Woodbine Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Alexandria, Virginia, has partnered with Eldergrow to launch its Therapeutic Horticulture Garden program, which brings nature indoors. The Seattle-based company provides mobile gardening programs that promote hands-on enjoyment and learning, including sensory gardens filled with colorful and fragrant plants and in-person enrichment classes. Eldergrow educators facilitate the bi-monthly classes on horticulture, culinary arts, and garden arts, and also help with garden maintenance.

The therapeutic horticulture program offers significant mental and physical health benefits for seniors, including reducing depression and improving balance. A study published in the International Journal of Environmental Health showed that planting and cultivating a garden can improve brain nerve growth factors related to memory and functioning in the hippocampus, which is critical for memory, and cortical regions of the brain. Woodbine Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center provides post-hospital care, short-term rehab, and long-term residential care, and has the state’s largest licensed skilled nursing capacity.

Read the full article on Patch.com.