Therapeutic gardens are intentionally designed to promote healing, foster sensory engagement, and strengthen connections to nature while accommodating the diverse needs of participants. Whether for long-term care facilities, schools, or hospice environments, these gardens provide meaningful spaces for relaxation, reflection, and activity.
Drawing from the expertise of Therapeutic Landscape Designer Lynn Leach from Bird’s Foot Design Studio and insights from Wendy Battaglia and Rachel Cochran of Trellis, as well as our Intro to Therapeutic Horticulture and Advanced Skills in Therapeutic Horticulture courses, this 7-step guide will help you plan and design a garden that fosters well-being for all users.
Note: The design and success of a therapeutic garden depend significantly on its context, including the setting, population served, and specific goals. What is therapeutic and safe for one group may not be for another, underscoring the importance of assessing risk and tailoring the design to meet the unique needs of participants. Therapeutic gardens can take many forms—from a few planters on a patio to expansive yard spaces—each offering its own potential for healing and engagement.
Table of Contents
Before we dive into the guide, let’s hear from Therapeutic Landscape Designer Lynn Leach. This is just a glimpse of one of the guest speaker lessons featured in our Intro to Therapeutic Horticulture Course.
Step 1: Assess the Site and Define the Purpose
Start by evaluating the garden’s location and purpose. Lynn Leach advises, “Every site has its challenges, whether it’s limited space, water issues, or traffic noise. Your job is to creatively solve these while creating beauty and functionality.”
However, a garden’s success is not just about overcoming site challenges; it’s also about understanding the needs and desires of the people who will use it. Bringing the community into the design process ensures the garden resonates deeply with its users and serves their specific needs.
Key considerations include:
- Site Conditions: Assess slope, sunlight, water access, and existing structures to determine the garden’s physical constraints and opportunities.
- User Needs: Will the garden serve individuals with mobility challenges, dementia, or sensory impairments? Identify the unique requirements of your users.
- Purpose: Define the garden’s primary function—relaxation, social interaction, active gardening, or a mix of these elements. This will guide your design decisions.
- Community Input: Research with potential users and stakeholders to shape the garden’s purpose.
- Ask questions like:
- What activities would you enjoy in this space?
- Are there specific plants or garden features that hold personal significance
- Would you prefer spaces for quiet reflection, social interaction, or both?
Lynn Leach emphasizes, “Speaking to people and finding out what’s important to them ensures the space reflects their needs and values. This engagement creates a sense of ownership and makes the garden more meaningful.”
Tip for Engagement: Host a community meeting, engage in conversations about this during regular sessions and/or distribute surveys to gather ideas and feedback from various stakeholders. This and client-centred approach not only informs the design but also builds excitement and engagement among participants.

Trellis Horticultural Therapy Alliance is offering expanded programming for aspiring local gardeners living with disabilities. (Courtesy of Rachel Cochran)
Step 2: Incorporate Universal Design for Accessibility
Universal design involves creating environments that are accessible and usable by people of all abilities and ages, without the need for adaptation. In a therapeutic garden, this means designing spaces that accommodate a wide range of users, including those with disabilities, older adults, children, and people without disabilities, ensuring everyone can engage with nature. Universal design aims to make your therapeutic garden is inclusive and welcoming to everyone. From raised beds to ergonomic tools, every element should prioritize accessibility. Key features to consider in your design include:
- Accessible Pathways: Wide, smooth, and slip-resistant paths with gentle slopes and ample clearance for wheelchairs and walkers. Rachel Cochran, emphasizes the need to consider mobility device dimensions in garden design. “If you’re in a power chair, your turning radius is huge, and every power chair is a different size. You need to think about how much space is required for someone to move comfortably in the garden.”
- Interactive Raised Beds: Planters at various heights ensure users with mobility challenges can engage with the garden comfortably. With a limited budget, pots and containers that can be easily moved around and lifted up on tables or counters can be a helpful option.
- Ergonomic Tools: Adaptive tools with extendable handles or lightweight designs can not only reduce physical strain but also enhance accessibility and ease of use.
