“To everything there is a season;” in the garden, each passing season has its own special beauty and its own special purpose.

I hope everyone is doing well in this bitter cold. My car wouldn’t start. My little dog wouldn’t go outside. His poor feet were too cold, so I need to buy dog booties or there will be puddles in the house.

The Master Gardeners have been busy planning our schedule for 2014. All our presentations are open to the public. Most of our meetings are the second Thursday of the month at the West Square Building in Baraboo.

In June we are planning a bus trip to Green Bay Botanical Gardens. Our field trips are always fun; the cost to the public is minimal.

This year we will host another Master Gardener Class starting in mid-August. This class covers all areas of gardening such as vegetables, trees and shrubs, perennials, soils, insects, diseases, wildlife and propagation. The class is once a week for 13 weeks. Registration will start in June.

For those of you who would like to grow vegetables this year but live in an apartment or have limited space, you will have an opportunity to rent a plot at one of our local community gardens. Reedsburg has one on the college campus, Baraboo has a nice one run by the park district and Prairie du Sac has one near the cemetery. Call by the end of February, as they usually fill up fast.

In winter we are outdoors much less than any other season, but in looking at your landscape covered with snow the views from the windows are important. You see the architecture of the yard or the entry way that should still be welcoming in winter. Look for intricate patterns of shadows on snow and bare ground. Take into consideration benches, arbors, paths, trellises and man-made structures. Consider placement of trees, shrubs, gardens, etc. After really looking, with pencil in hand, start to jot down ways to improve your landscape. This is especially important at this time of year because you are not distracted by greenery or flowers.

Remember trees and shrubs are the starting point of the garden as they are the longest-lasting. Consider outlining your perennial beds with flowering shrubs. If your area is small remember to consider size. Many shrubs are only 3 to 4 feet tall and work well. Consider a small crab in your perennial garden; this will add height and color. Consider island beds in the middle of the yard. They add a huge amount of interest, especially if you have a theme such as a rose garden, a lily garden, a succulent garden or whatever you would use to make a statement.

Remember our garden seminar coming up the first Saturday in April. Watch for more details.

Vegetable gardens and groundhogs do not mix. These vegetarian mammals can turn even the most peaceable gardener into a vigilante, as the groundhogs take a single bite out of each ripe tomato and chomp lettuce and broccoli plants down to the nub.

As agile climbers and proficient diggers, groundhogs are able to scale a fence just as swiftly as they can burrow beneath one; readily foiling any attempt to keep them out of the veggie patch.

Excluding groundhogs from the garden without resorting to bullets or traps does require a bit of finesse, but it’s perfectly doable. If you are looking for a late-winter project to thwart groundhogs during the coming garden season, here’s a fencing solution tested by the Humane Society of America and determined to be the most effective groundhog-resistant option. I know several gardeners who have used it, and they all confirm that it works like a charm.

Start with enough 6-foot-tall PVC-coated welded wire fencing (with 1-inch-by-2-inch or 2-inch-by-4-inch openings), or galvanized PVC-coated hexagonal wire mesh, to surround your garden, plus 3 extra feet to construct the gate base.

Hammer a 4-foot-tall studded metal fence post — also called a T-stake or T-post — every 6 feet around the garden’s perimeter, positioning a pair 3 feet apart to flank the gate opening. Be sure the wing-shaped metal bracket on each post is fully underground and the fence clips are facing the garden’s exterior. Three feet of each fence post should remain aboveground.

Attach one end of the fence to one of the gate posts by pressing it into the post clips or using plastic zipties; allow 18 inches of the fencing to extend out from the bottom and another 18 inches above the top of the posts. Continue securing the wire mesh by moving from post to post.

Bend the excess lower fencing to form an “Lâ€� against the ground (the base of the “Lâ€� should be to the outside of the garden). Use landscape pins to firmly secure this on-ground portion every 1 or 2 feet. This thwarts the groundhog’s excavating endeavors.

