by: Lori Mossberg (with intro by Jackie Davis)
Today’s self-care tool is Gardening and we didn’t hesitate to reach out to our resident expert, Lori Mossberg, MHC’s GROW Program Coordinator to share her experience with us. GROW is a skills building and wellness program at MHC where we grow healthy food with our program participants across the state in gardens, greenhouses, and hydroponic gardens. With a passion for nature and gardening, Lori and her team are making an impact for our program participants and the community by utilizing this self-care tool.
Curious how gardening can benefit your mental health? According to happiness.com, gardening positively impacts your mental health in seven key ways: Stress Relief, Grounding and Strengthen Connections, Staying Present, Providing Purpose, Improving Brain Function, Staying in Shape, and Strengthening Your Immune System. It’s been suggested that even the dirt you get under your fingernails while gardening can reduce depression.
Keep reading to learn more about our GROW program and how Lori utilizes gardening for self-care for our program participants across the state.
What’s GROW?
GROW (Growing, Recovery, and Opportunities for Wellness) began as a vision for Mental Health Connecticut in 2017. Our program has “grown” and has developed into a year-round horticultural therapy program for any and all participants who would like to be part of growing, sharing, and taking part in healthy horticultural activities. In past years, we’ve had many of our participants from our sites engage in GROW nature-based activity groups for the fall and winter. We also have had a healthy meals program at one of our apartment housing sites in Waterbury. In that, we’ve helped to prepare and cook weekly healthy meals with participants while we conducted a nature-based GROW activity.
Since March 2020, safety, health, and well being has taken prevalent importance with COVID restrictions with all involved at MHC. In keeping everyone safe and healthy, instituting CDC guidelines and having little to no contact or engagement, our activities have continued to be created, but as nature-based activity kits. During the late fall and winter months, we created and sent over 40 kits per week to the MHC residential facilities. Past activities have included: making suet for birds, building bird feeders, painting vases, seeding in flowers and herbs, using recyclables for planting, growing succulents in terrariums, holiday swags, making coiled pots for air plants, creating seed art, and more. We miss the former group engagement of our participants and have hopes of getting together with them again!
Nature-based activity kits are just one segment of GROW. We grow vegetables and herbs out in our garden, greenhouses, and hydroponic room! Currently, the GROW program services five locations within our MHC communities: Bridgeport, Danbury, Stamford, Torrington and Waterbury. We are looking forward to adding services at our West Hartford facility this year as well. We have one greenhouse and a vegetable garden in Torrington at the Hayden Hill home, a greenhouse installed in late summer 2020 at Walton Place in Stamford, a hydroponic room and smaller outdoor garden in Danbury, and another greenhouse to be installed late spring of this year at the newly constructed Monarch apartments in Bridgeport. Last year we were able to grow and produce over $1,300.00 worth of vegetables. We picked and provided weekly portions for Hayden Hill and donated the majority of the vegetables and herbs to the Independence Center in Waterbury for their food delivery program. This year we are in hopes of fulfilling a larger range of produce and hope to increase production of vegetables and herbs with the new additions of greenhouses.
Since early Spring, we’ve have been working in the newly constructed GROW Room in the basement of the Independence Center in Waterbury. We’ve started a multitude of vegetable, herb and flower seeds in recyclable cartons under grow lights and then as the seedlings become larger, we’re transplanting them into recycled pots and trays. The plants are successively larger and stronger. As they’ve become large enough, these vegetable and flower plants are being brought to our greenhouse sites to continue to grow before being planted in the greenhouses as well as planted in our Torrington garden for the summer. In addition, this year we’re planting raspberries, grapes vines, and asparagus for future production.
GROW is also selling vegetable plants, strawberry baskets, and herbs at the Franklin St Market in Torrington. Look for us there!
We’re so proud and honored to be a part of Mental Health Connecticut. Gardening and group engagements are components of GROW that are harmonious, stimulating and fun! We at GROW love being part of a mental health community that encourages gardening and horticultural therapy. We appreciate teaching, growing, and sharing the gifts of nature!
Interested in gardening at home?
Check out Lori’s MHC@Home workshop from 2020 where she shows how you can plant seeds for your own home using recycled materials.