Lynn Leach emphasizes, “Inclusivity is key. Whether it’s raised planters or adaptive tools, the garden must allow everyone to feel like they are part of the experience.” These features create a garden that supports both active and passive engagement, enhancing usability for people of all abilities.
Step 3: Engage the Senses
Sensory stimulation lies at the heart of therapeutic garden design, providing participants with a deep and year-round connection to nature. Thoughtful planning ensures that sensory elements are engaging in every season, maximizing the garden’s therapeutic potential. It is important to plant sensory plants at varying heights to allow garden users to engage with and enjoy them. Key strategies include:
- Smell: Include aromatic plants such as lavender, chamomile, and mint, which have calming effects and evoke nostalgic memories. Consider adding seasonal fragrant options like lilacs in spring and pine or rosemary in winter.
- Touch: Use tactile plants like lamb’s ear, moss, or bunny tails to encourage exploration. In cooler months, dried seed pods or soft evergreen foliage can provide tactile interest.
- Sound: Add water features, rustling grasses, or bird feeders to create soothing auditory experiences year-round. Wind chimes and dried ornamental grasses can enhance soundscapes during winter months.
- Taste: Plant population-appropriate edible species such as cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and herbs to encourage interactive engagement. Incorporate seasonal edibles like cucumbers in summer or kale and root vegetables for fall harvesting.
- Sight: Incorporate vibrant colors and unique shapes, like rainbow chard or cobra lilies, to inspire curiosity and joy. Use seasonal blooms like tulips and daffodils in spring, bold zinnias in summer, and colorful foliage in fall.
Lynn Leach emphasizes the importance of designing for all seasons: “Therapeutic gardens should provide beauty and meaning in every season, whether it’s seeing birds come to a feeder or feeling the breeze under the shade of a tree.”
Seasonal Tip: When planning for all seasons, include evergreens, dried flowers, and plants with persistent berries for winter, while using annuals and perennials for spring and summer bursts of color. This ensures the garden remains dynamic and inviting year-round.
If you want to dive deeper, our Intro to Therapeutic Horticulture Course includes an entire module on sensory plants. Sign up below to watch this module for free and start designing your therapeutic garden today!
Step 4: Choose Native and Seasonal Plants
Native and seasonal plants are favourable in therapeutic gardens, supporting sustainability, biodiversity, and year-round interest. Native species thrive in local climates, requiring less maintenance and creating a sense of connection to the environment. Seasonal plants, on the other hand, keep the garden engaging by offering new colors, textures, and blooms as the year progresses. Additionally, they provide vital resources for pollinators during fall and winter months, ensuring food and habitat when other options are scarce.
Lynn Leach highlights the emotional resonance of plants, saying, “Certain plants, like lilacs, evoke powerful memories and connect people to their past. It’s this emotional connection that makes a therapeutic garden so special.” Incorporating plants with strong cultural or nostalgic significance can make the garden deeply meaningful for its users.
Additional Considerations:
- Pollinator-Friendly Plants: Add species like butterfly milkweed, lavender, and native wildflowers to attract bees and butterflies. These not only enhance sensory appeal but also contribute to local ecosystems.
- Winter Interest: Choose plants like evergreens, ornamental grasses, and shrubs with berries or winter blooming plants such such as witch Hazel, hellebore and Heather to ensure the garden remains engaging during colder months.
- Plant Diversity: Include a mix of flowers, shrubs, and trees to create layers of interest and provide varying sensory experiences.
Pro Tip: Create a seasonal planting guide to help plan blooms and activities throughout the year. Our Advanced Skills in Therapeutic Horticulture Course offers information on selecting native and seasonal plants.

Step 5: Prioritize Safety and Maintenance
Safety is a cornerstone of therapeutic garden design, particularly when working with vulnerable populations such as individuals with mobility challenges, dementia, or allergies. Lynn Leach advises, “Choosing plants that are safe to use in programs is critical—safe to collect, safe for people to touch, and sometimes even safe to taste.”