Then, bend the surplus top fencing very slightly toward the outside of the garden, essentially creating a sideways “U� with the opening aimed away from the garden. As the groundhog climbs, his weight folds the “U� and he drops to the ground — outside the fence.

To craft the gate, use a wire cutter to remove the bottom 18 inches of the fence and size the gate’s width so it overlaps the opposite post by a few inches. The gate can be held closed by a double-ended snap clip at the top and the bottom. Cut a separate piece of 3-foot-by-3-foot fencing and use landscape pins to secure it flush to the ground under the fence.

Tunneling under or scrambling over this fence is a near impossible mission. Groundhog-plagued gardeners rejoice!

Horticulturist Jessica Walliser co-hosts “The Organic Gardeners� at 7 a.m. Sundays on KDKA Radio. She is the author of several gardening books, including “Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden.� Her website is www.jessicawalliser.com.

Send your gardening or landscaping questions to tribliving@tribweb.com or The Good Earth, 503 Martindale St., 3rd Floor, D.L. Clark Building, Pittsburgh, PA 15212.

To shoppers, it looks like a simple bed of native grasses and trees with a slightly unusual border.

But what appears to be landscaping at the Rayzor Ranch Marketplace development is actually a complex water system that allows storm water drainage to be treated on-site before it continues downstream.

The system is among the first to implement the North Central Texas Council of Governments’ new integrated storm water program and is also the largest, said Deborah Viera, an environmental compliance coordinator for the city of Denton.

Viera said the program reflects a new attitude toward dealing with storm water.

“It is a way to combine water conveyance and water quality components of a project into one structure,” she said.

Natural filters

The Rayzor Ranch developer,Allegiance Hillview, agreed to build the system to treat storm water on-site,one that slows the water and allows it to filter through a series of vegetation strips and water quality ponds.

Rayzor Ranch, a mixed-use development, is upstream of North Lakes Park, which is a recreation area and home to a city-controlled dam and reservoir. Officials were concerned that the new homes, apartments and shopping centers in the area would eliminate a wetland and change the floodplain.

So at Rayzor Ranch, water flowing across acres of concrete finds places where it can penetrate the earth. Slotted curbs allow water to flow into special medians filled with plants, rock and engineered soil.

Cleaned by the grasses and plants on the surface, the water percolates through several feet of soil before finding its way to an underground pipe that carries it to retention areas with specially selected plants for further filtering before moving through a series of water quality ponds.

When a storm subsides and the water is still, sediments settle out. Fencing skims debris off the surface. Ducks, turtles, fish and even pesky, tree-eating beavers frequent the site,according to Tom Galbreath, a registered landscape architect and executive vice president at Dunaway Associates, who managed the Rayzor Ranch site design and planning.

A treatment wetland dense with aquatic plants filters the water one last time before runoff from the next storm sends it traveling under Bonnie Brae Street to flow into the reservoir at North Lakes Park.

“You have to design the landscape ordinance — the planting that cities require anyway — to work in concert with the integrated storm water management plan,” Galbreath said. “So you let the site dictate where things need to be, not an ordinance. If you know that you have landscaping on a site and you need landscape elements to clean up the water, then let water treatment needs guide the landscape criteria, rather than dealing with each of them independently.”

Future developments

Storm water runoff is a different problem to manage than permitted discharges by manufacturers and other industries.

The NCTCOG program offers a technical manual, workshops and classes to teach builders, architects and landscapers how to incorporate water quality features into their projects.

The program also provides technical details on ways to treat storm water where it falls, through filter strips, rain gardens, grass channels, storm water ponds, porous concrete, pipe systems and features.

Capturing the water where it falls lessens the chance it will pick up pollutants such as oil and gasoline as it travels over concrete surfaces.

Denton has secured two Environmental Protection Agency grants in the past decade to develop a protection plan for the Hickory Creek watershed and implement the design and construction of demonstration projects.

