Therapy Garden Pilot Program Blooms in the Upper Peninsula
In partnership with: Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development
In addition to providing a source of fresh veggies and attractive foliage and flowers, therapy gardens can act as a potent antidote to stress and trauma. Last year, a Rural Development Fund grant from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development funded a two-year pilot program helping two Upper Peninsula communities install gardens specifically designed to offer restoration and healing for educational and social service programs.
Rachael Pressley, regional planner for the Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region, began collaborating in 2020 with Angie Carter, Michigan Technological University assistant professor of environmental and energy justice, and Dr. Michelle Seguin, Portage Health Foundation director of community health, to secure the MDARD funding and develop community partnerships for creating therapy gardens. The gardens serve at-risk teens at Horizons Alternative High School and survivors of gender-based violence at Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter, both in Keweenaw County.
Under the leadership of Abbey Palmer, community food systems educator at Michigan State University Extension, Horizons High School science and math teacher Meg North enlisted her students in designing a keyholeshaped garden that multitasks as an outdoor classroom, lab space and food source for the school’s new culinary program. Planted last summer with buckwheat to build soil health, the garden will soon grow easy-to-cultivate herb and vegetable crops suited to the U.P.’s short growing season.
“This garden is really integrated with the exterior design of the school to make an informal gathering spot that can also be integrated within the culinary arts and biology classes,” Carter says.
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At the Gundlach Shelter, which moved to a new anonymous location last spring, Palmer partnered with director Mary Niemela to plan a garden that supports therapeutic programming for adults and children. The resulting wave design incorporates wheelchair-accessible paths with spaces for privacy and reflection as well as areas encouraging sensory engagement with the plants.
“They wanted purple plants and flowers because of the purple ribbons for domestic violence awareness,” Carter says. Michigan Tech student Alannah Woodring conducted research prompting the team to plant nontoxic, child-safe varieties that bloom across the seasons.
Constructed entirely by volunteers, the gardens are making a communitywide positive impact. “Both spaces were very industrialized. Seeing how the land was affected and had experienced trauma is a reflection of how we as people have also experienced trauma,” Pressley says. “We can start to heal both ourselves and the land with these gardens.”
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