Colleen Mastony
Amid overflowing pots of purple pansies and cheerful white English daisies, Alicia Green — sunglasses perched atop her head and a pair of gardening gloves tucked into a pocket of her jeans — stood before a group of military veterans and presented what she said could be a powerful tool to heal the wounds of war.
“This,” Green said, holding a small shovel in her hand, “is called a trowel.”
Fresh air and sunshine have for centuries been thought to be therapeutic. Now, a partnership between the Chicago Botanic Garden and Thresholds, a mental health services agency, is attempting to leverage the soothing power of nature to treat veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments.
On a recent spring morning, eight veterans, whose ages ranged from their 30s to their 60s, gathered in an open-air classroom at the botanic garden to watch a gardening demonstratio
n. Then they armed themselves with trowels and headed to a series of raised flower beds where, over the next several months, they will tend a section of garden and watch it grow.
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