The plans and projects were completed together with researchers at the University of North Texas, Texas AM University, Upper Trinity Regional Water District, North Texas Municipal Water District and consultants.

The city built demonstration water quality sites at Denton Enterprise Airport, Denton Fire Station No. 7, Wiggly Field Dog Park, Cross Timbers Park, the Denton County Road and Bridge facility on East McKinney Street, and at South Lakes Park downstream of a gas well pad site on neighboring land at Acme Brick.

In addition, a rain garden at the Pecan Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility was constructed in cooperation with the Texas AM AgriLife Extension Service.

The more complicated site at Rayzor Ranch serves as a large-scale example of integrated storm water management standards and practices. Denton’s goal is to make such projects a normal partof development, according to David Hunter, the city’s watershed protection manager.

“When developers come to town, the first thing they should ask is, ‘What do I need to do for water quality?’” Hunter said. “It is a process where you have to not only educate developers, politicians and the decision-makers in your city, you have to start making your citizenship aware of it.”

Lessons learned

With lessons learned at Rayzor Ranch, the city hopes for bigger and better water quality systems to accompany larger projects.

The low-impact development keeps the land functioning more naturally while people continue to build for their needs, officials said. Implementing such designs that mimic the natural cycle of water through the land minimizes pollution and the cost of keeping local waters clean.

“There is an environmental component but it has a huge economic component to it as well,” Viera said.“When we talk about protecting streams, creeks and lakes, it is seen as damage to valuable infrastructure that will be costly to repair, and it is something we’ll pay for in water quality down at the lake.

“We have a responsibility to be good stewards of the resources at our disposal, that includes the environment and financially.”

Norway Gardens to Be Part of Monticello-Lake Shafer Wedding Planners First Annual Bridal Fair

PRWEB.COM Newswire

Monticello, IN (PRWEB) January 10, 2014

Norway Gardens has been instrumental in forming a group of nineteen wedding-related businesses in north-central Indiana. Called the Monticello-Lake Shafer Wedding Planners, this group focuses on the special service and attention to detail that small businesses can provide a couple planning a wedding. The Wedding Planners encourage brides-to-be and their families to seek their help in planning beautiful and hassle-free events. With this goal in mind the Wedding Planners have scheduled their first Monticello-Lake Shafer Wedding Fair to be held on Saturday, February 1, 2014, at the Tippecanoe Country Club, 3267 N W Shafer Drive, Monticello, Indiana, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. During this event, style shows will be presented at 11:30 a.m. and again at 2:30 p.m., featuring new trends in dresses, tuxes, floral bouquets, accessories, cakes, jewelry, etc. Door prizes will be awarded throughout the event. The $1 per person admission fee will be pooled to become a cash doorprize for one lucky attendee.

Included in the vendor offerings at this event are merchants specializing in wedding attire, floral design, cakes, rings and jewelry, hair styling and manicures, invitations and favors, catering, photography, videography, D.J. services, and receptions. To prepare the wedding party for the event there will be vendors specializing in body toning, facials and massages — even beautiful smiles. One vendor offers his popular resort for those planning a destination wedding on the lake. A vendor will be there to help with honeymoon planning and a realtor to help a couple with their first home. Monticello-Lake Shafer area with its beautiful lakes is a popular destination wedding venue for prospective brides and grooms.

Norway Gardens has been a leader in gardening and landscaping in north-central Indiana since 1970. In 2013 the company expanded their offerings by opening a full-service floral design department. Emphasizing unique and beautiful floral designs, Norway Gardens Floral Department works with clients to create one-of-a-kind bouquets and floral arrangements that reflect the clients’ individual taste and special interests. For more information, visit our website http://www.norwaygardens.com.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Norway_Gardens/Bridal_Fair/prweb11466001.htm

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By Sue Ellen Ross
Post-Tribune correspondent

January 10, 2014 2:16PM

Students and volunteers at Banneker Achievement Center joined principal Sarah Givens and Gary Community School Corporation superintendent Cheryl Pruitt last fall in planting trees as part of a rain garden at the school. | Anthony KaDarrell Thigpen/For Sun-Times Media

Visitors to the recent Rain Barrel and Rain Garden Workshop at the Douglas Environmental Center in Gary gained more than just information about recycling water and building a rain garden. They also learned exactly what to plant in those gardens, and received a rain barrel for their home.

