Therapeutic garden designs in special needs facilities in Victoria, Australia

The purpose of the study is to discuss a number of garden designs in a variety of special needs settings, looking at how customer and client needs have been achieved and what lessons can be learnt to help develop design characteristics for similar settings in the future.
Therapeutic gardens are becoming increasingly popular, particularly in special needs settings such as disability centres, aged care, hospitals and rehabilitation centres.
Although therapeutic garden designs follow the same principles of general garden design, this paper seeks to illustrate those factors that are unique to a number of special needs groups.
Four different designs have been analysed for actual projects that have been recently completed.
Included are gardens in a geriatric ward of a major metropolitan hospital, a rehabilitation centre garden in suburban Melbourne, and aged care facility in country Victoria and a disability day care centre garden.
The paper lists features, plant selection and layout for each garden, as well as the unique client needs analysis and the reasons for the selection of the final design.

XXIX International Horticultural Congress on Horticulture: Sustaining Lives, Livelihoods and Landscapes (IHC2014): XII International People Plant Symposium: Horticulture and Human Communities

P.R. de la Motte

gardens, gardening, colour, sensory, healing

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2016.1121.8