Reposted from Portland Family Magazine.
Author and clinical psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison writes, “Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.” It is through unstructured, open-ended creative play that children learn the ways of the world. While playing outside, children explore with all their senses, they witness new life, they create imaginary worlds and they negotiate with each other to create a playful environment.

1. Outdoor play is a multi-sensory activity. While outdoors, children will see, hear, smell and touch things unavailable to them when they play inside. They use their brains in unique ways as they come to understand these new stimuli.
2. Playing outside brings together informal play and formal learning. Children can incorporate concepts they have learned at school in a hands-on way while outdoors. For example, seeing and touching the roots of a tree will bring to life the lesson their teacher taught about how plants get their nutrients.
3. Playing outdoors stimulates creativity. Robin Moore, an expert in the design of play and learning environments, says, “Natural spaces and materials stimulate children’s limitless imagination and serve as the medium of inventiveness and creativity.” Rocks, stones and dirt present limitless opportunities for play that can be expressed differently every time a child steps outside.
4. Playing outdoors is open-ended. There is no instruction manual for outdoor play. Children make the rules and in doing so use their imagination, creativity, intelligence and negotiation skills in a unique way.
5. Playing in nature reduces anxiety. Time spent outside physiologically reduces anxiety. Children bring an open mind and a more relaxed outlook back inside when they are in more traditional learning environments.
6. Outdoor play increases attention span. Time spent in unstructured play outdoors is a natural attention builder. Often children who have difficulty with pen and paper tasks or sitting still for long periods of times are significantly more successful after time spent outside.
7. Outdoor play is imaginative. Because there are no labels, no pre-conceived ideas and no rules, children must create the world around them. In this type of play, children use their imagination in ways they don’t when playing inside.
8. Being in nature develops respect for other living things. Children develop empathy, the ability to consider other people’s feeling, by interacting with creatures in nature. Watching a tiny bug, a blue bird or a squirrel scurrying up a tree gives children the ability to learn and grow from others.
9. Outdoor play promotes problem solving. As children navigate a world in which they make the rules, they must learn to understand what works and what doesn’t, what lines of thinking bring success and failure, how to know when to keep trying and when to stop.
10. Playing outside promotes leadership skills. In an environment where children create the fun, natural leaders will arise. One child may excel at explaining how to play the game, while another may enjoy setting up the physical challenge of an outdoor obstacle course. All types of leadership skills are needed and encouraged.
11. Outdoor play widens vocabulary. While playing outdoors, children may see an acorn, a chipmunk and cumulous clouds. As they encounter new things, their vocabulary will expand in ways it never could indoors.
12. Playing outside improves listening skills. As children negotiate the rules of an invented game, they must listen closely to one another, ask questions for clarification and attend to the details of explanations in ways they don’t have to when playing familiar games.
13. Being in nature improves communication skills. Unclear about the rules in an invented game? Not sure how to climb the tree or create the fairy house? Children must learn to question and clarify for understanding while simultaneously making themselves understood.
14. Outdoor play encourages cooperative play. In a setting where there aren’t clear winners and losers, children work together to meet a goal. Perhaps they complete a self-made obstacle course or create a house for a chipmunk. Together they compromise and work together to meet a desired outcome.
15. Time in nature helps children to notice patterns. The natural world is full of patterns. The petals on flowers, the veins of a leaf, the bark on a tree are all patterns. Pattern building is a crucial early math skill.
16. Playing outdoors helps children to notice similarities and differences. The ability to sort items and notice the similarities and differences in them is yet another skill crucial to mathematical success. Time outdoors affords many opportunities for sorting.
17. Time spent outdoors improves children’s immune systems. Healthy children are stronger learners. As children spend more and more time outdoors, their immune systems improve, decreasing time out of school for illness.
18. Outdoor play increases children’s physical activity level. Children who play outdoors are less likely to be obese and more likely to be active learners. Children who move and play when out of school are ready for the attention often needed for classroom learning.
19. Time spent outdoors increases persistence. Outdoor games often require persistence. Children must try and try again if their experiment fails. If the branch doesn’t reach all the way across the stream or the bark doesn’t cover their fairy house, they must keep trying until they are successful.
20. Outdoor play is fun. Children who are happy are successful learners. Children are naturally happy when they are moving, playing and creating outside. This joy opens them up for experimenting, learning and growing.

