The Healing Garden

Making the Community a Little Brighter  

Community Garden

Recovery is a process. Changes are being made from the inside out. There are many challenges along the way: addressing relationships, finding jobs, learning social skills, and returning to plans for education and future planning. But there are also challenges for learning how to take care of basic essential needs.
Hygiene. Healthy Eating. Exercise. Spirituality and Mental Healthcare.




This summer, clients in our adult program in Kirksville were able to learn new ways to fill these needs by having something external to care for, a community garden.

Clients were able to add a few personal touches from scrap materials

After seeking donations from several organizations in the area, we were finding quite a challenge to start a garden with such minimal resources, and no one willing to help donate to the cause! However, that did not stop us! Our ART-C coordinators and staff put our brains together to plan out a garden area that would be large enough to grow both annual and perennial plants, as well as display inspirational artwork by our clients. We sketched out, brainstormed, researched and reached out to experts who were able to help us with soil terracing and eventually our garden was built and ready to plant!

Our clients were able to learn about inexpensive plants they can cultivate to help with ailments such as sour stomachs and various aches and pains, and grew herbs to help alleviate these symptoms. They also learned how to make herb infused waters which they loved!

In the years to come, we hope to expand the garden, adding new things and hopefully more self-sustaining plants which will flower and produce year after year.

This project is a reminder that we are never done growing, and that we need to continue to nurture and care for ourselves in order to recover.