"Is this potato growing?" "The tomato has already grown." ”......
Recently, spring is just right. In front of the old service center, the flowers and vegetables in the "Memory Garden" are vibrant. 67-year-old Qin Guozhen is with his friends, watching the growth of tomatoes and loosening the soil for potatoes, and he is very busy.
Qin Guozhen is a member of a community gardening team. The team members are all retired residents and have one thing in common: they are at high risk of cognitive impairment. And this small garden is a medium for them to contact the soil and feel life, bringing warmth and healing to everyone.
The craft of planting flowers and vegetables,
made her a "celebrity" among the children
In the afternoon in the "Memory Garden", the sun shines on the ground, and more than a dozen planting boxes are neatly arranged. Potatoes and tomatoes protrude from the soil with slender branches, and mint and rosemary waft faintly fragrant...... In the garden, there are also green leafy vegetables such as shepherd's cabbage and leeks, which are growing vigorously.
"Today, our priority is to harvest the seeds of the shepherd's cabbage. Qin Guozhen, who lives in the Orchid New Village Community, wore gloves, quickly cut off the shepherd's cabbage, put it in a bag, and then threw it to the ground. "That's how it goes. There are heart-shaped seeds on the shepherd's cabbage, we throw it into the bag, collect it, and wait for the second half of the year to plant again, and we can grow a wave of shepherd's cabbage. ”
Qin Guozhen's family lives in the Orchid New Village Community, which is only two or three minutes' walk from the "Memory Garden", and he comes almost every day. She grows flowers and vegetables, she is the "jack of all trades" in the team, and the other team members call her "Teacher Qin". Last year, a parent-child activity was carried out in the "Memory Garden", inviting parent-child families in the community to maintain plants with the elders of the gardening team, which made Qin Guozhen and the team members become "celebrities" among the children, and also surprised everyone.
"The children responded very well to that activity, and kept asking me what the name of the plant was and what the plant was. I used to feel that I was useless when I retired, but I didn't expect that I have a sense of accomplishment now!" Qin Guozhen said with a smile, "These potatoes and tomatoes are planted for children, because they are easy to recognize and easy to harvest." Wait for the event later, the children will definitely like it. ”
Out of the house and into the garden,
Light up a memory with plants
There are nearly 10 kinds of plants in the "Memory Garden", each of which is the "heart and liver" of the team members. They meet regularly to check the growth of plants, water and weed, talk and laugh, and enjoy a leisurely life. The small garden has brought a big harvest to the residents.
Li Yundi, 75 years old this year, is one of the team members, she said that she had never planted flowers and vegetables before, and her skills were all learned from everyone in the "memory garden". "After joining the gardening team, I learned a lot from being unfamiliar with many plants. On the other hand, the sense of accomplishment of growing something by yourself is also incomparable to other things. Not long ago, we also made dumplings with leeks grown by ourselves. ”
The "magic" of gardening allows the team members to go out of the house, into the garden, and have one "date" after another with nature. Due to the high risk of cognitive impairment, some team members sometimes forget the time for volunteer activities. So, they put small notes on the refrigerator, wrote notes in the palm of their hands, and asked their neighbors to call them...... Use various methods to remind yourself to "report to work" in the garden on time. Many elderly people bluntly said, "I feel more motivated and have more hope for life." ”
Older people are at high risk of dementia. In recent years, Changhai Road Street has made every effort to build a dementia-friendly community for the elderly. On the one hand, a large-scale screening was carried out, and more than 700 high-risk elderly people were screened for a second time, and on the other hand, early intervention methods were explored, such as horticultural therapy and aromatherapy. In this way, in July 2023, the "Garden of Memory" was born. As a carrier of horticultural therapy, we encourage everyone to return to nature, find vitality and control in life from sowing and harvesting, and use a plant to light up a memory.
"Horticultural therapy, as a non-pharmacological intervention for cognitive impairment, is an effective service method for the elderly who need to improve physically and mentally, providing plant planting and gardening activities, allowing them to return to nature, and adjust and improve socially, educationally, psychologically and physically. Wang Ying, the person in charge of the elderly cognitive impairment friendly community construction project in Changhai Road Street, introduced.
After nearly a year of formal operation, the horticulture team now has nearly 10 regular members. What plants to plant and what activities to do are all "brainstormed" by the old people themselves. Wang Ying said, "We will organize regular team meetings and invite everyone to discuss the form, content and time of volunteer activities, and the team members often have golden ideas." They are more involved in community life and more motivated in their personal lives. In the laughter and sweat of the gardening team, the "Memory Garden" will create more beautiful stories......
Text/Image: Tang Shunjia
Editor: Wu Baixin
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