Key Safety Measures:
- Avoid Toxic, Allergenic and Other Hazardous Plants: Carefully research plant selections to prevent exposure to harmful species. Common examples to avoid include foxglove, oleander, and plants with sap that can irritate the skin. When designing a therapeutic garden, it’s essential to assess the risks of plant selections for your specific population and implement appropriate safety measures. For more guidance, check out our Guide to Hazardous Plants in Therapeutic Settings.
- Smooth, Hazard-Free Pathways: Ensure pathways are non-slip and free from obstacles. Wide paths with gentle slopes provide accessibility for wheelchairs and walkers.
- Garden Signage: Use clear labels and safety notices to guide users in interacting safely with the plants and features.
Maintenance Best Practices:
- Regularly prune, weed, and irrigate to keep the garden functional and inviting.
- Dividing plants is another important maintenance task in the garden. It can also be a great activity to do with participants, as the divided plants can be used to expand other growing areas or even potted up and sold at a plant sale fundraiser.
- Create a maintenance schedule to address seasonal needs, like winterizing garden features or replacing worn components.
- Train staff and volunteers on garden upkeep to ensure consistent care.

Therapeutic Gardens designed by Bird’s Foot Design Studio (Courtesy of Lynn Leach).
Step 6: Space for Reflection and Connection
Therapeutic gardens should balance quiet reflection with opportunities for social interaction. As Lynn Leach notes, “A therapeutic garden can provide calm or stimulation, depending on the individual. It’s about designing spaces for both reflection and connection.”
Speaking on their Ability Garden, Rachel Cochran shared their innovative use of space: “Our restoration circle, with its shaded seating and tranquil setting, became a favorite spot for participants to sit and connect.”
Key Features for Reflection:
- Quiet Nooks: Create tranquil areas with shaded seating or meditative gardens. Water features, soft lighting, and muted colors can enhance the sense of peace.
- Mindful Pathways: Include winding paths that encourage slow journeys and moments of contemplation.
- Signage: Incorporate garden activity signs, like those designed by Shelagh Smith that we use at Root in Nature, to promote both active and passive engagement, providing guidance and inspiration for exploration.
Key Features for Social Interaction:
- Social Seating: Arrange benches and tables in conversational groupings to encourage interaction. Consider designs that accommodate group activities or family visits.
- Community Areas: Open spaces for shared activities, like gardening workshops or seasonal celebrations, foster connection and a sense of belonging.

Therapeutic Garden Signage (Courtesy of Katie McGillivray).
Step 7: Integrate Therapeutic Activities
A successful therapeutic garden is more than a passive space—it’s a hub for hands-on activities that engage participants and provide meaningful experiences. Lynn Leach emphasizes, “I always try to include things that can offset costs as you run programming, like a cutting garden or plants that a horticultural therapist can harvest to use in those programs.”
Ideas for Integration:
- Cutting Gardens: Include sections of the garden dedicated to flowers like calendula or sunflowers, which can be harvested for crafts or arrangements.
- Herb Patches: Plant culinary and medicinal herbs such as mint, basil, and lavender for tea-making, cooking, or aromatherapy activities.
- Seasonal Projects: Plan activities like planting bulbs in the fall, creating dried flower arrangements in winter, or making garden salads in summer.
Tip for Success: Align garden features with program goals to maximize the therapeutic impact. “Think about strategic planning,” Wendy Battaglia says. “We started small—just two beds—and expanded as we grew. Always have a master plan, even if funding only allows phased implementation.”
Develop a long-term plan for garden maintenance and ongoing engagement, focusing on sustainable practices, regular upkeep, and continuous community involvement to ensure the garden thrives over time.
Take the Next Step in Therapeutic Garden Design
Designing a therapeutic garden is a rewarding process that combines creativity, accessibility, and the healing power of nature. Want to dive deeper into the details?
- Sign up now to watch a free module on sensory plants from our Intro to Therapeutic Horticulture Course.
- Explore our courses for expert guidance on creating accessible, sustainable, and interactive therapeutic gardens.
- For exclusive expert insights, such as those from Designer Lynn Leach or Wendy Battaglia and Rachel Cochran of Trellis, consider joining the GrowTH Network, where you can access webinars, discussions, and practical resources for therapeutic horticulture.