This episode features the University of Florida Therapeutic Horticulture program based in Wilmot Gardens on the UF campus. Therapeutic horticulture is a professionally facilitated treatment intervention that uses plant and nature-based activities to work towards the psychological, physical, cognitive, social, spiritual and vocational goals of its participants. The benefits include physical activity, relaxation and enjoyment, skill development, creative expression, sensory stimulation, intellectual, cognitive, and personal growth, social interaction, a sense of productivity and self-satisfaction, a spiritual connection with life and improved mental health and well-being. Therapeutic horticulture is a low-cost, effective, and versatile modality that enables both individuals and groups to attain personal.
Therapeutic Horticulture Director Leah Diehl runs the client-centered, facilitated practice using plants and gardening activities to improve a person’s psychological, physical, cognitive, and social well-being. The program is located in Wilmot Gardens at 2023 Mowry Road in Gainesville.
UF Therapeutic Horticulture
2023 Mowry Road
Gainesville
Host (Sue Wagner): Welcome to Tell Me About It. I'm Sue Wagner, and today I have Leah Diehl, and she is the director of therapeutic horticulture at the University of Florida. She's also a lecturer in Horticulture Sciences, and she's located at Wilmot Gardens, which people may be familiar with. They have a wonderful sale that has some incredible plants. But what exactly is therapeutic horticulture?
Guest (Leah Diehl): Well, that is a great question, and the way I usually describe it is that it is a therapeutic modality that uses horticulture. So plant based, nature based activities, to put it very simply, to increase quality of life. So we could be working with a group of people where we're really thinking about their physical function, or maybe cognitive function or even mental health function. So depending on the group that you're working with, you can go in a lot of different ways.
Wagner: Wow. That's amazing. And you've been doing this for quite a long time, I believe.
Diehl: I actually started in my first horticultural therapy program, I think it was 1993, in Chicago. So it has been a long time.
Wagner: So, do you have a large staff in therapeutic horticulture?
Diehl: No. Not really. Actually, for a long time here at UF, I was doing it by myself, but we had developed a program for students here at UF with stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. We had some really good outcomes with that. So former President Sasse actually gave us some strategic funding to expand that program. And with that came a position. So I now do have a full time staff member that helps me. And that's been amazing. So we could expand what we do.
Wagner: So what kind of programs do you offer? Do you teach them how to grow plants, how to plant them, how to, you know, whatever it might be, grow seeds from seeds or grow from plants?
Diehl: It's a little bit of all of those things. And again, it depends on the group that we're working with. So one of our major groups this semester are the students that I mentioned with stress, anxiety, loneliness, depression. But we also work with a group of young adults with developmental disabilities. And in that group we are thinking about… These folks probably won't have independent employment. They're probably not capable of that. But we can teach them through horticulture activities and horticulture skills, things like problem solving and teamwork, and better communication to help them do better in other parts of their life as well. We've also worked with people with Parkinson's disease or recovering from stroke, so we're using those horticulture activities as a way to emphasize eye-hand coordination, gross fine motor skills, even just things like mild exercise, you know, getting around those kinds of things. And also then with both of those diseases come cognitive issues as well. So what can we do to be thinking about processing and regaining some different kinds of cognitive skills as well?
Wagner: Do you help cancer patients or people going through long-term treatment as well?
Diehl: We have. We don't currently have a cancer group, but we've had several. And actually one of them was a research project. And with those groups, we're really concentrating on support, opportunities for creative expression, ways to just kind of work through that. So it's a little bit more in the mental health side of things. But yeah, those have been really wonderful programs.
Wagner: So do you have partners at UF Health?
Diehl: We do. Yeah, we've worked with several different departments over there. We actually did an exciting study on low back pain with the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department and found some really great results from that. And we're hoping to find some funding to expand that program.
Wagner: So planting plants can help with low back pain?
Diehl: It can because it can help with flexibility. And of course it needs to be done in the correct way. The bending and all that sort of thing. You have to make sure that you're not doing it in an unsafe way. But yeah, we actually found in a one-hour session that the patients had increased spine flexion and increased spine rotation to the left. I believe it was. And also less anxiety about their pain, which was really exciting.
