Allison Wang: With 91.9 KVCR News, it's Allison Wang. Last month, I visited the Gardens of Hope, a non profit botanical garden designed to provide therapeutic horticulture to all. Co-founders Joe and Liz Grumbine gave me a tour of this slice of paradise, with soaring trees, sprawling gardens, and a stream full of wildlife. They have dedicated 25 years to this passion project, building it with their own hands, supported by donors and volunteers.
Joe Grumbine: When you build a place like this, you also create an environment where the animals want to be. So there's wildlife that comes here too, so when you sit there in that chair for a little while, all of a sudden, you might see birds coming down. Or you might see a squirrel or you might see a lizard running around or you'll see frogs. Now that's another thing where in the whole world, frogs are becoming endangered, because they're very sensitive to environment. Well, when the environment gets toxic, they're the first things to go. But we have lots of frogs here. So it's an indicator that this place is healthy. There's all these different animals that we didn't put them here, they just once the water came here all sudden, they showed up. And now there's owls and hawks and all these animals that hang out here. In the springtime, there was just millions of tadpoles and toads and frogs and all kinds of critters that are now using that for home. This happens as a result of all of our hard work, but nature works with us.
Allison Wang: Here, sustainability and good farming practices are the name of the game.
And so the idea of it is it's sustainable, we don't bring in pesticides, we don't bring in Roundup and herbicides, we don't use chemical anything. As you're walking around, you're gonna see all these trees and plants and so everything's been recycled, everything's been composted, and that's actually what turns into the nutrients that the plants feed off of. We use natural predators. So instead of using bug spray, we have bugs that eat other bugs. And we have frogs and lizards and birds and all these things that eat bugs. We actually make our own soil like compost I was telling you about that's one of the components. I dig sand out of the creek, that's a component we have chickens in the back, we use some of the soil from inside their coop, and then I add only one ingredient which is perlite, and that's a natural rock mineral. And that soil is our potting mix that we use in putting all of our plants together. So it's all made here! Even recycling old barrels, taking all these old barrels that we had, cut them in half, and we're using them to grow plants in.
Allison Wang: When exploring, I was reminded of the forests back home in NorCal. I described this to Joe and he shared something that really touched me.
Joe Grumbine: You know, it's funny. I've always had people tell me: "Oh, this reminds me of this place." And I've had people tell me that it reminds them of Florida. I've had people tell me it reminds them of Georgia. I've had people tell me it reminds him of Jamaica, all these places--Canada--that have nothing to do with each other. But there's something about it that it connects you to a place that you find beautiful. The Gardens of Hope is an idea, not just a place. So my hope is that when people come here and they're touched by what we're doing that I can say, well maybe you want to start your own garden of hope. You want to volunteer or help me out? Well pick a couple of plants and take them home and take care of 'em.
Allison Wang: This secluded setting is perfect for the therapeutic horticulture the Garden offers: classes, private sessions, meditation, and more.
Joe Grumbine: Therapeutic horticulture. So, the idea is that being outside being in nature, working with plants, working with the Earth... is therapeutic by its nature. For mental issues, anxiety, depression, PTSD, you come to a place like this and just being here and doing nothing is therapeutic. But then you add an activity to it. There's any number of things or even just working in the garden. It's all got a therapeutic value. And then there's physical ailments. You have a hard time with motor control or you had an injury. Well, what are you going to do? You go to physical therapy, right? What do they do? They put you in a hot tub, they move you around, they make you pull rubber bands. Well guess what? You can do all those same things here. Now you're outside, turning some cutters, you're moving a shovel, you're planting seeds, you're reaching, picking something, you're getting all those same values, it adds more to it. These plants are giving you something too they're giving you their oxygen, they're sharing their electrons with you. That's it, mind, body, spirit. Therapeutic horticulture has something for everybody. You can learn math, you can learn history, you can learn just about anything you could learn here through the Gardens as a teaching tool. That's really my hope is that we're going to get more and more kids to engage because kids are just lost anymore. And they're stuck on their little square boxes and they don't go out and experience life in nature the way that I did when I was a little kid. But we're also making all of our services free to veterans. And this is, this is a human interest story. This is all about making a place where people can heal and learn and grow and have community. I mean, the thing that's going to come with these courses, is it's going to create community.
Allison Wang: So, take your own trip to the Gardens of Hope at 26521 Hammack Ave, Perris, CA. To learn more, visit thegardensofhope.org. From 91.9 KVCR News, it’s Allison Wang.
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Note: The admission costs Gardens of Hope's classes/workshops on a sliding scale basis. Those who cannot afford classes are still encouraged to come and learn, and the Gardens of Hope intend to try and accommodate people from all socioeconomic backgrounds.