Garden Therapy | Garden Home (1709)

[Music] hi I'm Allen Smith life can get a little hectic I know you know what I'm talking about but you know what I do I try to find some time to spend well in my happy place which happens to be the garden spending a little time connecting with nature can make a big difference you know you don't have to have a crazy life to really enjoy the sensory experience and the tranquility that a garden can bring the aroma of flowers seeing that beautiful blue sky the taste of fresh produce right off the vine the sound of bees buzzing at their work or your favorite songbird all of these and more come together to make a garden a truly an amazing place to be so we have to ask ourselves do these types of experiences help us with serious diseases like Alzheimer's well we checked in with doctors therapists and patients to find out [Music] they say where anything will flavor these hmm very good does it look tart and the sweets down there blueberries you take the spent your life working on Alzheimer's and dementia let's talk about nutrition its impact and how we can maybe avoid the onset of these tragic diseases you know there's not a direct correlation as far as we know between what you eat and whether or not you would have Alzheimer's but there is a correlation between if you are out of shape and obese hmm because then you set yourself up for other diseases that are true risk factors for the development of Alzheimer's disease for example like type 2 diabetes so we have this whole generation of boomers retiring now so is it too late for them to get started exercising or eating right yeah it's not too late but I mean because we don't want them to retire into Alzheimer's disease and that's a terrible thing just saw on a clip yesterday the sky he says my great-grandfather lived to a hundred and eighteen but he said I don't even think I'm gonna make retirement and of course he already is starting and having some really wonderful because this would be about life so so he's got the genetics yes the genetics it was grandfather yes exactly it's the way in which he has lived his life exactly well he's living in a world where I mean in our office our home or wherever we happen to go all these chemicals are around us it's a very different world than his grandfather lived in but it was one could argue much more natural mm-hmm well we have to make plans on getting outside but most people are just living inside an office building yeah we're moving their to their car and then turn their car home and there's already been a study done to show that even people with cognitive decline if they get in an exercise group and start exercising in those people they actually can do some better right it's not only just getting your heart rate up but also socializing exactly and that's one of the really key things about people that already have cognitive decline and all of us ought to take a lesson from it is we should keep our social networks and pay attention very good yes right and pay attention to family and friends even the family that you don't agree with you know hug them first argue later so any tips on like the kinds of vegetables you grow up grow these little forte carrots well they're not so little but aren't they beautiful they are they're gorgeous and it's all about the colored vegetables the darker the better and the vegetables and the darker the better in the fruits but that doesn't mean any of them are bad there all right and and also like growing herb that was what my mom always said just makes the plate colorful it's fine and so what about aroma I keep smelling this marvelous rosemary we have it here yes it's great and of course we know just intrinsically we know about aromas they make us feel good and of course it could be that that's just the happiness thing but the happiness thing is really important especially in a person who has cognitive decline they know they do they know they're not okay and any little chance for happiness of course also didn't they get more alert an alert is part of not the cognitive decline yeah yeah exactly so thank you for spending time out here in this organic vegetable garden with me talking about ways to improve our lives it's always a joy to have you here thank you so much is so much fun and I loved it and I loved getting taste all the goodies I'm taking some home with you don't worry I'll be looking forward to it [Music] rooftop gardens can serve as an oasis in an urban setting our next guests are part of a team who are dedicated to creating a a haven a retreat for those who are under a lot of stress I'm Chanda Chacon and the chief operating officer at Arkansas Children's here in Little Rock the outdoor garden area at Arkansas Children's probably one of the areas I'm most proud of you know it's a sense of serenity up here we have parents there coming her sometimes they're going through a lot with their own children and sometimes in the morning when we come up here and check things out make sure things ok you'll see parents and I here in the cool of the morning just having some quiet time to themselves and uh and that makes you feel good where we're standing now is actually in an outdoor playground and garden that both our patients and families use with their siblings and our staff uses as well to really just get away and help really try to normalize and a really abnormal experience for families being able to pull families out of their room whether it's from this south wing area from other parts of the hospital to an environment like this is so uplifting and to bring their children and a wagon and strollers in wheelchairs to participate in activities we have