ABSTRACT
For thousands of years, humans lived in relatively small social groups, fully surrounded by and interconnected with plants and animals in their vicinity (hereafter referred to as nature). Thus, being in and around nature is encoded in human DNA as the normal or expected circumstance. Horticultural therapy draws on three primary aspects of early human evolution: evolving in a life-giving and life-threatening natural environment; maintaining a preindustrial, pretechnology pace of life; and needing to be part of a group to survive. The first two are discussed in Chapter 5. While evidence is not entirely conclusive, research to date supports reduced stress for humans in the presence of nature, a few plants, or even the color green. Research also supports enhanced stress reduction when experiencing nature within the context of a social group. It is important that horticultural therapists understand these aspects of the people-plant connection so that they can increase the efficacy of their practice by applying these theories and research in their work.
