Sinulog – Healing Present Nature & Wellness Center

By Michelle Domocol @inflourish_
Back to Inflourish: Cebu Blog

This March I’d like to share some garden designs that served as venues for different therapies. Some would classify this use of greenery and vegetation as horticultural therapy. Maybe these designs can inspire you to use beautiful, natural settings or backyard gardens to nurture your health goals and needs.

The therapy gardens in this article focused on supplementing hospital services. I envisioned a network of beautiful gardens designed for patient treatment and recovery. As part of a hospital’s holistic healthcare ministry, the garden-based therapy programs
would support oncology, neuro-psychiatry, physical therapy, and rehabilitation medicine. The new gardens could also complement or serve as more spaces comprehensive counseling and hospice programs. Garden-based activities would facilitate the patient’s personal treatment goals. And depending on their condition, patients receive opportunities to participate in activities to address physical, cognitive, affective, psychomotor, and psychosocial functioning. In my particular project, the hospital’s Therapy Park programs supported novel, individualized treatment options that aimed to improve recovery rates, increase patient satisfaction, and upgrade standard care in the Psychiatric, Physical Therapy, Rehabilitation, Oncology, and Hospice Care departments.

Be Open. Tailor these ideas to less specialized health goals like daily relaxation after work.  Focus on simple landscapes like a medicinal tea garden, backyard prayer space, outdoor meditation nook, or mini exercise patio.

Patient Therapy Garden

In this example, the horticultural therapy garden would be restricted to patients and their medical advisers and therapists. The features are wide wheelchair-accessible paths. Shade trees are behind cushioned seating for patient comfort.

The garden also features wheelchair-accessible activity tables and elevated raised beds. The landscape could be adorned with colorful flowers, culturally–significant plants, beautiful flowering shrubs, and hypoallergenic greenery.

This type of garden could be a venue for a program like:

“Weekly Gardening with Acute Psychiatric Patients” – Patients participate in group horticultural activities while they build coping skills. The goals may be to improve social skills and creative self-expression. Patients may foster self-efficacy, confidence, and self-esteem.

A) Shade trees like talisay, fruit trees like balimbing or hardy, non-allergenic native trees with curved, cushioned seating; B) Circular elevated garden beds with wheelchair accessibility for patient activities like herb-planting, orchid cultivation, or bromeliad care; C) Colourful Native wildflower beds, lantana shrubs, hardy groundcovers with ferns; D) Durable benches with groundcovers, fern varieties, and local lily varieties

Meditation & Prayer Gardens

In this second example, meditation gardens would be outside hospital chapels. This design features an outdoor relaxation room. The area would be equipped with cushioned, recliner furniture while lush greenery and a calming pond elicit a serene ambiance.

This type of garden could be a venue for a program like:
“Restore & Reflect with Cancer Patients” – Oncology patients learn garden-based meditation and relaxation. They practice breathing techniques to manage anxiety, feelings of isolation, and emotional distress. These are common conditions associated with a new cancer diagnosis and cancer therapies.

A) Calming pond with gabi varieties and other hardy semi-aquatic species next to altar and lily groundcover; B) Large ferns and irises with trellised vines like nito, camote, buyo, philodendron, passionfruit, or gabi-gabi; C) Bed of fragrant types like lemongrass and citronella; D) Comfortable recliner benches, ottomans, and outdoor rug

Gathering Spaces in Therapy Park

Other sections of the hospital’s landscape would have open access to the public or patients’ visitors on select days. When restricted access is required for patients’ therapies, the garden could be closed to the public. This example features lawns for Physical Therapy activities, wheelchair-accessible raised beds, ergonomic elevated planters, wide paths, and ramps.

This type of garden could be a venue for programs like:

• “Garden Exercise for Physical Therapy (PT)” – Patients learn specialized outdoor physical therapy (PT) techniques and gardening skills to support their standard PT program. The customized activities could increase muscle activity, increase joint flexibility, increase exercise frequency, increase strength and stamina, improve motor skills, and increase circulation.

• “Garden Journaling for Talk Therapy/ Group Counseling Patients“- Clients in mental health, substance abuse, grief, and family counseling programs could participate in semi-structured nature journaling activities. During these activities, patients could increase self-expression, decrease stress, and write about coping skills taught in indoor counseling sessions.

