Horticultural Therapy Plants provide us with oxygen in the day and freshen up the air as well as beautify the environment. Plants can be used as a form of pet therapy as they have therapeutic value. In the United States, horticultural therapy is used to help the disabled and patients of mental illnesses. This is because gardening or caring for a pet plant can reduce stress.
How To Start Plant therapy can be started with a single plant in a small pot placed at your desk or at a corner of your office. If you work a 5 day week and don't want to bring home your plant for the weekend, choose a hardy plant. That way, it can endure a thirsty weekend before its next drink of water on Monday.
Cheer You Up
You can get ideas for decorating your pots and potted plants at nurseries or from horticulture books and web-sites. If you like, your plant can be dressed up according to the colors and ornaments of the festive seasons to cheer you up in the office. Hang your decorative ornaments on your plant just like you would on a Christmas tree. The heart beat slows, breathing improves and all this over-rides us with calmness. This makes plants the ideal desk pet for management at work.
Plants Are An Addiction
They grow on you. The more you potter around them, the more you'll enjoy taking care of them. Seeing the plant grow may inject you with fresh energy and vitality. It is also satisfying to see the fruit of your labor flourishing under your green fingers. You may want to graduate to cultivating plants at home in the house, or in your garden. Gardening is an exercise that's enjoyable, mentally stimulating and fruitful too, if you grow flowering plants or fruit trees.
Active Gardening
Active gardening like digging and weeding provides healthy exercise
to burn off calories and keep chronic diseases at bay. When you learn to handle the frustrations of gardening like weather changes, plant diseases, weeds and insects, you are actually building your own strength and confidence to handle the stressful conditions in daily life too.
Remove Stress Plants help to remove stress by giving you an outlet for you to vent your anger and frustrations. You can talk to your plant to let off steam without hurting anybody. If you feel like pulling your hair in frustration, try pulling off the weeds or dead leaves off your pet plant. The repetitive actions of weeding burns off your nervous energy and leaves you calmer and more able to cope with your life.
Fresh Hope And Vigor
If, by any chance your plant dies, don't get discouraged. You can learn from your mistake and take courage to start all over again. It is a form of therapy for you to overcome your fear of failure and start again. A new plant will give you fresh hope and vigor. The plant will nurture your patience when you exercise patience in caring for it. Plant therapy will benefit you as it grows on you. Oak trees are among the slowest growing of all trees, and because they grow so slowly, their wood is among the strongest and most durable. Furniture made of oak survive longer than items of most other hardwoods.
Collecting Imporant Parts
Native Americans considered oak one of their most important plants, and acorns formed a staple part of their diets. But they also used oak extensively for healing. The leaves and bark of the oak tree are used for healing today. The various species of oak differ in form, but the medicinal properties are the same. The leaves can be collected in the summer and dried. The bark of young branches should be collected in the spring, but from a tree trunk, they can be collected in the fall.
Require Daily Routine Care Plants require daily routine care like watering, sunning, pruning and weeding. This responsibility makes you disciplined and gears you up to handle more tough and responsible jobs in life. Oak leaves and bark are rich in tannin, and they are very astringent and antiseptic. The tannin can stop bleeding and heal distended tissue.
Eating Leaves
Oak leaves can stop nosebleeds, and bleeding from cuts. Oak leaves, taken in small doses internally, have been prescribed for ulcers, blood in the urine, varicose veins, heavy periods, bleeding gums and other such problems. Some believe that just a few leaves of an oak tree can make a whole host of troubles disappear!
Oak Bark
A simple decoction of oak bark has been used to treat diarrhea or dysentery. The same decoction has also been used as a douche, as a
gargle for mouth and throat inflammations or infections, or applied topically for bleeding gums and piles.
Fresh Oak LeavesA poultice for wounds can be easily made by bruising fresh oak leaves and placing them directly on the affected area, and covering the leaves with a very warm cloth. To make an effective gargle, place 7 leaves in 1 pint of boiled water. Let the mixture steep for ten minutes, strain and use. A tea made from the bark of the oak is reported to make an excellent tonic after overexertion.