A renowned writer attributes her health and longevity to gardening. A medicine woman finds remedies for her people in ‘nature’s pharmacy.’ A sculptor who has gardened for over 70 years gains inspiration. A controversial healing plant, in cookie form, is used as a natural sleeping pill.
Hospice patients use gardening as therapy, for the aging body. An engineer practices bonsai gardening to restore his mind. A 93 year-old retired nurse uses gardening as a quiet time to remember loved ones. A therapist creates a hospital garden that gives patients a place to relax and restore.
A restaurateur forages for wild mushrooms to use in his world-renowned eatery. Sisters-in-law bloggers locate wild plants for tea, and a nighttime tonic. An entrepreneur harvests seaweed for topical and edible uses. A west coast gardener rescues wild plants that create an oasis for local wildlife.
A group of community gardeners campaign to change city boulevard gardening laws. A radio host keeps a virtual community of gardeners together, over the airwaves. Recent immigrants and refugees seek engagement with others in their new community. An inner-city community garden on the prairies exists with the credo "help yourself."
A gardener uses raised garden beds so she can continue her hobby after hip surgery. Disabled gardeners use a variety of adaptive tools. A retiree downsizes when her husband moves to a care home. A Toronto landscape architect plans a low maintenance patio garden to suit his own aging lifestyle. A woodworker builds gardening tools for impaired gardeners.
Volunteers maintain 36 acres of gardens at the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of BC. Home gardeners exchange seeds that will grow successfully in their unique rainforest climate. An amateur beekeeper shares honey with his neighbours. A community garden grows produce for the local food bank on remediated land.
Gardening royalty and octogenarian Marjorie Harris leaves her own glorious garden for a new garden design client. Three generations of a family turn vegetable gardening into a business. An authentic Italian pizzeria uses produce from their own garden. Instructors at a horticultural college demonstrate the value of gardening as a profession.
Teenage students learn that gardening can teach them about life through an outdoor school garden program. A tour guide demonstrates his love of gardens by sharing his deep knowledge of plants. A joyful octogenarian explains the value of gardening as a key to a healthy mind. A summer plant sale raises funds to support the school garden.
A retired hospital administrator adapts his home garden in order to age in place. Dementia patients experience memory-triggering touches and smells in a tactile garden. A long-time professional gardener demonstrates his physical dexterity and knowledge of plants. An artist and her carpenter husband decorate birdhouses for their backyard oasis.
Live classical music brings calm to a Yo-Yo Ma inspired public garden. Monks at a remote monastery wander contemplatively in nature’s forest garden. Innovative tower gardens aid remote northern communities in growing their own food year-round.
Gardeners demonstrate how working with soil and plants can grow minds too. A poet is restoring her front yard to a Garry Oak meadow. A retired nurse is reflecting on the value of her garden at keeping her mind active. A long-time market gardener is inspiring a new generation of small plot food gardeners in a busy city
Unique gardens connect those who tend them to something deeper within. A human made floating island garden in a remote wilderness feeds its owners year round. A group of vigilant volunteers remove invasive species from a fragile natural area. A retiree cares for a delicate forested garden.
Gardens are used to maintain emotional balance. A writer advocates for ‘grief gardening’ to help people through loss. A 90-year old gardener continues to volunteer at the accessible garden she founded with her husband. Neighbourhood gardeners create humorous miniature gnome villages to bring a bit of joy to their street.
Gardeners connect their activism to others, through their grown food. An activist couple connects with people through a farmer’s market. A gardening instructor inspires others to grow food in their own yard, with an eye to changing the world for his young children.
With collective effort and encouragement, we connect to each other through gardening. A gardener manages a lavish public garden, and over 200 volunteers. A social enterprise enlists people’s unused fruit trees, to feed people in need. A civic initiative connects isolated seniors with plant seedlings.
A retired flight attendant grows tropicals at a lawn bowling club, amid the beauty of Vancouver’s skyline. A limit-pushing gardener brings the exotic plants together in one place, only to reconsider when an unusually frigid winter occurs. A collector of thousands of heritage plants stays busy in the garden all year long.
A journalist with a life-threatening illness creates a garden to help overcome it. A conservationist demonstrates how stamina gained in the garden helps her run marathons. A 90-year-old continues to do all of her own gardening. A jovial life-long gardener shares his garden’s abundance with friends and family.
An IT dad designs an innovative high-tech growing system, that helps provide for people in need. A pioneering garden advocate shows how front yard gardens lessen the environmental impact of a regular lawn. A volunteer learns patience, while restoring a nature sanctuary. A mother discusses the ecological balance of her family vegetable garden.
A master gardener and life-long learner inspires a younger generation with her latest children’s book about bees. A gardener tends native plants in a natural educational garden. A garden designer listens to what the garden teaches her.
A printmaker turns her lush garden into a living art gallery, where dancers, visual artists, and musicians all come together. A cosmopolitan artist combines floral imagery in playful and complex works, and finds inspiration growing in his back alley.