Discover the Healing Power of Garden Therapy

Reconnect with nature and nurture your well-being.
At the Garden of Eden, we offer garden therapy (or horticulture therapy as it’s known overseas) as a unique, hands-on approach to supporting clients on their journey towards emotional and physical well-being.  Spending time outdoors in a garden setting exposes participants to fresh air, sunlight, plants, trees, birdsong, and maybe animals, all of which can have positive effects on their physical health, including improved sleep and increased vitamin D levels. This evidence-based therapeutic approach to wellness uses gardens, gardening and and other nature-based activities to support physical, emotional, and mental health. Whether you’re recovering from an illness or injury, managing stress, or searching for yourself, garden therapy offers a natural path towards healing and growth.

Gentle Movement, Lasting Benefits for All Ages

Garden therapy supports physical health through gentle activity. Garden tasks gently promote strength, coordination, and mobility, making garden therapy ideal for people in rehabilitation, older adults, and those with physical health challenges such as disabilities, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, frailty, and recovery from strokes, accidents or illness. Activities such as planting, potting, weeding, watering, and harvesting encourage gentle movement, and promote coordination, fine motor skills, and physical engagement—particularly beneficial for clients recovering from injury, living with chronic illness, or seeking a holistic approach to wellness. Time spent outdoors boosts mood and supports overall physical health through exposure to fresh air and natural light, and every activity is adapted to your comfort and ability level.

A Natural Path to Mental and Emotional Wellness

Engaging with plants can be deeply grounding. It provides more than just good food and visual beauty—it also promotes peace of mind. In our garden therapy sessions, clients experience the calming effects of nature while developing awareness, focus, and emotional regulation. Garden therapy helps reduce anxiety, ease depression, and lower stress levels through soothing, hands-on engagement with nature. It’s suitable for people with health challenges such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, PTSD, learning difficulties, autism, ADHD, social isolation, and stress. Caring for plants fosters mindfulness and a calm sense of accomplishment, making it a powerful tool for emotional resilience, self-confidence, and a renewed sense of purpose.

Grow in Connection and Confidence

Therapy doesn’t always happen in a chair or an office. In our garden sessions, clients often find it easier to talk, build trust, and connect—both with themselves and with others. Whether in private or small group settings, garden therapy brings people together, fostering a safe, supportive environment where personal growth, collaboration, and social connection can thrive naturally. Shared garden projects promote teamwork, communication, and social connection—especially important for those who may feel isolated. The garden becomes a space of growth, support, and shared purpose, enriching lives through both nature and community.

Depending on the client’s circumstances and needs a garden therapy session could include:

Sowing seeds
Potting up seedlings
Planting
Weeding
Pruning
Making compost
Mulching
Learning about plants – identification, uses, requirements, care, etc
Beekeeping
Feeding hens and collecting eggs
Milking a cow
Harvesting
Foraging
Making and sharing food
Making herbal medicines or crafts with the harvest
Sorting and labelling seeds and/or plants and/or tools
Sitting in the garden talking
Sitting in the garden just listening to the birds
Other activities appropriate for the client, the garden, and the season.

Garden therapy can take place in the client’s garden or ours, or maybe even in a public place like a park, as appropriate.

It is suitable for anyone with (or even without) any kind of health challenges – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual – although the Garden of Eden is currently not yet wheelchair accessible (we’re working on this…) Children and some people with particular health challenges would need their caregiver or support person with them.

Garden therapy sessions are $100 for one hour, or $160 for two (consecutive) hours, per person. This could also include guidance and help with the client’s own garden if appropriate.