out here can really help the healing process it actually reduces pain even if you're in an environment where you can just see a garden you even have to be out in it but you can just see green space you can see trees having meandering pathways so that everything isn't really square and boxy in that really focusing on helping little kids to be creative so they can help really feel like it's a normal experience because you can imagine being in a hospital for a child probably the most abnormal experience they're going to have and so what we have is a lot of our inpatient rooms open up onto this space and open up into our atrium that has plants and greenery in there to really help families and patients who maybe they're too sick to be around plants we really want them to still get that feel of calm and safety we've created some spaces where staff can get away as well we really want our staff here to be at their best and to be able to do that we need to provide spaces where they can relax too and step away when they're on a break or before after their shift in this really urban environment that we all tend to work in that has a lot of concrete having some green space and having people be able to see trees and flowers helps reduce stress at lowers anxiety for patients and families it can help reduce pain lower blood pressure we see those benefits not only with our patients but also with our employees and with our families we're really committed at Arkansas Children's to helping change design as we go forward both in our interior spaces as well as our exterior spaces you [Music] [Music] I don't know about you but I love aromatic herbs and one of my favorites well it's rosemary rosemary well I plant a lot of it you can see hedges of it I plant it everywhere I just like the fragrance and I like the fact that it's so good in cooking and somebody that can actually boost your cognitive abilities you can enhance your memory it stimulates the brain in a way that other herbs can since the early days of medicine herbs such as rosemary sage and even met have been found to be beneficial for memory and mental acuity but it's not just herbs that provide health benefits to the body and mind they're also several other foods that you can grow in your garden that have brain boosting vitamins and nutrients like well blueberries for instance now just take a look at these now they're not quite ripe yet although I wish they were just remember if you grow blueberries you need to remember that you have to have two different varieties at least for cross-pollination to get a fruit set like this but blueberries well they're loaded with antioxidants and plenty of vitamin C let's go underground now and talk about one of my favorite root vegetables beets well they're dense and nutrients including betaine potassium magnesium folate and vitamin C and then there are those leafy greens some of my favorites just look at this gorgeous red romaine and then of course our friend the kale can add collards to the list and also chard these plants are rich in vitamin K folate lutein as well as beta-carotene there's several reasons why I love growing these kinds of plants hey they make your garden look great and they make you look great when you eat them and then of course there's broccoli everybody knows that broccoli is good for you and when you grow it organically you can eat it straight out of a garden like this man this is good [Music] and if you know anything about Chinese medicine you probably recognize this tree it's gingko biloba and it's been used for millennia by the Chinese is a memory booster I just love this tree because in the fall it turns lemon yellow exquisite now if you consider gingko as an herbal supplement you need to know that it's been studied extensively with mixed results while it's been proven to increase blood circulation and is high in antioxidants the jury remains split on whether it substantially enhances mental performance and memory of course where there is conclusive evidence is eating lots of fresh vegetables and fruits and not only good for your mind but they're good for your body like mom always said remember eat your vegetables [Music] who doesn't love to receive a beautiful bouquet particularly when it's really fragrant I want to give you an idea of thinking outside the box with regard to bouquets by integrating lots of beautiful herbs we're gonna start by taking a piece of brown craft paper what I'm doing here is I'm just gonna cut this into a square the size of this will depend on the size of okay you want to create but I'm just taking about a 14 inch square piece of paper and with that I'm going to do a bouquet of herbs that I just gathered out of the garden taking my spiky rosemary which is the tallest and I'm putting it toward the back of this okay then I'm gonna add some of this beautiful gray colored sage it's so aromatic and I love the contrasts the texture is so important just as important as color in my opinion and then what we might do is add some of this ferny soft ethereal looking dill so as I create the bouquet I just hold it tightly I'm gonna do now is I'm going to cut this off they're all the same same length and then I'm going to take just a little bit of this floral tape and I'm gonna tie the bundle together and then to make the bouquet presentable what I'm going to do is take a sandwich bag and a little bit of paper towel but I'm going to moisten some water I'm gonna wrap the bottom stems of this drop it in the sandwich bag like this you'll have a little extra plastic with the sandwich bag and so I'll just pull that around and I'm going to take a piece of this jute tie this off securely