Wagner: Wow. So, how many people do you serve I guess per semester?
Diehl: It really depends. Right now, this semester, we have four different UF student groups that I mentioned. Students that are struggling with mental health issues, and we have about 60 students in that program. Actually I take that back. It's close to 80 because it's about 20 per group. The developmental disability group we have is about eight. And so it just really depends on the population and what our emphasis is.
Wagner: That's interesting. So, when you're talking about, you know, all these different possibilities, like maybe occupational therapy, they could put planting and cultivating into their curriculum as well.
Diehl: Absolutely. We also have a certificate in horticultural therapy that I teach here at UF. And so many of the students that are entering that certificate are professionals. They might be in occupational therapy. They might be in behavioral health. They might be in rehabilitation therapy or even just horticulture. And so they are often looking for another big tool to add to their toolbox. And so that they can actually learn how to incorporate the horticulture component into some of the types of therapies that they are already doing.
Wagner: Is this unique to the University of Florida?
Diehl: There are other programs in the United States that offer education and horticultural therapy, but there's only about eight of them. And I will say that we are the only one that really is able to combine the education with the clinical practice that we're doing on site, and also the research component that we're doing that's really important. So and our program is online and asynchronous, so anybody in the world can take it, which is exciting.
Wagner: Wow. So have you had any awards or recognitions from the program?
Diehl: We have received some awards for some research. We actually did get the champions for change award this past year for our student program in therapeutic horticulture. We've gotten a couple of awards for some research projects that we've done. So yeah, it's been exciting. We've grown a lot over the last four or five years.
Wagner: So when you get the certificate, you can go off in a career anywhere in the country, I would say.
Diehl: Yeah.
Wagner: Or the world, I guess.
Diehl: Or the world. Absolutely. I mean, I do have students from all over the world. And I think one of the things I tell all my students is that horticultural therapy is still young enough in recognition that you have to have a pretty entrepreneurial spirit, because you may have to go knock on a door of an assisted living facility and say, hey, I've got this plan for a program. It's going to really benefit your residents. Let me tell you about it. So I think that's changing. We're seeing a lot of change in Florida, for sure, in terms of people understanding the value of nature in our lives. I think that's…
Wagner: The calming aspect, right?
Diehl: Absolutely. And I do think that that was maybe one of the silver linings of Covid is people understood that importance of being able to get outdoors. But it's I think Florida is going to be it's definitely an up and coming state in terms of the opportunities for people in this area.
Wagner: So have you worked with assisted living homes already?
Diehl: I have not. Well, that's actually not true. We've done some workshops out at Oak Hammock or The Village, that sort of thing, but we don't have any regular programming with them right now. There are some of my students that have done that and have very regular programming and other other areas. So that's a great population for this kind of work.
Wagner: So if people want to find out more about what the program has to offer, the different classes that you have, where would that be located?
Diehl: So if they're interested in the certificate program, where they're actually getting training in horticultural therapy, they can take a look at our website. If you just googled horticultural therapy at UF, the certificate website will pop up. If you are interested in finding out more about the types of programming we actually do ourselves on campus here, take a look at the Wilmot Gardens at UF website. There's a lot of information on the therapeutic horticulture program there.
Wagner: So you're saying horticulture, but I know at one point it was environmental horticulture.
Diehl: Yes.
Wagner: What's the difference there?
Diehl: That's a great question. So when I first came on as a faculty member in 2018, I was hired into the environmental horticulture department that has recently dissolved. So it no longer is at UF. And the faculty members in that program, many of them have gone to horticultural sciences, which is now what I'm a faculty member in, and others have gone to soil science or turf science, that sort of thing. But so yes, that's kind of what's happened recently.
Wagner: So what is your degree in that you have?
Diehl: I have a bachelor's degree in art history and in architecture, and then my master's degree is in landscape architecture. So I sort of fell into this profession. I've always been very interested in healing gardens and the benefits that gardens can have on our lives. And that's just sort of naturally rolled into horticultural therapy, I guess you could say.
