For as long as humans have grown gardens, we’ve grown plants that can help heal us. Whether it’s herbs for a poultice, fruits and vegetables for nutrition, or flowers for tea, gardens have always given us so much. These healing gardens aren’t always about just growing ingredients, though.
The stories here show that in healing, gardens are a place to repair the spirit. Gardens are that place of solitude and contemplation that we need to calm or refresh ourselves.
The stories here have their emotional ups and downs, as is the case in Kika Dorsey’s My Mother’s Garden. Sometimes, quite honestly, life can throw challenges at us that we don’t always know how to handle, or think we can handle.
It can be hard to find our way through the hurt and pain. But there’s always a place we can come back to – our gardens. That’s the place Marilyn Kendall finds solace in thinking of her mother in One Million Daisies.
Whether we need the quiet of pulling weeds, the ever-so-subtle transformative nature of a compost pile, or just that little bit of space that gardens give us to share our stories with a best friend, we have our healing gardens.
The stories here will touch your heart and remind you that a garden is much more than just a collection of plants.
Feel free to stay a while and enjoy all the healing gardens stories we have to share below. And be sure to check out our Healing Gardens Freebie while you’re here, which features a hand-picked selection of our favorite stories from this category.
Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits to grow. Even though I live in the Northeast, they’re one of the few perennial plants that survive over winter and one of the first to produce something edible in the spring. My 4-year-old daughter learned the color red, from strawberry-picking in our garden. We’d tell her “only […]
I once read an article that said you can start saving seeds today that will supply your children’s gardens. I never used to be up for saving seeds, but one year I decided to put this theory to the test. I started with a cucumber from my garden. I cut it in half and scooped […]
Throughout history, poets have turned to the natural world for solace and inspiration in times of grief and loss. From the haunting beauty of William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” to the raw emotion of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “In Memoriam A.H.H.,” poems about grief and loss have often featured the image of […]
“What kind of bush is that?” my husband asked as I transplanted my gooseberry bush into one of our garden beds at our new house. I bought it through a mail order catalog while we lived in our old house. I knew we wouldn’t stay living there forever, and it was important to me […]
As a passionate gardener and hydrangea enthusiast, I’m thrilled to take you on a journey through some of the most magnificent hydrangea gardens in the United States. From the East Coast to the West, these gardens are a testament to these beloved shrubs’ enduring charm and versatility. So, grab your sunhat and plant-identifying apps, and […]
Thirteen years ago my husband, Mark, and I bought a rectangular little house on a rectangular green grass lawn. It reminded me of the little plastic houses on the board game Monopoly. We had barely finished unpacking the dishes when my head started spinning with my elaborate plan. It was time to bring my deepest […]
In the serene town of Harmony Springs, a man named Richard Walker grappled with the profound loss of his son, Ethan. The sorrow that enveloped Richard’s life transformed into a powerful journey of healing and resilience, beautifully captured in the blossoming garden he cultivated. Stumbling upon a forgotten gardening book that once belonged to […]
Gardening comes with so many mental health benefits because it can bring us closer to Earth when we feel like we might have floated away and feel lost. Some people intentionally plant a garden of healing. I’ve ready many stories on GreenPrints of those who have planted memory gardens, whether it’s by a favorite color, […]
I strolled through my garden just a couple of days ago and stumbled upon a seemingly lifeless rose bush near Orris Hill. Orris Hill, as we fondly call it, is the colossal compost mound my husband assembled in the backyard 18 months ago. It serves as a final sanctuary for plants on the verge […]
Even if the peony wasn’t the designated flower of my home state of Indiana, I’d still cherish it. I have a particular fondness for the varieties with densely-packed heads—those glorious thicknesses of petals. The fragrance, if bottled, would be my signature scent. When my husband Alan and I relocated to England, certain plants were […]
