Horticulture proves nature's restorative powers.

Byline: THE HEALTH FILES By Tim Christie The Register-Guard

In 1996, Maggie Matoba's father came to live with her in Eugene after he suffered a stroke that left him in a wheelchair.

Before his stroke, he had been an avid gardener, so Matoba would take him out in her garden to work and enjoy the sights and smells.

"I just noticed a profound change in him whenever we would do this," she said.

He looked better, felt better and would talk more, she said. The stroke left him with dementia, but gardening stimulated his memory, she said.

"When we potted things, I said, 'Dad, do you remember the gardenia,' and he would think about it and he would smile," she said.

That experience was a revelation to Matoba, and it sparked an interest in the restorative and therapeutic benefits of gardening.

Therapeutic horticulture is a burgeoning field that's bringing together landscape architects, hospital administrators and researchers to find new ways to design restorative garden spaces.

"It's an old field of study that's been long forgotten, and it seems to be enjoying a resurgence," said Mark Epstein, a Seattle area landscape architect.

"We had a trend where technology ruled, and we had a lot of people turn their back on nature to get more efficient and more germ-free facilities," he said. "Now people are recognizing the benefit of getting people outside and in contact with nature."

Epstein is co-chairman of the therapeutic garden design group, part of the American Landscape Architects Society. The growing interest in the field is reflected in the membership of the design group, which has gone from 34 in 1999 to 174 today, a fivefold increase.

Various studies have shown the benefits of gardens, natural views and the dirty work of gardening itself.

A landmark study was published in the journal Science in 1984. Texas A&M researcher Roger Ulrich examined the medical records of 46 patients who had each undergone the same common type of gall bladder surgery at a suburban Pennsylvania hospital over a 10-year period. Half the patients had rooms with windows overlooking a small stand of deciduous trees, and half had rooms with windows facing a brown brick wall.

What Ulrich found was that the patients with the view of the trees left the hospital more quickly after surgery, received fewer negative evaluations from nurses and required fewer painkillers than the patients looking at a brick wall.

More recent studies have confirmed that a natural view or time in a garden can do wonders for mental and physical health.

In another study, Ulrich used a blood pressure cuff and pictures of urban and natural scenes to measure the stress levels of a group of college students who were taking exams. He found their blood pressure went down when they looked at the scenes of nature, and it went higher when they were shown a view of a cityscape.

A study in Japan found people live longer in urban settings when they're around trees and natural areas, said Jack Carman, another leader of the therapeutic garden design group. A study in Canada found that women who suffered heart attacks recovered quicker with more exposure to sunlight.

"It's proving what we've known all along: That access to nature is good for you," he said.

Digging around in the garden is one of the best things women can do to prevent osteoporosis, a crippling bone disease, according to a study conducted by University of Arkansas researcher Lori Turner.

She examined health records of women 50 and older, and she looked at how often they engaged in different physical activities and compared each activity to bone mass. Only two activities - yard work and weight training - helped women maintain healthy bone mass.

Along with the physical exertion, the fact that gardeners spend time outdoors exposing themselves to sunlight, can help boost their Vitamin D production, which helps the body absorb calcium, she said.

These lessons haven't been lost on PeaceHealth officials, as they make plans to build a new hospital on a 160-acre wooded site along the McKenzie River. They have hired a Portland landscape architecture firm to create "a healing environment."

Melinda Graham, the project manager for Murase Associates, already has big plans for fulfilling PeaceHealth's desire to create a hospital that combines cutting edge technology with "a holistic environment of wellness."

Among the elements planned for the new hospital:

Four interior courtyards with lush plants and low stone walls to create an intimate, contemplative environment.

A rooftop garden terrace.

A pediatrics play porch with rubberized flooring that will be a place where families with children - both patients and visitors - can go to "blow off steam."

A sunken water garden at the hospital's entrance that will set the healing tone of the facility and provide a contemplative garden for patients, family members and staff.

Eco-roofs, which will use small, succulent plants to capture some of the rain before it runs off into the stormwater system.

"There's a lot of research on the general health benefits of being able to view plant materials out of a window," Graham said. "The difference here is, it's done on a much grander scale and with much greater emphasis on the natural landscape."

At the other end of the spectrum is Maggie Matoba, who has dedicated her life to spreading the gospel of the healing garden, one plot at a time.

Inspired by the experience with her father, Matoba went on to become a master gardener, and then completed a horticultural therapy certification program at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland.

In May 2002, she founded Healing Harvest, a small nonprofit group dedicated to getting the word out about therapeutic horticulture.

Today she's helped create or restore five gardens at social service agencies and programs in the Eugene-Springfield area. Her first project was at Looking Glass Evaluation & Treatment Center, a program that provides transitional housing for girls in trouble. She's seen how gardening can have a powerful effect on young girls who come from broken homes.

"When they have something they can take care of from start to finish, their self esteem goes way up," she said. "It's metaphorical in a way because you're nurturing something and bringing it to life."

Tim Christie can be reached at 338-2572 or tchristie@ guardnet.com.

GARDENING CONTACTS

The Oregon chapter of American Society of Landscape Architects: www.aslaoregon.org.

Healing Harvest, a small Eugene nonprofit headed by Maggie Matoba:

www.healingharvest.org. Matoba also can be reached at [e-mail] or 915-0599.

The American Horticultural Therapy Association: www.ahta.org