Applications now available for NGB therapeutic garden grants

Once again, National Garden Bureau, American Meadows and Sakata Seed America are uniting to provide $5,000 in grant money for three well-deserving Therapeutic Gardens in North America. In addition, Corona Tools will generously provide a set of quality gardening tools to each of the three winning therapeutic gardens

National Garden Bureau launched this philanthropic program in 2014 and to date, has given more than $40,000 to support the growth of therapeutic gardens, furthering its mission to inspire, educate and motivate gardeners and non-gardeners alike.

During the last year gardening has played an even bigger role in improving the quality of life through the healing elements of nature. According to the American Horticultural Therapy Association, horticultural therapy (HT) is a time-proven practice, one that is seeing an upswing in recent years. HT programs are used to assist participants in learning new skills or regaining those that were lost. The therapeutic garden provides the environment to facilitate plant and participant interaction and can focus on healing, rehabilitation, vocational and socialization activities.

Applications are now being accepted from therapeutic gardens that meet the following criteria:

1. Have a defined therapeutic program, with a Registered Horticulture Therapist on-staff or serving as an advisor and uses the garden to achieve outlined goals for the participants. Examples include occupational, physical, vocational or rehabilitation therapy taking place in a garden setting with significant people and plant interaction.
2. Is used for job-training, skill-building, food growing, socialization skills, improved quality of life, environmental education or any other positive outcome that can be gained by working in nature.
3. Involve a significant number of gardeners, clients, patients, visitors or students on a monthly basis.
4. Has been in existence for at least one year.

The 2020 grant recipients were: The Learning Garden in Los Angeles, California, Capper Foundation in Topeka, Kansas and Allies, Inc. in Hamilton, New Jersey.

To apply, applicants who meet the criteria outlined above should complete this application form and submit it to the NGB office by June 30. A group of horticulture therapy experts will narrow down applications to three finalists. Those three finalists will then be asked to submit a one-minute video featuring their program which will be posted on social media. Voting by the public will be open from Sept. 10-24. The top vote-getter will receive $3,000, second and third place will receive $1,000 each.

For more information about this project or National Garden Bureau, visit: www.ngb.org and follow National Garden Bureau on social media.