Retro-fitting homes is in the news at the moment. Guidance is around making our homes more energy efficient and saving money. The government has approved suppliers and assessors who will come to your home, check its status and sell you 'fixes'. If you are a tenant the government has a Green Deal scheme so you pay only (about) as much as you save on your energy bill to get the fixes your home needs. These solutions make good sense, but are only part of the picture.

Many people live in homes with small windows and little sunshine indoors, either because the house faces the wrong way, the windows are on the wrong wall to receive direct sunshine, or because the windows are poorly placed or inadequately sized. Why do we need sunshine? Sunshine, and natural daylight, have been proven to be essential for our health and well-being  The natural light improves mood, reduces stress, it even reduces healing times after surgery. Sunlight makes us happy. Our homes need as much light as we can get, for them to nurture us and be the havens we need. Our homes need to support us, by being uplifting places to come home to after a busy week at work.

Wasting money on bureaucracy, or anything else, is never a good idea. However planning departments must change and as tax payers we must invest in that change. Whether elected officials or council planning officers, we need people who understand the bigger picture of a healthy community, and the general principles of design for health and wellbeing in response to environmental degradation, climate change and rising energy costs. Some local authorities are forging ahead, while some lag behind.

The planning process needs to be streamlined so people who want / need to retrofit their homes, to make them more energy efficient (thermal slab flooring or walls, larger windows on the south side, smaller windows on the north, opening windows all around), in addition to the usual double glazing, condenser boilers and insulation, can do so.

Privacy is touted as the main reason people can't have windows in their walls!  However, just as climate change is changing the way we live, (snow, drought  deluges of rain) so planners are learning about the benefits of more light, and the environmental imperative of green living, and so are relaxing some of their previously inflexible stance re street review   We cannot go on as before.

With smart urban planning and green urban design planners and elected officials will be championing the new healthy way to (re) design our homes and our towns.

Once you have mapped where the sun shines on your wall and installed new large double glazed windows on the sunny side, added insulation, energy efficient appliances and an efficient boiler , to complete the process you need some planting. With appropriate planting people can have natural daylight, sunlight when it shines, and enjoy a screened view of and by the neighbours. With companies spending millions on research and development of simulated natural daylight options for healthcare, it is time to stop and ask where are the people standing up and recommending windows, the real, opening thing?

Whether you live in an eco town or are interested in living in green cities, retrofitting your home to be more energy efficient, allow more natural light in and retain more warmth is a smart way to save money and save the planet at the same time.

In 1997, the World Health Organization identified that the health “arena”, 
including priority settings and frequently used spaces such as the workplace, schools, hospitals, correctional institutions, commercial offices and public spaces within our cities should be at the centre of health promotion activities in the 21st century.

During the 66th meeting of the General Assembly of  the United Nations this year, the socio-economic challenge facing the world of non-communicable disease was discussed for the first time.

Effectively designed landscaped and urban settings are a powerful and cost effective tool in the fight to reduce the incidence of non communicable threats to health and well being such as depression, type 2 diabetes, obesity.

I've just submitted an abstract to the World Design and Health Congress for a paper on using landscape and urban design for health and well being. Urban planning for social housing must address the mental health and well being of users. In order for green cities to be cost effective, person-centred landscapes the garden design of the whole needs to be investigated in part.

We can all make a difference. 

"Rising levels of non-communicable disease and social pathologies erode economies and communities, putting pressure on limited health and welfare resources. Links between health and the environment have been demonstrated in the literature."  

Designing gardens for health requires a broad view of landscape. Health care gardens  require more than perfumed plants in a garden for the blind, more than a textured pathway in a stroke rehab garden.

A true wellness garden design includes elements to uplift and inspire. A perfumed walkway hung with flowers and edible fruits delights the senses. A pergola, cloister or verandah structure offers shade in the heat of the day, and shelter from light rain and harsh winds.

When we have been unwell and stuck indoors we long to breathe fresh air and delight in nature. Seemingly regardless of cultural background, we respond to nature at a deep level. Our overall well being is enhanced by time in a well-designed garden. Health care gardens succeed when they honour and respond to that need.

