Indoor Herb Growing for Occupational Therapy
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Brandan
Posted on: February 16, 1999

I am an occupational therapy student from the Medical College of Virginia and I need your help with an herb project!!! In case you do not know what occupational therapy is, I will take a quick minute to explain my situation so that you can understand my question. Occupational therapist work with people of all ages (infants through elderly) who have had a disruption in their life processes. If a person is born with a disability, aquires a disablilty, or has a mental illness, we help them gain function in all areas of their life. Though this is a brief definition, I just want to get straight to the point. Two of my classmates and myself are preparing a project to go to a group home and work with 17 individuals with Schizophrenia, depression and Bi-polar disorder and we are hoping to teach them how tp grow their own herb garden consisting of basil, parsley, dill and cilantro. We feel that allowing them to express themselves by chossing what herb they would like to plant and teaching them the basics of caring for herbs will empower them to take pride in helping something grow as the patients grow through therapy. Plus, once the herbs have grown, they can use them in recipes. I was wondering if you have any other suggestions about the best herbs to grow indoors from seeds, or any other possible ideas to help these people find meaning in their own lives through gaining an interest in herbs!!

To help with your therapy, the herbs would have to easy to germinate and be useful in many recipes. The herbs in Richters’ "Culinary Herb Garden" would be ideal for this. Besides the four herbs you mentioned, the collection contains lemon balm, chives, marjoram, oregano, sage, savory, sorrel, and thyme.

If you need help with the culture aspect of your project, I would suggest you consult Richters’ web-site at < www.richters.com > and look in the "Magazine Rack" section and consult the articles "Popular Herbs Grown Happily Indoors", "Growing Herbs Indoors" and the Q&A section using the search function to find answers to questions about the herb you are interested in.

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