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Indore Garden
Indore Garden
word for ‘paradise’ comes from the Persian word for a garden and has always meant
the same thing in every culture. It is representative of ‘paradise on earth’ and is
our opportunity to own a little bit of heaven – here and now. It has a restorative
significance as a healer when we understand that gardens provide us with a place of
sanctuary and well-being.
The garden has the potential to provide a place of refuge from stress, “the health
epidemic of the 21st century” according to The World Health Organization. Medical
doctors suggest that stress resulting in illness is the causative factor underlying
70% of all visits to the family doctor. The ability of the garden to provide this
place of healing and peace becomes crucial as more and more people succumb to this
dis-ease of ‘modern day life.’
Reasons for creating an indoor garden include: corners in rooms and on furniture
are softened when plants are introduced and placed in these areas; living plants
create feelings of calm and well-being; starting seeds indoors provides a jump-
start on spring for those of us who get twitchy fingers in January and allows us to
grow different types of plants not usually available from greenhouses; growing
herbs indoors facilitates our ability to cook with fresh herbs all year round;
teaching children to garden provides an opportunity for the healing aspects of
gardening to become a life-long aspect of their lives; indoor gardening is a
stress-management tool taught in various classes related to providing a higher
quality of life for people dealing with loss through death, divorce, or trauma in
their lives.
1. Purpose – what do you want to achieve – healing, meditation, growing herbs for
cooking, or a project with the children?
2. Space – how much space is available – a closet, basement room, living room,
corner of the bedroom, windowsill?
Indoor gardens can include anything from a tabletop garden, herb garden, healing
garden, meditation garden, container garden, water garden, or wildlife garden.
Thomas Moore wrote, “We may have to learn again the mystery of the garden: how its
external characteristics model the heart itself, and how the soul is a garden
enclosed, our own perpetual paradise where we can be refreshed and restored.” In
other words, the indoor garden can provide a place of sanctuary where we can take a
moment and re-connect with our own sacredness.