When my editor asked me to think of all the potential users of a book on sensory gardens I came up with the following list:

1. Stroke victims – through discovering how to use surfaces, scents and tastes  to stimulate walking and memory  responses
2. Spinal injured and nerve damaged patients – through discovering accessible, therapeutic horticulture
3. Teachers and carers of children with ADHD, Angelman Syndrome, ASD, Autism, Barth Syndrome, Brain Tumour, Cerebral Palsy, Chromosome Disorder, Cornelia De-Lange Syndrome, CP, Developmental Dysplaysia, Diastrophic Dysplaysia, Downs Syndrome, Encephalitis, Epilepsy, Fragile X Syndrome, Global Development Delay, Heart Condition, Hemiplegia, Hypermobility, Hypotonic, Lissencephally, Low Muscle Tone, Microcephaly, Muscular Dystrophy, Ohtahara Syndrome, Pneumocoocal Meningitis, Pulmonary Stenosis, Rett Syndrome, Scoliosis, Sotos Syndrome, Spastic Diplegia, Spina Bifida, Tetrasomy, Tuberous Sclerosis.  - creation of calm space for those in ‘sensory overload’, balanced with stimulating environment to boost confidence and self expression
4. Occupational therapists, or persons in the caring professions and charities concerned with this client group
5. Teachers and carers of global development delay children – through learning how to provide a stimulating environment to elicit a response
6. Social housing owners and developers – cost effective gardens for ‘at risk’ residents, creating sense of community, safe natural play places to reconnect children with nature
7. Urban designers – architects, urban planners, landscape architects – how to create urban environments to meet changing needs of community (aging, disabled, immigrant)
8. Play providers – local authorities, national trust, forestry commission, head teachers association – those requiring guidance on how to design and provide spaces where a child can withdraw easily and safely, so that they can learn to regulate his or her own sensory input, and welcoming spaces where intergenerational groups can relax and engage and enjoy their time together.

We are asked to design sensory gardens for children and adults all around the world. But what is a sensory garden? Over the past 20 years interest in sensory gardens has grown. Early 'sensory gardens' were simple gardens for the blind, with aromatic planting and textured leaves about the only feature of the gardens. They evolved into Wellness Gardens in the late 1990's.

Today a sensory garden is a soft landscape designed to stimulate the senses. Specially designed gardens for disabled children can be deeply therapeutic spaces. Sensory gardens are acknowledged as benefitting non disabled children as offering a calming space to recoonect with nature. Sight, sound and touch are easily designed for within such a space.

Our sensory gardens generally offer taste sensations through edible planting. We are careful to ensure that anything that can be put into the mouth is non toxic. This is not only good for the people using the garden, but also good for the environment

Greenstone Design UK Ltd, specialises in the design and development of sustainable landscapes, for schools, adventure playgrounds, hotels and hospitals, housing estates and private residences. We work around the world, wherever projects take us.

Our mission is to make the world a better place through design, so we accept commissions wherever we feel we can make a difference, environmentally and socially, and where appropriate, to a business’s bottom line.

Originally from New Zealand, I have lived in and learned from a variety of countries around the world. While living in Malaysia I was asked to design the grounds of the 50 acre Shangri-La group’s eco hotel in Sabah, Borneo. Netted butterfly café, viewing panels into the sea from decks around the beach bar, outdoor spas, were among features included to make the grounds pay for themselves.

In Portugal I designed the 8ha. grounds of Europe’s first disabled children’s hotel. Sensory gardens there include a wildlife petting zoo as well as kitchen gardens for guests to work in and profit from.

In Surrey, England, we designed 2 acre community gardens for a local food growing initiative. The gardens include inclusive full–height raised beds, a communal BBQ and children’s play area, wildlife pond, forest-garden shelter planting.

For the National Spinal Injuries Centre UK, we designed a low cost, low maintenace rehab garden. Numerous school projects have seen outdoor learning environments, roof gardens, rainwater harvesting, natural play, growing areas and proactively managed grounds develop the school site as an educational and community asset.

Residential Islamic paradise gardens, country house gardens, town house courtyard and roof gardens in counties, climates and cultures as diverse as UK, Singapore, India, France, Mexico, and NZ have all received the 'Greenstone touch'.

We believe that too often the grounds of a house, hotel, hospital or school are just there 'as a backdrop’ and do nothing positive to aid learning opportunities, fun, fantasy or bio-diversity, reduce the effect of urban heat islands and urban runoff, mitigate climate change, and ultimately bring sustainable communities together. We are keenly aware of the positive role of landscape in treating a variety of health conditions.

Our team is small, with hand-picked experienced landscape architects, garden designers, interior architects and CAD technicians. We have developed trusted relationships with land and quantity surveyors, a health and safety advisor, soil scientists, hydrologists and engineers. 

Costs vary. Projects start from around $20,000. The design fee is a small portion of that. If you are interested in how we might work together please do get in touch.

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