Wagner: That's great. Well, we're going to come back in a few minutes, and we're going to talk about some of the research projects you have, and how about some success stories? Because I'm sure there must be some people that this program has really touched their lives and made a big difference, not only for them, but probably for their families who might have been frustrated because they couldn't get through to them because, I mean, I love gardening, I love plants, and I know in the spring it's just the happiest time in the world for me.
Diehl: So absolutely. That's great.
Wagner: So we'll be back in just a moment.
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Wagner: Welcome back to Tell Me About It on WUFT 89.1 and 90.1. I'm Sue Wagner here today. We’re here with Leah Diehl, and she is the director of therapeutic horticulture, and she's also a lecturer in horticulture sciences. And these programs are here at the University of Florida. She's been here for quite a while, and she's developed an incredible, um, different kinds of classes and programs that you can actually get a certificate, which is pretty cool. So tell us a little bit about what research projects you have and also success stories.
Diehl: Okay. I'd love to do that. Well, I did mention the study that we did on low back pain, which was really successful. It was just a single pilot study which we hope to expand. One of the ones I'm really proud of is a project, a study that's ongoing. What the study was about was looking to see whether therapeutic horticulture could have a positive effect on stress, anxiety, belongingness, general resilience, and academic resilience for UF students that participated in the program. This program is a semester-long program. They come once a week. They stay with us for an hour and a half. They learn how to grow plants. They get to take lots of plants home. They do a lot of different kinds of therapeutic horticulture activities, which are really combining horticultural activities with wellness strategies. We also have a counselor that comes from this counseling and wellness center every week to teach a new wellness strategy. So we're trying to build community. We're trying to increase coping strategies for these students. And we have found that for students that have participated in eight sessions over the course of a semester, they have statistically significant reductions in stress and anxiety and increases in general resilience, belongingness, and in academic resilience. And the Academic Resilience Scale has three subscales. One is perseverance, help seeking behavior, and the third is ability to manage negative affect. And we saw positive outcomes across all of those subscales.
Wagner: Wow. It's interesting. And you said that it kind of not as just college students. You've seen grade school students as well going through these crazy times I guess after Covid.
Diehl: Yep. And if you look back at the research, you can see that the rates of stress and anxiety and depression and distress have really been increasing. And, you know, our study is on college students, but having had children not that long ago in middle school and high school, I could definitely see it there as well. So this is an exciting program, and it's an alternative to a, you know, maybe some traditional treatments, therapy treatments. And it's a little bit more accessible for people. You know, there's a lot of students that just aren't comfortable walking into the CWC and saying, I need help, but this is maybe a bridge between those two things.
Wagner: Do you ever work with local farms in the community?
Diehl: We haven't really, and I think that would be a great outreach. You know, whether it was Field and Fork here at UF or some other local small farms, we are thinking about ways that once the student has been through our program, how can we keep them connected to that horticulture world? Because we know it's been a good one for them. So I think those partnerships can be really important for the future.
Wagner: Do you ever train any caregivers or professional medical staff to kind of incorporate this into their patient’s care?
Diehl: Well, we do actually have an elective therapeutic horticulture rotation for fourth-year medical students really right here at UF. So they come to us for two weeks and they participate in all the work that we do. And so it's been really a great way for them to see patients from a different angle and maybe think about, you know, communication skills or understanding different parts of that patient beyond their disease. So that's been really great. And we've gotten a lot of great ideas from the med students as well. That's been a really wonderful partnership. We definitely when we do a research project or some kind of a program in collaboration with one of the medical departments on campus, they'll give us a lot of support, or they maybe will do some training with them so that we can really make sure that we're doing the best we can for that patient population.
Wagner: What would you say is one of your most successful outcomes?
Diehl: There's probably a lot of them.
Wagner: I realize that because you're so good at this.
