My name is Riley Norman and I am a senior Human Development and Family Sciences major pursuing a career as a Child Life Specialist. During the Spring semester of 2020 I got grant funding to work on my honors creative project over the importance of nature and gardens on all people.

The goal for this project is to reinforce the idea that these gardens can have a multitude of beneficial effects on the people of our country, especially our youth. In particular, I researched gardens that can be found in some children’s hospitals, called healing gardens. These gardens not only help promote physical healing in children, but also emotional, spiritual, and mental healing as well. With this creative project I will be redesigning the garden that is already present at the Jean Tyson Child Development Study Center (JTCDSC) in Fayetteville. I will use this space to create a demonstration garden for schools, hospitals, childcare programs, and any other facilities or organizations working with ill, or well, children to come and observe. This garden will also be open for the students and teachers at JTCDSC. Through creating a demonstration garden, it will help us visually reinforce the ideas we have known for so long about the benefits that can come from being in our natural environment, as well as show other child workers how to implement nature into their children’s life. I hope this garden will impact each person that comes to it differently, but that each and every person will be reminded of the importance of having nature in daily life.

When it came time to start work on the garden mid-spring semester as my advisor and I had original planned, COVID-19 complicated things. Classes were cancelled the week we planned to begin working in the space and it left me feeling quite hopeless. I didn’t understand how I was supposed to work on my creative project in Arkansas, where I had to actually install a garden, from home in Texas while quarantining. It was really easy for me to look at all the things that had gone wrong in the situation and get overwhelmed. After Zoom calls with my advisor Donia Timby, things started looking up and I started seeing this extra time to research and prepare as very valuable. Because of the shift in timing due to campus being closed, we have transitioned from our original plan to create a standard Spring garden to instead creating a Fall garden. Because of the extra time I was given, I was able to spend more time researching fall gardens and better mapping out what we can include in ours. When people think of gardens they think of bright flowers and spring time, and now we have the opportunity to show people different versions of gardens and emphasize that you can enjoy nature regardless of the season, which is an exciting opportunity. Another very important element of my project to both me and Mrs. Timby was to include the preschool students and teachers at JTCDSC in the garden. We wanted the children’s input on what they think should be in the garden and allow each class to contribute an item (along the lines of a bird house, etc.) Something that went right is that I had already reached out to the teachers prior to COVID-19 and know that they are all willing to contribute their students’ ideas and a class project to be put in the garden. Having these relationships already in place will make things run much smoother when life goes back to normal and I can begin tending to the garden.

During this funding period I have learned so much about my topic, not just through research, but also observation which has played a huge role. Because of COVID-19 many people are stuck inside their homes for long periods of time. A very common trend I’ve seen is people going on more walks, bike rides and jogs than before. At such a stressful, overwhelming and unpredictable time people are turning to being outside in nature for calming and peace, which proves the aim of this project perfectly. Seeing this first hand and even depending on being outside to relieve my own stress has made me feel more confident in my project and topic than ever before.

My faculty mentor, Donia Timby, has played a huge role in my project. She is always there for a zoom call, email, etc. She has been so helpful during this whole project in keeping me sane, organized and on top of everything. She’s very knowledgeable about the importance of nature and is always helping me become more so. With her, I was able to visit the garden at the JTCDSC and take photos so when the project is complete, I can before and after photos. The garden was out of season and needed new flowers, etc. planted for Spring, but there was a good base that we will be able to work on come Fall. Also, seeing the space with my own two eyes has been helpful when trying to plan out what the space will look like for our Fall garden.

Although this project and my funding period hasn’t gone as expected, I’m looking forward to Fall 2020 and being able to finally begin installations. This summer Mrs. Timby and I will begin ordering some of the bigger items that will go in a garden so we have them by August, plan the layout of our garden, create spreadsheets of all we need and stay in contact with each other. Thank you again for believing in me and my project. I can’t wait to see where it takes me.