“We encourage everyone to use these rain barrels (to recycle rain water) and you don’t have to limit yourself to only one,” said Grayling Brown, member of the Student Conservation Association.

“There’s a big benefit involved here — saving money on water bills as we maintain our gardens and landscaping.”

The SCA is a national non-profit with hundreds of teams throughout the U. S. working on projects dedicated to good stewardship over land and communities.

Other topics discussed included the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Goals, presented by the Gary Storm Water Management District; Benefits of a Rain Barrel to Homeowners; Basics of a Rain Garden; Introduction to Native Plants; and Storm Water Pollution Prevention for Citizens, all presented by members of the SCA.

“People need to know about their environment and what they can do to help,” said SCA team leader Jessica Zimmerman.

The GLRI’s mission includes a partnership with the Gary Storm Water Management District and the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority, as well as the SCA. The grant funding the projects is from the Environmental Protection Agency to address water quality in the Great Lakes region.

The goal is to decrease the amount of water entering the storm sewer system, as well as improve the quality of water that does enter the MS4 (Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System.)

As part of the grant, the Miller section of Gary was chosen for the development of 12 rain gardens. The Miller MS4 drains directly into the Marquette Park Lagoon.

The gardens were installed this past fall by SCA members on city-owned property that accumulated excess water during storms and snow melts. After the program is completed and evaluated, plans call for other gardens of this type to be planted throughout the city in the future, according to Zimmerman.

“This (project) was a pilot program, to be a template for other towns and cities,” she added.

A variety of native plants were placed within the gardens.

“These plants have a very deep root system, and they need very little care, as they thrive mostly on their own with no special fertilizers or chemicals,” Zimmerman said.

Gloria Allen lives on a small hill near one of the rain gardens located on Miami Street.

She said that representatives from SCA came through the neighborhood, explaining how, when and where the garden would be located. All the neighbors were pleased with the project, she added.

“This (landscaping) is wonderful, a beautiful way to greet people to our neighborhood,” she said of the planting. “And it’s practical, because there’s always water collecting at the bottom of the hill.”

The rain gardens in Miller are located at 7526 Ash Ave.; 300, 500 and 542 N. Miami St.; 100, 700 and 800 Montgomery St.; 6910 Forest St.; 735, and 760 Morgan St.; the intersection of Forest and Morgan Sts., and Banneker Achievement Center.

The Banneker Achievement Center development involved students, who aided in the design and picking out which trees would be planted, according to Sandy Rodriguez, project manager.

“The young people are our future,” she said. “We need to teach them and emphasize good stewardship and concern for this earth that has been entrusted to us.”

Adventure, whimsy and inspiration are all yours, and free, when you visit Northern California’s Cornerstone Sonoma Gardens.

This unusual place stands alone in bringing a different perspective to the word “garden” because it offers landscape architects and garden designers the freedom to exercise extraordinary creativity in more than 22 individual garden spaces.

Chris Hougie and his wife, Teresa Raffo, were honeymooning in France when they visited the International Festival of Gardens at Chaumont-sur-Loire. Both were intrigued by this new way to experience beauty and art; after returning home they thought about developing something similar in California. Nine acres was found and designers were told “to invent, inform, and create beautiful and compelling gardens that engage and inspire the viewer intellectually, emotionally, and aesthetically.”

