At the entrance of a drab, red-bricked building hidden in the woods, I push the buzzer on the intercom, identifying myself and the persons I am there to see. A crackly, static-laden voice acknowledges my request, and after a minute the large, gray steel entry door swings open toward me. I am led down a concrete stairwell with beige block walls and through another locked steel door. I then walk along a stark hallway lined with gray doors, each having a tiny glass window at eye level. Turning left, I exit via a windowless metal door into a small yard surrounded by a galvanized chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. In the middle of an untended mat of weeds and grass sits an empty but magnificent greenhouse.
“Do you think you can help us use it to grow plants?” asks one pony-tailed girl standing within a group.
And that event over 20 years ago is how I started my journey on becoming a horticultural therapist. This instance and many others is recounted in my book, A Therapist’s Garden: Using Plants to Revitalize Your Spirit, available March 24, 2022. This is one of nearly 100 stories that will take you on a journey of how interacting with plants and nature can help heal mental, emotional and physical trauma. Through the lens of January to December in a New England landscape, discover how horticultural therapy improves the lives of those in pain.
If you like my Instagram or account, then you should love the book but don’t just take my word for it. Check out on my website what Matt Mattus @matt_mattus, Dr. Sue Stuart-Smith @suestuartsmith, Florence Williams @florence999, and others have written about my book. To find out how to pre-order it, you can Google “A Therapist’s Garden Erik Keller”, or click on the “Read Me” link on my home page next to the book’s cover. I will be writing about the genesis of the book as well as offering special incentives for pre-orders in the weeks to come. Thank you all for any consideration.
