From Special Olympians to elderly adults ailed by declining health, people use the New Hanover County Arboretum’s Ability Garden program to learn about gardening in a relaxing environment. The goal, however, is not to gain a green thumb.
“We’re not landscapers,” said Heather Kelejian, the Ability Garden’s program director. “We use the garden as a therapeutic tool. The garden is not the focus; it’s just the tool that gets people to accomplish their goals,” she said.
It’s called horticultural therapy, and it benefits a diverse group of visitors who come to the arboretum each week.
“It’s a wide gambit of people we serve,” Kelejian said. “We have about five groups each week.”
In 2000, the garden began hosting groups, which range in size from two to 12 people.
“It was started as a way to make the arboretum more accessible in the community. When it first started, the focus was specifically on people with disabilities, but we’ve broadened to include at-risk youth,” she said.
While activities vary depending on each group’s abilities and interests, Kelejian said each group enjoys a hands-on project.
“A typical group would come in and take a tour of the arboretum and then they would work on tabletop gardening. It could be house plants, it could be vegetables that need to potted,” she said.
Often, the garden’s visitors take a plant home.
Kelejian said the arboretum partners with local nonprofits, such as Kids Making It, an organization that teaches children ages 8 and older vocational skills, and the Blue Ribbon Commission, an organization that focuses on preventing youth violence, to bring young visitors to the garden.
Students at D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy, an underfunded middle school downtown, also benefit from the Ability Garden’s services.
“At D.C. Virgo, they have their own gardening station. I go to the school and we work to beautify it,” Kelejian said.
Kelejian also visits other local schools to conduct garden-focused presentations in their classrooms, with the help of other environmental education organizations.
“We do things like bring in community partners, such as Cape Fear River Watch and the North Carolina Coastal Federation to teach them about water quality,” she said. “We do activities to teach them about soil. We also try to teach them about the natural environment in their area.”
Adult students learn from the Ability Garden’s programs as well. Kelejian said some students studying social work, psychology or occupational therapy at the University of North Carolina Wilmington or at Cape Fear Community College volunteer in the garden to learn how they can use horticultural therapy in their professions. Often, these students complete academic projects based on what they learned throughout their volunteer experience.
During the winter months, the arboretum continues to offer horticultural therapy programs inside its greenhouse.
Kelejian said the Ability Garden program always welcomes more visitors and community partners.
To learn more, call the New Hanover County Arboretum at 910-798-7660.
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