“Working with all the designers really was wonderful,” Hougie said. “Clients give them constraints, and we had no constraints. Such freedom with this level of professionalism works out really, really well. Working with them was one of the best parts of the project.” He credits landscape architect Peter Walker and Mark Francis, professor emeritus, UC Davis, for their “very valuable help in the inception of the project.”

Visitors are invited to play, wander, think, and try creating interesting garden spaces of their own when they return home.

Ron Lutsko Jr. and project manager Roderick Wyllie worked to create the garden so that as landscape design changed, the different garden installations could change.

Raffo, project manager for new gardens with oversight of all events and promotions, said she especially enjoys working with landscape architects and designers when they take up residence at the garden. Teams get together over dinner to talk about progress or setbacks and discover the many microclimates when they stay a while. Three Chinese designers are currently working on a garden that features growing food for the future. “It will be about beauty and also functionality,” Raffo said.

The area dedicated to the children has a vineyard, colorful sandbox, climbing structure and birdhouses large enough for a family of condors. It was designed by MIG, a planning and design firm.

“Children don’t have any preconceived idea of what a garden should be,” Hougie said. His favorite day was the opening of the children’s garden. “We had thousands of happy kids running through the gardens.” Children are just as intrigued as adults by this collection of artistic landscape designs. Watching a 9-year-old gaze at sculptures or sit on them, roll huge garden balls about, or perch on a giant blue adirondack chair for a photo op is sheer delight.

Some design features are interesting if one takes a quick look, but visitors who look closer see more. That charming metal fence forming a series of hearts may be clever, but when you walk past the fence and into the garden space your feet are walking on a metal path of broken hearts.

Gorilla mulch, gravel in a variety of colors and sizes, grass, tumbled colored glass, metal, even pottery shards play a role your feet can experience here.

The red Chinese lantern looks lovely sitting in a pond filled with tiny mosquito fish. Closer inspection reveals the colorful red glass beads hanging from it are shaped like teardrops. The Chinese-inspired elements reference the migrant workers who came to California during the Gold Rush and stayed to build the Central Pacific Railroad.

“Small Tribute to Immigrant Workers” by landscape designer Mario Schjetnan of Mexico reminds visitors of the enormous help Mexican labor is to the success of California’s agriculture. Metal serves as a walk and a wall, and reflected heat reminds viewers of the desert where illegal immigrants die. One of the newest gardens has a more than 2,000-pound silver tree designed by Regan Gentry. It required great effort to anchor so a windstorm couldn’t roll it like a giant tumbleweed into Sonoma. This garden, designed by Suzannne Biaggi of Petaluma, also incorporates sound as one of its features. Bertotti Landscaping was instrumental in building it.

Petaluma Seed Bank contributes heirloom squash, flower, and gourd seeds for one of the gardens. The gourds dangle from their trellis in shapes that belong in cartoons. It’s one of those “try this at home, it’s fun” gardens.

Mary McCorkle lives in Los Osos. Contact her at happygardener225@gmail.com.

MAUNETTE LOEKS/Star-Herald

Prairie, North Platte inspire downtown landscaping concepts

Bryan Kinghorn, of Kinghorn Gardens, presents design concepts for a downtown landscaping, streetscaping and stormwater plan being worked on by Kinghorn and representatives of Dropseed Studio.

Posted: Thursday, January 9, 2014 12:00 am

Prairie, North Platte inspire downtown landscaping concepts

By MAUNETTE LOEKS
New Media Editor

Star Herald

Landscaping artistically modeling the North Platte River, shortened pedestrian crossings and a downtown gathering place were some of the concepts suggested by designers in a downtown revitalization effort.

Bryan Kinghorn, of Kinghorn Gardens, and Zack Fergus and Tom Bentley, of Dropseed Studio, outlined concepts that could make up a preliminary plan for a landscaping, streetscaping and stormwater master plan. Implementing the master plan will be the next step in downtown revitalization efforts. Concepts were presented Wednesday after the designers gathered information during a downtown tour, a public meeting and an open house.