Diehl: Oh, that's a great question. I would say I can think of one in at least each category of groups that we've worked with. But I would say that one of the things I love us to think about is we did have a job skills program for young adults with autism. It was before Covid and they would come and we would teach them job skills with the hopes that they would find employment, whether it was part time or full time. So they went through all sorts of job training, but then we used the greenhouse and the therapeutic horticulture program as a place to practice those skills. So maybe in the classroom they learned about teamwork and then they would practice that skill in the greenhouse. They didn't have to be going for a horticulture job, but because we can practice lots of those skills. But it turned out that those that were interested in horticulture, we had a retired professor here, Charlie Guy, who tutored them to get their FNGLA certification, the Florida Nursery and Landscape Growers Association, and six of them passed that certification exam, which was really exciting. FNGLA put on a great, uh, you know, graduation sort of thing for us. And several of them, I have to say, I haven't been in touch with them the last six months about. But many of them got jobs in the community in a horticulture area.
Wagner: Wow. And you do some plant sales periodically?
Diehl: We do twice a year. Our plant sale for the spring is April 17th and 18th. It's a Friday and Saturday, and we always do one in the fall as well. And that's a great way to showcase what we're doing. You know, always need a little bit of money to start a new program. So that helps support those as well. And of course, support the gardens, which are such a beautiful asset for the campus.
Wagner: Do you demonstrate some of the things that you teach as well?
Diehl: Not so much at the plant sales because they're so busy. There's not really any space to do that sort of thing. But we do. We have a lot of workshops around people ask us to come do a workshop for a department or a staff retreat or things like that. Yes. So people could always reach out and ask if they would like to do just a one-day workshop or a one-hour workshop.
Wagner: We might want might be interested in that. Here though, we have a lot of plant people as well. That's kind of fun. So and you're also going to be the beneficiary of the annual Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Flavors of Florida event, which kind of showcases farmers and crops and research throughout the state of Florida. And this time, they always have a beneficiary. And I think you lucked out to be the one.
Diehl: We are so excited about that. And I mean so honored and so excited to benefit from this, but also to help more people know about what we're doing, whether it might help somebody they know or it might help them themselves in some way. So we're really excited about that.
Wagner: Wow. So that is going to be coming up. But throughout the year you just continue going on with various programs.
Diehl: We do and we try to do a lot of outreach. We're at a lot of events on campus. The Plant Science program has festivals both fall and spring. And we do a fair amount of work with UF Health in different ways and are always looking for more projects and more research projects, because I do think it's really important for people to understand that this isn't just this new age concept, that we really are seeing a difference. You know, we can show positive outcomes, quantitative outcomes, which is exciting.
Wagner: Yeah. And it's calming, like you said. And so many people are facing anxiety or whatever these days. It's gotten even crazier. So it's a nice thing to be able to escape to.
Diehl: Yes for sure.
Wagner: Neat. So how many students do you have right now?
Diehl: Students that are coming to us for therapeutic horticulture is about 80. But I also have we just started a new cohort of students in our certificate program and that's about 25 have started.
Wagner: How long does that take to get the certificate?
Diehl: It takes about a year and a half to two years. You take one course at a time and it's a four-course; it's a 12-credit-hour certificate. So.
Wagner: So you've had pretty many people go through already.
Diehl: We have. We're close to 250 students that have entered the program. And many of those have gone on. Once they've finished, they've gone on to get their professional registration as a horticultural therapist through the American Horticultural Therapy Association. So the word is spreading.
Wagner: There you go. So once again, where are you located?
Diehl: We are. So we're housed in the beautiful glass conservatory greenhouse in the southwest corner of Wilmot Gardens. We're right on the corner of Mowry Road and Gale Lemerand Drive.
Wagner: And you're open throughout the day?
Diehl: We are. We're open to the public. People can come visit. We do. If we have a session going on. We close it for that session. But the gardens are free. They're open to the public. So is the greenhouse.
Wagner: And there's more information available online?
Diehl: Absolutely. Tons.
Wagner: Leah Diehl, thank you for coming in. This is really exciting and I'm going to check with our staff. I think one of those workshops would be very valuable.
Diehl: We'd love that.
Wagner: Thank you.
Diehl: Thank you.
Wagner: That was UF Therapeutic Horticulture Director Leah Diehl on today's edition of Tell Me About It. To listen to previous episodes of the show, go online at WUFT dot org slash tell me about it or on the WUFT media app. I'm Sue Wagner on Tell Me About It on WUFT.
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