A) Shaded seating with vines and shrubs like calamansi and pandan; B) Walkway with large fragrant and floral gumamela varieties and camelia; C) flat lawn with low-maintenance grass and large shade tree like narra; D) Lounges and cafe tables to meet with family and friends or patient consultations and therapy activities; E) Elongated garden beds for patients’ herb, bulb, or shrub gardening; F) Wheelchair accessible garden beds for inclusive gardening and group activities; G) Slip-resistant flooring for optimal safety.

I hope you find some workable ideas for your personal health-focused garden. Who knows? Maybe connections to nature and greenery may support your holistic health journey.

Feel free to contact ask.inflourish@gmail.com for design or gardening questions.

If you need more inspiration, here are more examples of gardens focused on health and medicinal plants:

Medicinal and Therapeutic Gardens

Towering Pergolas in Children’s Gardens

A for Agroforestry

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By Michelle Domocol @inflourish_
Back to Inflourish: Cebu Blog

It’s Sinulog! January in Cebu is bursting with joyous music, dance, history, and cultural celebration. The vibrant parades, unforgettable costumes, the sea of people, and the food inspire jubilant garden designs. When I was younger and based in the US, I looked forward to flying to Cebu during Sinulog. My mom and other family friends working overseas were giddy when they returned home to Cebu. Every meal, outdoor concert, and dance competition we attended was a spirited reunion, a homecoming As I munched on new delicacies, the adults around the table regaled each other with their childhood memories of beloved desserts. They giggled and gleefully recalled the home cooks and barangays known for the best bingka, puto, and budbud. While I was mesmerized by the Sinulog dance competitions, my mom’s friends graciously shared Cebuano specialties like budbud kabog, linusak, masi, bingka dawa, and torta. Now that I’m much older I’m lucky enough to live in Cebu. I no longer need a 24-hour plane ride to enjoy Sinulog and Cebu’s delicacies.

Let’s bring a bit of Sinulog’s kaleidoscope of community, color, and tradition into fun garden inspiration:

Sinulog Design Activity: Think about your favorite meals, dishes, or desserts you eat or prepare during Sinulog. Think about your friends and family’s favorites. Now write down some of the common or major ingredients. I bet some of those ingredients can be planted in your backyard garden or personal farm. Next, think about your favorite activities during Sinulog. Is it the cooking, dancing, communal karaoke, spending time with grandchildren, watching concerts, or celebrating with your religious community? Whatever your preference, how can you incorporate it into the garden or farm? In my first garden design example, I use plants mainly for decoration, beauty, and some snacking. If you want your garden to produce a large harvest for your future meals, you’ll add more plants.

Now that you have a good list of plant and outdoor furniture preferences, think or ask an expert landscaper what is feasible for you. Think about your existing sunlight exposure, soil conditions, water availability, site dimensions, and other qualities of your space.

Example 1: The Sinulog Dessert Garden

In my first example, I use a small backyard garden space. It’s planted with native and decorative shrubs and trees. It features kabog (millet), saba banana, mangga (mango), and mani (peanut) plants as a reference to a few of my favorite Sinulog dessert ingredients. I also added outdoor lounges, seating, and a wooden platform as a reminder of Sinulog dance parties and family get-togethers. The seats can be easily moved to add dance space.

Here are some elements I incorporated: 1) a circular raised bed, attached seating and cute plot of kabog (millet); 2) a dwarf variety of Saba banana like Saging Mondo that grows to 2.5 meters; 3) a grafted dwarf mango in circular container;
*4) dwarf coconut trees with decorative yellow flowered-shrubs like cannas and peace lilies as a groundcover;*
*5) a circular raised with plot of peanut seedlings*

Example 2: Sinulog Versatile Outdoor Room

In this second example, I incorporated a central multi-purpose space for people who want the flexibility to convert their garden into a venue for religious services, karaoke parties, or outdoor grilling. The featured plants feature red tapay-tapay flowers (celosia) and yellow dahlias to reflect the motif of Sinulog dancers, posters, and decor. In the other garden beds, I added durable plants with colorful complementary floral/foliage like gumamela (hibiscus), mayana (coleus), and San francisco (croton). You can also add a low-maintenance, native edible fig tree like lagnub (Ficus septica var. salicifolia) for shade and beauty.