Gillaspie Horticulture therapy uses gardening and cultivating techniques to improve social functioning, mental health, physical health, and the over all well being of not only patients, but caretakers and families of patient.
Horticulture is one of the most fundamental skills utilized by mankind.
For centuries mankind has worked the earth to support themselves. Therapeutic horticulture began with doctors and healers cultivating various plants and testing them for curative purposes. Many medicines we currently have are based on ancient formulas and are derived from plants. In early hospitals poor patients who could not afford to pay for hospitalization had to work in gardens in order to pay for their treatment and lodging. Doctors began noticing these poor patients who worked in the gardens recovering faster and to a more healthy state than the rich patients who did not work and lounged in bed all day.