Cultivation therapy helps people create traditional gardens despite physical, developmental, or psychological limitations. The purpose of cultivation therapy is to use gardening to show people the importance of growth, love, and support. Gardening allows more people to enjoy the benefits of working with plants. These gardens may include wide walkways to accommodate wheelchairs or other ambulation stability tools, gardening tools wrapped with padding to aid arthritic fingers, and plants with bright foliage to help visually impaired gardeners. Treatment can be helpful in a green room inside or outside in a conventional planned space. A green room can cultivate and nurture plants inside a facility with consistent conditions regardless of inclement weather. The essential ingredients for growing seeds indoors are warmth, light, and moisture.
Therapeutic programs such as cultivation therapy improve self-esteem, adaptive living skills, and relaxation techniques. It also develops social skills, literacy, an increased sense of general well-being, and the opportunity for social interaction. Also, people recovering from major illnesses or injuries or deterioration from age can benefit from the therapeutic aspects of gardening. One significant benefit to using social and therapeutic programs is that traditional communication forms are not always necessary. The program is significant for a non-verbal, using sign language, or deaf person. Gardening activities build communication skills through teamwork, task-building, and accountability. Tasks are also viewed as meaningful activities that can produce food and improve responsibility and work ethic skills through participation. Alternative activities like watching television may cause an inactive person to deteriorate or resist social interaction with peers.
Conversely, gardening occupies the person away from the screen and fills at least some of
their day with gratifying and actual work. Cultivation programs can also decrease challenging behaviors in a residential care facility. A person may become easily frustrated because they cannot participate in preferred activities or communicate their wants or needs to caregivers. Moreover, the person may also struggle with anger management or maintaining relationships due to an inability to control emotions or impulse control. Cultivation programs can change moods and assist in fostering relationships with any living organism.
Engaging other caregiving team members in gardening therapy is an excellent strategy to
broaden that companionship scope. Caregivers reap most of the same psychological benefits as those they work with; however, collective enjoyment is shared.
