About Shelagh & Thrive With Nature

Shelagh Smith, Horticultural TherapistShelagh Smith, HTR, MAEEC

Horticultural Therapist, Online Educator, and Creator of Garden Activity Signs

Engaging with nearby nature is on the threshold of becoming a well-established healthcare practice.

The research is coming fast and furious, but it can be a slow process to translate that research into practice in our daily lives and in caring for others. That’s where I can be useful.

As a horticultural therapist and online educator, I can help you apply the latest research to enhance your own health, well-being and productivity, as well as that of your patients and clients. Read more about my qualifications at the end of this page.

I teach healthcare and social service providers:

1. to notice nearby nature in daily life for personal and professional self-care, and

2. to offer simple garden and nature programming for health promotion and therapeutic intervention.

Check out my experiential online course, illustrated garden activity signs and instructive blog posts.

I hope you’ll find something here that’s useful for you.

Why I created Garden Activity Signs

Connecting people with nature has been my profession and my passion for over twenty years. Thousands of times while leading garden and nature activities, I've witnessed joy and capability arise from engaging with nature:

  • The look of pride on the face of a new gardener showing me their first harvest
  • The intellectual and social capability displayed by a care-home resident explaining to the rest of the garden group how she looks after the mason bees
  • The word “Beautiful” said by a woman who rarely speaks in response to the bucket of flowers I’m holding out to her.

More than anything else the smile of delight, indicating that nothing else matters in that moment except the flower that’s caught their attention, the birdsong they’ve just tuned into, or the fragrance that is captivating them. In that moment, they are happy. Their whole being is connecting with nature and experiencing the benefits to their health and well-being.

But there’s a problem. 

While working as a horticultural therapist in healthcare and social service settings, I discovered that many people need permission, encouragement and instruction to interact with nature in gardens: to look closely, to smell and touch the plants, to do simple hands-on activities. Yet so often the garden is open for many hours per day without a guide or program leader available.  

To encourage independent interactions with nature, I designed a set of twelve garden activity signs and made prototypes in-house with the help of students and volunteers. This took a lot of extra hours and effort, but it was all worth it because the signs were well-received and proved successful.

I was delighted that I’d found a way to extend my reach beyond the few hours per week that I worked at each site!

Restorative and enabling care home garden

After twenty-three years I ‘retired’ from facilitating ongoing garden programs. Offering the garden activity signs to a wider audience is my way of being of service to many more patients, clients and residents of health and social service agencies, and to the hard-working professionals who care for them. If these signs are also useful to garden visitors in other settings, so much the better!

My hope is that by designing and producing these garden activity signs, a seed of encouragement will be planted in each individual who uses them, and will grow into a regular habit of enjoying nearby nature without requiring the prompting of a sign.

I’ve been nourished by nature my whole life, and I wish to share the joy and abundant benefits that are so freely given to us by the natural ecosystems we inhabit.

I also believe what the science says: that if we pay attention to nature in our daily lives, we care more about it and actively care for it. Then nature can continue to sustain and nourish us: with every breath, every bite of food, and every sensory engagement with the more-than-human world.

May your garden visitors smile with delight at the wondrous world they live in!

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on my website, blog and social media accounts are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my past or present employers. I endeavor to maintain client privacy in stories and photos that I share.

The Team

 Callum MacLeod is my husband, wise business advisor and number one fan and supporter.

Emily Damstra, Natural History Illustrator Emily Damstra is the talented natural science illustrator who brought my ideas to life with her drawings. Emily's website.

Cast of Characters: The people quoted on this website are my real-life colleagues and friends. If you're a customer, send me stories about your garden signs. Photos and videos welcome too!

Shelagh's Qualifications

Shelagh Smith, HTR, MAEEC, is a professional gardener, registered horticultural therapist and ecological educator. Shelagh is passionate about promoting health and well-being through daily engagement with nearby nature.

For 23 years, Shelagh developed and led therapeutic garden programs for care home residents, while supervising and mentoring many students and volunteers. She taught people with mental health issues how to grow their own food, collaborated on the design of restorative and enabling gardens, and taught a certificate program for budding horticultural therapists.

Currently, Shelagh inspires and teaches online in hopes of benefiting a wider audience with the evidence-based practice of engaging with nearby nature for health promotion and therapeutic intervention.

She lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada and loves to travel on the back roads of British Columbia with her husband and their tiny Trillium trailer.

Click here to contact Shelagh