“We are pretty excited about how energized the community is to have something different,” Kinghorn said, saying that participation from the public was good. The designs are driven by the city and the people who live in Scottsbluff, he said.

One of the first parts of the process will be to implement a downtown landscaping plan that will improve the aesthetics, while also being functional, Kinghorn said. The designers proposed landscaping to replace current brick work in the downtown areas, with a design that mimicks the meandering flow of the North Platte River. Plants could be inspired by the shortgrass prairie plants that surround the Scotts Bluff National Monument, Agate Fossil Beds and other sites that western Nebraskans identify with.

“We want to enhance the downtown experience,” Kinghorn said. Designers asked residents and officials to identify components that signify Scottsbluff and the prairie seemed to be a continuous theme in the designs.

Landscaping will also continue the current stormwater efforts that have been done by the City of Scottsbluff in other downtown parking lots.

Downtown intersections could also be flanked by trees.

“We want canopy cover,” Kinghorn said. “We want trees … but we want them to be healthy from the get go.”

Instead of placing trees in planters or planting boxes, the designers have proposed expanding bulb outs at the intersections and locating trees in those expanded bulb outs. The design would serve another purpose, with pedestrian crossings proposed to shorten, improving safety at intersections and slowing traffic. The enhancements would also improve the view for drivers crossing east and west streets.

The designers also proposed making the 18th Street Park and adjoining street a downtown gathering area. The 18th Street Farmers Market served as the impetus for the design, but other events could occur there, including adding a splash pad. The downtown area could also be enhanced by artwork, designers said.

“This is the town’s downtown,” Fergus said of the designs. “We received a lot of good input from people passionate about the community.

Kinghorn said designers will be back to present a preliminary design to the Scottsbluff City Council in about four weeks.

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Thursday, January 9, 2014 12:00 am.

I was visiting a friend recently and remarking on what an incredible view he had of the mountains and red rocks and how especially this time of year it had that extra sparkle with the snow perched hither and yon.

Well, we don’t all have that type of spectacular view, and at times during the winter I know we look out upon our landscapes and dream of what they will look like once spring brings flowers bursting forth and then the unfurling of the rich green leaves of our plants.

Having been involved with horticulture for a long time, I know there is a never-ending search for ways to increase the visual interest in gardens and landscapes. One way to do this that, I believe, is often overlooked involves adding interest to the winter landscape. This can be done in a variety of ways, with plants of varying colors, those with berries and seed pods, bark with interesting textures and colors, and also with hardscapes and even furniture.

What first comes to mind involves plants with colorful foliage, which, for winter, means evergreens, but not necessarily those with green foliage. Juniperus chinensis or Chinese junipers are a standard in the landscaping industry, and many of its cultivars – plants that have been selected for certain characteristics – have blue and even yellow foliage that looks great year round. There are also many cultivars of the Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum), which has bluish foliage. Other plants that work well in our landscapes are yuccas such as the Yucca filamentosa “Golden Sword,” with yellow leaves that have a green edge, and Yucca filamentosa “Color Guard,” which has leaves with a central stripe of bright yellow, and in cool weather can have margins with a pinkish cast.

Other possibilities for plants with winter interest are those with fruit or seed pods that can persist or last into the winter. There is a nice small tree Crataegus crusgalli var. inermis or thornless cockspur hawthorn, which has red fruit. Then there are shrubs such as the Japanese barberry, Berberis thunbergii with red berries, the sea-buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides with orange fruit, the smooth sumac, Rhus glabra cismontane, which has fuzzy maroon fruit, and the silver buffaloberry, Shepherdia argentea, with yellow to orange red berries. Also, if you don’t remove the flowers from a rose, such as the native pink rose Rosa woodsii, they will form nice pretty red rose hips.

