ABSTRACT
This paper is an initial report on the nationwide survey of outdoor facilities of horticultural therapy programs conducted from Texas Tech University. This report is intended to encourage discussions which explore areas of future research into the optimum physical design of outdoor plant-oriented therapeutic landscapes.
The premise for these discussions is found in the perception of therapeutic landscapes therapy as vernacular landscapes. Yet, as places of personal expression and significance, these ad hoc gardens often are found within institutions and organizations having artful, even expensively, designed and maintained grounds. The nature and forms of the purposefully therapeutic gardens as they are currently and as they might become, pose questions which can profoundly affect the quality and likelihood of plant-people connections.