now with the moisture in here the bouquet will last much longer okay now let's talk about the presentation gonna take the okay and lay it roughly the center point of this diagonal 14 inch square gonna fold off the corners like this just to give it a nicer little presentation edge I'm gonna fold it over like this and take the bottom up pull the left side over and around like that so you can see we have a Kraft paper cone for it and that's just a matter of tying it off with another piece of this jute twine now to make it even more special you can add your favorite flowers to this bouquet like white tulips or our classic they blend beautifully with the sage the dill the rosemary and the thyme and there you have it a beautiful and fragrant bouquet something that's a little out of the ordinary [Music] these are beeswax pellets beeswax is the only fuel that admits negative ions into the air eliminating dust and pollen in the process using these little guys and a few other easy to find items I'm going to show you how to make a quick and easy beeswax candle put some glue into the bottom of the mason jar then we're gonna take an anchor and press it in I just hold it for a few seconds so that it really stays okay now we're gonna take our beeswax pellets and we're gonna put it in carefully now you want the beeswax to go at least an inch above where you want the wax to ultimately settle because as it heats up it's going to fill in all of those air pockets now the great thing about this is you can use any size mason jar so you can do little ones you can do large ones you can get creative and of all different sizes and they make a great gift all right pack that in nicely now we're gonna trim our wick so just take a scissor and give it a good inch and a half from the top you can always trim it more later now we're gonna stick this in the oven at a low temperature about 200 degrees and we're gonna let all of that wax melt once they're cooled the candles are ready to use [Music] fragrance is one of the most important aspects of a garden in my opinion when I'm designing a garden always try to include something that's going to give off a delicious aroma it's hard to beat old fashioned roses let me introduce you to Felicia she's from 1928 and a beautiful reblooming rose and here we are in the the depths of summer and she's still throwing off these gorgeous sort of pinkish apricot blooms I wish you could smell them Felicia is just one of many many varieties of roses out there that have an amazing aroma some of the others we grow here include Sarah Van Fleet and an old one called Lamarck that goes back to the 1840s what's wonderful about these is their row Montana meaning they bloom again and again after that first bloom in the spring when you're placing fragrant plants in the garden think about where you spend time in and out of the door or a patio where you sit in the morning to have a cup of coffee or tea that's where you're gonna really enjoy the fragrance of these plants and of course fragrance just doesn't stop with roses think about gardenias jasmine magnolias all have wonderful redolence and then the herbs of course you can't beat lavender and then there's rosemary so when you're thinking about your garden make sure you include fragrance nothing like stimulating all the senses [Music] [Music] I consider the gladiolus really a paintbrush in the garden when grouped together like this they can make quite an impact it's an old-fashioned flower it's been around a long time in fact there's over 260 species of wild gladiolas around the world but there's probably a lot more different varieties because hybridize errs have had a lot of fun with gladiolas over the last century any color you want you can find it in a gladiola I'm here to tell you some of them are even almost black and I love this bright red I like to cut them because they're tall and statuesque they're also called the sword Lily which is a common name for them I also like to take the blooms that are spent off before I use them in an arrangement and then sometimes I'll take these blooms that are in perfectly beautiful shape like this and float them in a bowl or place them right at the top of a plate if you're having a dinner party it's a beautiful little accent for the table gladiolas are easy to grow they grow from chorim's they'll actually come back year after year these have been here for the last four years and I just love having a little surprise each summer I try to plant gladiolas about every two weeks so I have a constant supply of them it's one of the easiest bulbs you can grow what a glorious flower to have around throughout the summer well you are beautiful and look at you [Music] well I think it's safe to say that the garden provides therapeutic value beyond what we can measure I know for me even on the worst day in the garden I feel great there's just something about being out here and connected to nature it can make such a difference hope today's shows been helpful and enlightening and encouraging to you until next time I'm allen Smith [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: P. Allen Smith

Views: 3,051

Keywords: Garden Home, P. Allen Smith, organic gardening, how to garden, garden home decor, Alzheimers Sensory Therapy, ACH Rooftop Garden, Memory Boosters from the Garden, Herbal Bouquet with flowers, Beeswax Candles, Plants for a Fragrant Garden, Simmering Holiday Potpourri, gardening tips, garden ideas, landscape design, garden design, beautiful blooms, perennial, annuals, sensory therapy, garden therapy, fragrant flowers

Id: PbcoitckUpo

Length: 23min 41sec (1421 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 27 2023