There are also plants with bark that have interesting textures or colors. There are some Cornus species with red and even yellow bark, but many of those would take special care in our area. However, there are some we should consider, such as the amur maackia, Maackia amurensis, with its amber, bronze- to copper-colored bark. As it matures it will start to peel or curl. Another is the Japanese red pine, Pinus densiflora, with its orange red bark, which also looks scaly as it ages. A shrub that admittedly takes closer inspection to appreciate is the cliff fendlerbush, Fendlera rupicola, with its reddish young bark which turns gray and scaly or shredded with age.

However, adding color and interest doesn’t stop with plants but can be achieved with items you place or build in your yard, such as arbors, gazebos, and trellises. Or even interesting wood fences, stone walls, water features and strategically placed boulders.

Finally, you might also consider colorful furniture such as a colored metal bench or even some of those brightly colored Adirondack chairs sold in town.

These are just a few suggestions among all that is out there waiting to be considered. So as you are looking through catalogs or online for what you want to plant for spring and summer, consider what you can add so that next winter you have a visual feast in your outdoor winter landscape.

Thought for the day: “The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.” —Hanna Rion.

Have an idea you’d like Mike to consider writing about? Want more information about these topics? Call the Utah State University Extension Grand County office at 435-259-7558 or email Mike Johnson at mike.johnson@usu.edu.

Hospital design in particular has taken a patient-centered approach of late, utilising the power of nature to improve health outcomes and helps decrease the length of in-patient stays.

A 2012 study on Therapeutic Gardens by Sara Holowitz, PhD found that “therapeutic and healing gardens represent an aesthetically pleasing, stress-reducing, cost effective CAM (complimentary and alternative medicine) modality.”

Therapeutic garden landscape

The idea that nature has a restorative effect on humans is a not a new concept. Psychoanalyst Erich Fromm coined the theory behind the biophilia hypothesis – a theory that suggests there is an innate bond between humans and nature, and the concept was later popularised by Edward O. Wilson in his book, Biophilia (1984), in which Wilson defined the theory as “the urge to affiliate with other forms of life”.

In a healthcare setting, healing gardens are generally considered a sub category to therapeutic gardens, but can differ slightly in terms of execution.

Horticultural healing

Healing gardens are designed to be passive and offer an environment that supports everyone, including patients, staff and visitors. The design primarily features green vegetation and water elements but is generally free of sculptures or man-made structures in order to be as calming as possible.

Therapeutic gardens on the other hand are targeted toward specific patient conditions that engage individuals and support recovery through definite landscape design. This could include spaces through which people can engage in activities such as walking or gardening on raised garden beds or the design could call for a purely passive environment.

This type of garden is generally found in a variety of healthcare settings such as hospitals, rehabilitation centres, senior villages or chemotherapy facilities.

Both garden forms can offer an array of psychological, social and physical benefits by positively distracting patients outside their hospital rooms.

Urbis Landscapes produced patient gardens for Epworth: 2010

A 2010 report entitled Beyond Blue To Green: The benefits of contact with nature for mental health and well-being by Deakin University Australia cited research by Clare Cooper-Marcus and Marni Barnes (1999), who said such gardens “are defined as natural spaces where opportunities are provided for relief from physical symptoms, for stress reduction, and for improvements in one’s sense of well-being through activities such as observation, listening, strolling, sitting and exploring the natural space.”

According to Dr. Roger S. Ulrich of Texas AM University, laboratory research revealed that “visual exposure to settings with trees has produced significant recovery from stress within five minutes, as indicated by changes in blood pressure and muscle tension.”

When it comes to designing a healing garden there are multiple considerations to consider beyond “greening” the environment. Appropriate way finding is essential for patients along with ample wheelchair access, suitable seating and non-obtrusive navigation.

Melbourne RCH landscaping

Healing gardens can be structured or unstructured, but vegetation should be at the core of the design and “hard-landscaping” should be avoided wherever possible. In the case of fauna birdbaths, water features that provide the soothing sound of water or flowers and plants that attract birds or butterflies are also therapeutic for patients.

