Growing on the High Plains: Freedom to Grow

It’s mid-March, and our gardens will soon be front-and-center in the minds of us High Plains horticulturalist types. So today’s Growing on the High Plains will take a look at a program that gave me inspiration when I stumbled upon it in the Sunday paper. The GreenHouse, which was launched by The Horticultural Society of New York, in participation with the New York Department of Correction, is a two-acre plot on Rikers Island that was transformed into the nation’s first prison horticultural therapy program. Incarcerated inmates are encouraged to tend the space year-round, and the benefits to their mental health – as well as the prison, in general – have been striking. I’ve always believed that having the freedom to interact with the natural world can heal so much, so take this inspirational story with you as you go into your own gardens this Spring.