Home Farm Alumni News

(Left to Right: Nancy Lee-Colibaba, Sylvia Piano Onetto, Christine Pollard, Maria Arana and Estela Cardeza D.)

Christine Pollard, HTM
Home Farm

*Photos courtesy of Maria Teresa Riveros.

This was my third trip to Chile to support Marie Arana of Herbarium in her Horticultural Therapy Education endeavors. Every trip is a different experience with vignettes that make each trip unique. Just having Nancy Lee-Colibaba of the Royal Botanical Gardens with me on this trip was such a treat. Being able to share the experience with her and then have Nancy share the HT presentations allowed me to enjoy my first experience listening to Nancy and spend more time appreciating the experiences and passions of the students.

One of the most moving outcomes of participating in HT seminars with students is seeing how the student then goes on and applies their HT knowledge. The last day of this year’s seminar was dedicated to new HT programs and educational opportunities established by previous students.

After Maria gave us an update on the programs at Herbarium, our first presentation was by Jeanette Olivares Herrera, a psychologist with Cultiva, an organization dedicated to rehabilitative, vocational and community connection programs for people with mental health issues. The Cultiva program is conducted in a commercial nursery in Santiago. The 19 participants work at the nursery as well a produce their own plant products, compost and mosaics for sale. The nursery has provided clubhouse space that includes a kitchen, activities room, bathroom and office. Jeanette and another HT student of Herbarium, Patricia Herrera Parra, administrator of Cultiva, are successfully using Horticultural Therapy to evaluate, assess and plan rehabilitative interventions for Cultiva.

Another former student Francisca Muller Montes, an agriculturalist, and Carolina Urbina of the San Cristobel Waldorf School presented on the use of the school garden to meet the teaching philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, education through process and emotion. In the garden once per week, the students individually garden in an area of one square meter to learn the rhythms of life and practical life experience.

The next presentation was by Maria Paz Iturriaga, an Occupational Therapist and educator with The Professional Institute of Chile and former Herbarium HT student. Maria has successfully added Horticultural Therapy to the fourth year Occupational Therapy curriculum at the institute. She brought two of her students that have successfully created a “Sowing Life” mental health program, a long term care “Seniors of Atardecer” HT program and a 7 week HT workshop for the participants of the Montecarmelo Special Needs School. Thank you Maria for taking HT to another educational level in Santiago!

Christine Raffo, President of the Argentine Garden Club (AGC) and former Herbarium HT student gave the next presentation. The Garden Club is all volunteer, mostly women that, among other things, aid various organizations and are great supporters of HT. The AGC is also a member of the National Garden Club (US) supporting world social needs.

Carlos Kaiser, former Executive Director of the National Fund for Persons with Disabilities, said that HT was not a therapy for differences but for commonalities. HT is not artificial but natural.

The next presentation by a Herbarium HT student was by Claudia Bustamante and Bernadita Salas of Manos y Naturaliza, an after school program for children of working parents. They provide support for 80 children 6-8 years old. Though the club houses do not feed the children as they are fed at school, their club houses have hot water, soap and shampoo so that good hygiene can be modeled. Manos y Natualiza provide happy second homes. Their neighborhood does not have gardens so they participate in Pillpa, the children’s garden at Herbarium. The children learn to grow and then eat the vegetables from the Pillpa garden.

Also attending the seminar was Sylvia Piano Onetto, President of the Garden Club of Chile. The Garden Club of Chile is now supporting the Colegio Humberto Aranda for special needs children. The teachers asked for help to plant a grazing garden at the school. Now that the garden is planted, the garden club is now planning to teacher the teachers about horticulture so that gardening can be incorporated into the school curriculum.

So Alumni, as you can see, the roots have spread far since the germination of HT plantings!!

By Ruth Dutchak in Calgary, Alberta.

It seems remarkable that I ran a Horticultural Therapy (HT) program in a subsidized housing complex this summer.  After all, I had only learned of Horticultural Therapy back in January, 2007.

Learning about Horticultural Therapy came at an important time in my life.  After 30 plus years as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist, I was contemplating retirement.  I knew however, that I needed a purpose and something constructive in my life to do in the ensuing years.  Gardening alone would not be enough!  So when a Centre Street Church (CSC) friend and fellow gardener showed me articles about Horticultural Therapy, I was smitten.  This approach would allow me to serve both God and community.

Before I knew it, Christine Pollard’s Home Farm Horticultural Therapy Certificate became available at the Calgary Zoo & Botanical Gardens.  Everything fell into place, including the funds for the program and time off work.

I contacted Centre Street Church Urban Ministries which held a townhouse in a subsidized housing complex for community programming.  Here they offered sewing lessons and ESL to immigrant women, organized game nights, crafts and bible studies for children.  Despite the little I knew, they enthusiastically accepted my proposal to conduct a Horticultural Therapy program for the following summer.

Then it was off to class!  Christine’s classes were intense and I struggled with the assignments as it had been some time since I had to complete homework.  The participants in the class, however, were great and a whole new world opened up for me.

At the beginning of May I started meeting with the children who attended craft night.  Since the ‘craft gals’ were intending to finish their program the middle of May, I naively thought the children would simply follow into the gardening program.  Never try to second guess children! Only three children came and then I had the task of finding other participants.  Gradually more children came and at the end I had about 13 taking part. Their ages ranged from 5-12 years.  They were from a diverse ethnic backgrounds, including Afghanistan, Canada, Colombia, Jamaica and Turkey.  My goal for the summer was to provide the children with some basic horticultural knowledge, fun and an opportunity to create community within their diverse differences.

At times, it seemed chaotic and fast paced.  The children came with great expectations and were often waiting on the front lawn when I arrived (even 30 minutes before starting time).  They would run and greet me, wanting to help carry supplies, questioning me on the planned activity and one eight year old boy never failed to ask what treat I had brought along.  The treats varied from ice cream to cookies, vegetables and ‘dirt’ cake, just to name a few.  We also picked vegetables and made a salad from containers that had been planted earlier.

As with anything we do, there are mistakes made along the way.  And of course, things that went well too.  To say it was a great learning experience would be an understatement.

What didn’t go well?
1. Volunteers
I did not put enough emphasis on volunteers and did not spend enough time recruiting.  Since the program started slowly I thought one volunteer would be enough but this did not allow me to give the children the attention they needed.

2. Planning
For my own sanity, I realized early on that I needed to be even more organized and think further ahead.  With better planning, I would not have felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants. Each week was busy preparing for the next activity and getting the necessary supplies organized.

What went well?
1. A good relationship developed between the children and me.  This was made possible by the children’s enthusiasm which was met by my caring and positive manner.

2. Working alone, it was not possible to help each child individually with their activity but this allowed an opportunity for the older children to step in and support the younger ones.

3. Many of the moms stopped by to observe and they would share their own gardening experiences. I enjoyed getting to know them.  My heart was warmed to see the love they had for their children.

4. Most of the activities were successful and the children had great pride in what they accomplished.  I was well prepared each week and had a good variety of activities to offer.

5. When I did assessments, I could see changes more clearly and actually had something positive to report.

This experience was invaluable to my training as a Horticultural Therapy Technician.  I hope to continue this program next year.  In the meantime, I have realized I need more horticultural knowledge and have already enrolled in the Zoo’s horticulture courses.

We closed this season’s program with a party and I was satisfied that the goals had been met.