Therapeutic gardens will offer similar landscape design to their healing counterparts, but may also have more defined perimeters. Spaces are generally designed for specific patient conditions and can include scheduled activities such as horticultural therapy (humans engaged in plant-based activities such as gardening).

For example, Dementia Care Australia participates in horticultural therapy utilising raised garden beds, light hand tools and activities such as potting and planting for patients.

Horticultural therapy has also been found to beneficial for the ageing population and patients suffering mental illness due to its ability to provide sensory simulation.

When designing either type of garden in an urban healthcare setting, location is essential to minimise noise such as the sound of air conditioners, surrounding noise or traffic.

Finally, it’s all about the colour green. In colour therapy, green is seen as a healing colour as it reflects many elements in nature and earth. It has both energising and calming effects that directly contribute to the well-being of those in its presence.

In Australia, many hospitals are recognising gardens for their healing benefits and implementing vegetation where possible in design that puts patients first.

The award-winning Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) building, which opened in 2011, features many gardens, playgrounds and landscaped areas.

Designed by Billard Leece and Bates Smart architects, the gardens were inspired by the hospitals parkland setting as the architects set out to create outdoor spaces that offered engagement, seating and “sweeping lawn areas.”

Other redevelopment projects across Australia, including Epworth HealthCare Hospital in Melbourne and the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, have also placed gardens and open spaces at the forefront of their design in a bid to provide spaces that assist in patient treatment and rehabilitation while offering a “break” for patients.

While this back to nature approach in healthcare is not a new concept, it is receiving increased attention as the world increasingly focuses on sustainable design and reconnecting nature and humanity, particularly in dense urban settings.

RESTON, Va. – Landscaping professionals around the country are now able to become a Certified Wildlife Landscaping Professional under National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Wildlife Habitat® program. The professional must demonstrate a commitment to supporting ecologically sound and wildlife-friendly methods of landscaping in the business. NWF and landscape professionals around the country are combining forces to address a nationwide concern for wildlife habitat loss and fragmentation.

NWF’s brand new Certified Wildlife Landscaping Professional program certifies landscaping professionals as a complement to its long-standing Certified Wildlife Habitat program and its companion programs, Schoolyard Habitats and Community Wildlife Habitat. These wildlife-friendly landscapes and gardens help keep water and air resources clean, are healthier for people and the environment, and are less resource-dependent than conventional landscapes. Wildlife-friendly landscapes can serve to enrich our urban areas and give residents pride in their neighborhoods.

“We’re partnering with professional landscapers to promote sound wildlife conservation efforts through their business practices,” says Jaime Matyas, executive vice president and COO of National Wildlife Federation. “This program connects homeowners, schools, businesses and others with professionals who can help them create an outdoor space that will serve as a haven for wildlife for years to come.”

“There’s no more rewarding way of helping wildlife than by restoring habitat in our cities and towns,” says David Mizejewski, naturalist with National Wildlife Federation. “Whether it’s in our own backyards, a local schoolyard or park, or even a corporate landscape, any place that can support a garden can attract colorful birds, beautiful butterflies and other wildlife. There’s no better way of connecting with nature than stepping out the door into a wildlife-friendly garden.”

The Certified Wildlife Landscaping Professional program engages professionals who can commit to becoming more sustainable in their business practices and encourage wildlife in their communities through their services to homeowners, businesses, schools, churches, parks and other institutions. As a benefit for becoming certified, professionals receive certification, marketing resources, and promotion to the nation’s largest wildlife gardening network and more than 4 million members. Certified professionals are profiled on NWF’s growing searchable database of Certified Wildlife Landscaping Professionals as a way to assist individuals, businesses, and organizations to find a landscape professional who can help them become more wildlife-friendly in their own landscapes. For more information, please go to: www.nwf.org/landscapers.

For more National Wildlife Federation news, visit: www.nwf.org/news.