Spring is here and gardeners across Milwaukee are starting to get their hands dirty preparing for the season. Gardening is a hobby that can be labor intensive, but it can also be therapeutic.
Growing Connections is a Milwaukee County program that offers free gardening activities for those living with dementia and their caregivers.
Candice LeGros is a dementia care specialist with Milwaukee County and the facilitator of Growing Connections.
"For someone who's in the earlier stages of [dementia], it can be very therapeutic. It can be very de-stressing...getting your hands in the soil, doing something that they've done for a long time. So it's kind of a part of that long-term memory," says LeGros. "It can be very fulfilling and have that sense of purpose. It releases a lot of serotonin, which is that good hormone in our brain. So there are lots of benefits."
Dementia comes in stages, and planning gardening activities means navigating around individual needs.
"As somebody moves through the disease, you just need to adjust the activity to fit their strengths. So if somebody is maybe not able to stand for a long time, you could have them sit at a table outside and do some potting, do some seed starting," says LeGros.
Tasks could also include flower arranging, harvesting produce or paging through a gardening magazine.
LeGros says that the program has been a success so far, pulling in participants looking to reconnect their loved one with a hobby they enjoy.
"So many of our participants, their caregiver, their person that's bringing them, they told me like, 'Oh, my dad or my mom used to garden all the time. This is something that will be right up their alley and they'll absolutely love it,'" says LeGros. "They haven't done anything around gardening for a while, so to see them come and really get into it has been really awesome."
Growing Connections meets the first Wednesday of every month at the Washington Park Urban Ecology Center. The next event is May 6. To learn more you can contact Candice LeGros at Candice.LeGros@milwaukeecountywi.gov
