Christine Pollard - Horticultural Therapy News

Another year rolls by, another spring bringing a great hot summer that is now bringing an incredible harvest! Here at Home Farm we will be enjoying this winter a freezer full of chicken, pork and lamb, beans, broccoli, berries, apples and pesto. All winter we will be digging potatoes, leeks, parsnips, beets and onions and helping ourselves to a shelf full of dill cukes, dill beans, rhubarb jam and tomato sauce. Here I am in August looking forward to winter!

It has also been a year of Horticultural Therapy harvest. First of all, I would like to thank Meg Hansen for all her support on the Home Farm Horticultural Therapy (HF HT) Certificate . She was a great organizer and encouragement to me. Fortunately for Meg, she is now fully employed with an organization that will greatly benefit from her tremendous range of skills. So thanks Meg! Emma Rooney will be helping me out with the HH HT Certificate Alumni News and will be instructing a section of the HF HT Certificate at the Royal Botanical Gardens. Emma completed the Calgary Zoo HF HT Certificate and a Providence Farm internship. Now back in Ontario, she will be continuing her education in HT. Welcome Emma!

We harvested 11 graduates of the Home Farm HT Certificate in Calgary at the Zoo and Botanical Gardens in April of this year. New and very diverse HT programming as a result; Alberta Children’s Hospital, Ventures Society, Loughheed Heritage House and Gardens, Beverly Centre, Urban Ministries Centre Street Church, Calgary Zoo and Botanical Gardens. These 11 students are now going on to create the Alberta Chapter/Interest Group of the Canadian Horticultural Therapy Association and taking an active role in promoting HT in Alberta through various events.

They are also playing a significant role in the hosting of the CHTA Annual Conference at the Calgary Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Which reminds me to thank so very much Jane, Gillian and Olivia of the Calgary Zoo for such great support and that ‘let’s make it work’ attitude! Thank you to Karen Tewnion, a former HT student and her son, opened their home for a very comfortable stay during class time. The Home Farm Horticultural Therapy Certificate will be resuming in the fall of 2009 at the Calgary Zoo and Botanical Gardens. In the spring of 2009, I will be presenting a 4 day “What is Horticultural Therapy?” introduction course. Keep your eye on HT Education for dates. For more information www.calgaryzoo.org

We will be harvesting graduates from the Royal Botanical Gardens in September! Thanks to Nancy Lee-Colibaba also for that ‘let’s make it work’ attitude and her continued support of HT at the RBG! I would also have to thank Harry and Verna for another great billet. I always felt I was on holiday when going to Hamilton!

An official walk up of the graduates of the Vancouver Island University (formally Malaspina University College) Horticultural Therapy Diploma was celebrated in May. We will have 5 more graduates in May of 2010. The momentum is slow but there is momentum. I would like to congratulate the graduates for breaking new ground and paving a smoother way for future graduates!

The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific at the Glendale Gardens and Woodland in Victoria and OUR EcoVillage at Shawnigan Lake and Chetwynd will be hosting the 4 day “What is Horticultural Therapy?” workshop in October so look out for dates on the HT Education page. Chetwynd will also be hosting a 4 day “Developing Horticultural Therapy Programs for Health Communities” in September. Look for this date and contact information on the HT Education page.

Next year we will be harvesting graduates of the Home Farm Horticultural Therapy Certificate from the Assiniboine Conservatory in Winnipeg! There is a strong HT interest in Manitoba so I am excited that the Conservatory is looking for HT education to encourage this interest.

Coleen Rajotte of Vitality Gardening paid me a visit in July. Coleen is creating a gardening series for First Nations TV, APTN network out of Winnipeg. We filmed a segment at my office in downtown Duncan with other segments filmed with the Nanoose First Nations of Nanaimo and the Halalt First Nations of Chemainus. So look out for this segment in the fall on APTN! For more information www.watchvitality.com

Another great visit this summer was Larry and Ezra Lai from Hong Kong.  Larry is a colleague of Connie Fung,  and Vice President of the Hong Kong Association of Therapeutic Horticulture.   Connie is a former student of mine and the only HTR in Hong Kong and the creator of Hong Kong Horticultural Therapy Centre www.hkhtcentre.com 

We met at my office then on to tour Providence Farm, a lovely lunch in Duncan then up to the Nanaimo ferry back to Vancouver.  Thanks Larry for such a great visit and updating me on all the accomplishments in Hong Kong!

The Columbia Valley Botanical Gardens and Sustainable Living Centre sponsored and organized the Field of Chefs event in May this year. I was asked to speak about horticulture as a community development tool together with Ron Hamilton of Sunworks Farms, Certified Organic Producer in Alberta. The Columbia valley, the first valley the Pacific side of the Rocky Mountains, is experiencing what a lot of farming/ranching communities are experiencing.

The change in food production regulations and fuel costs are directly affecting food production in this country. The event was organized to explore the relationship between local food production and community development with an excellent choice of dishes created by the local high school culinary program with local produce. For more information contact www.conservancy.bc.ca/CVBG

I will be spending 2 more weeks in Chile this fall with Maria Arana at Herbarium www.herbarium.cl in Santiago, Chile.  And then onto visit Vanessa Frias of ANIA (Association for Children and their Environment) in Peru for 2 weeks to tour their projects.  I met Vanessa through the HT Certificate offered by Herbarium.  ANIA is now providing opportunities to children with disabilities.  Herbarium and ANIA are also partnering in a project called PILLPA.  This project involves 4 children’s gardens built on the Herbarium site for ongoing children’s horticultural therapy programming.  For more information contact ANIA www.mundodeania.org

Latin American Seminar on Horticultural Therapy
Monday, November 3 to Friday, November 14, 2008.