening Together applies the Sensory Garden design to a specific population, with a focus on the human senses that are stimulated by the garden. This unique sourcebook shows you, step-by-step, how a Sensory Garden can come alive in a structured therapeutic horticulture program.

Generations Gardening Together shows how to create a Sensory Garden that will stimulate young and old gardeners alike. It outlines a six-week program curriculum that has been used and developed over ten years to use gardening as a program to bring generations together. You’ll learn therapeutic techniques that benefit elders by promoting self-esteem, creating feelings of pride, competence, and satisfactionboth from creating a garden and through passing on their knowledge and wisdom to the younger generation, inspiring them to use both their long-term and short-term memory skills, increasing physical stimulation, and providing the comfort of familiar plants and their aromas, which can trigger memories of people, places, and vocations.

The activities in the book also benefit children through the establishment of a safe environment where people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities can come togetheran ideal social situation in which youth can seek the wisdom of elders. Children learn important lessons about accountability, nurturing, and responsibility, for working in a garden teaches youth about life, death, hope, patience, and beauty.

Each activity session described in Generations Gardening Together includes the following information:

• titledescribes the content of the program
  
• general statement of purposeidentifies the intent of the program
  
• goal(s)outlines the expected outcome(s) of the activity
  
• program proceduresprovides a detailed description of each step and the...read more...