Thanks very much to Amanda and Susan for these insights into the exciting and life-giving work being done at the Bickle Centre, which is few doors up the street from our pollinator garden and part of the University Health Network, who own our property and gave their support to the Springhurst & Close Pollinator Corridor. We hope to be working more with them in the future!
Hello neighbors!
We just wanted to share our garden project with you, like-minded gardeners! Have you ever walked through the Toronto Rehab grounds between Close Ave and Dunn Ave, noticed the raised planters, and wondered what this garden was and who it was for?
We started our garden project in 2016, thanks to a grant from the TD Friends of the Environment fund. Nicknamed “GROW: Garden Rehab on Wheels”, this garden is for our 200+ rehab and complex continuing care patients to enjoy. Our patients are with us for weeks to months to years, and all have significant medical challenges. The majority of our patients are wheelchair users, so we chose raised planters with sloped sides to allow easy access. Our patients are truly at the heart of this garden, and we encourage their involvement from planning to planting to harvesting. Our creative occupational and physical therapists always find creative ways to use the garden as a tool for therapy (need to practice reaching? reaching for a ripe tomato is much more meaningful than for a prop in a therapy gym to someone who has loved gardening their whole life!) Even just a stroll through the garden with a loved one has a therapeutic benefit, sparking conversation or just igniting memories with smells and colours.
The garden of course has benefits to our staff as well. Staff volunteers from clinical to admin to support roles alike generously donate their time to tend to the day to day maintenance of the garden, including watering, weeding and harvesting. We also reap the benefits, with 1-2 annual salad potlucks, where the garden supplies the greens and we bring the toppings and good company! Healthcare can be an emotionally heavy working environment, so the garden provides a peaceful escape for staff as well.
We also have learned a lot about the environment together. At inception, we had educational sessions from Greenest City to help get us started, and planted a pollinator garden in the centre of the garden. The bee balm is a sight to be seen in July, buzzing with activity, doing exactly as it promised!
Now in our eighth season, the garden has multiple happy memories: Urban Agriculture Day celebrations, corn roast fundraiser parties, patient garden groups, homemade garden-fresh baked goods shared amongst staff, and countless lunch breaks spent just checking what’s growing: this garden is very special to our community.
We invite you to walk through sometime, and see what’s GROWing!
Your neighbors,
Amanda Beales, Registered Dietitian & Interprofessional Educator
Amanda.beales@uhn.ca
Susan Currie, Occupational Therapist
Susan.currie@uhn.ca
Garden Coordinators for Toronto Rehab, Bickle Centre