Trellis Horticultural Therapy Alliance

🇺🇸 Celebrate Independence by Helping It Grow. 🌱

As our nation celebrates 250 years of independence, we’re joining the national Giving 4th Movement,a reminder that one of the greatest ways to celebrate freedom is by investing in the people and communities we care about.

This year, Trellis is growing something special, a Refection Garden.

With the basic foundation of the garden now complete at Decatur Legacy Park, we’re working to raise $30,000 by September 30 to bring this space to life through our Veterans Garden Therapy Programs.

Designed primarily for veterans, the Reflection Garden will be a place where participants engage in hands-on gardening, light construction projects, creative activities, and mindful experiences that build confidence, purpose, and connection. When programs aren’t in session, the garden will also provide a peaceful space for other Trellis participants, caregivers, and the community to enjoy.

Will you help us bring this vision to life?

🌿 $30/month provides essential gardening and project supplies.

🇺🇸 $130 sponsors one veteran’s participation for a month.

🇱🇷 $500 helps complete key garden features, including handcrafted benches and decorative trellises that create a welcoming, restorative environment.

Every gift helps us cultivate independence.

Donate today: trellishta.org/donate

As PTSD Awareness Month comes to a close, Trellishta.org proud to recognize the important role nature can play in supporting mental wellness. 🌿💚🌱

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. It affects thousands of veterans, and among veterans receiving VA health care, approximately 14% of men and 24% of women have been diagnosed with PTSD. PTSD can increase the risk of depression, anxiety, and su***de, making early support and connection especially important. (PTSD VA⁠)

Led by horticultural therapist Shelly Roberts, Trellis’s Veterans Healing Garden provides small-group gardening sessions for veterans living with PTSD and other mental health challenges. Through hands-on gardening, mindfulness practices, and time spent in nature, participants build confidence, reduce stress, strengthen social connections, and experience the calming benefits of caring for living plants.

The program serves approximately 70 veterans each year through our partnerships with the VA’s Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center (PRRC) and the SHARE Military Initiative at Shepherd Center.

At Trellis, we believe something as simple as planting a seed, tending a flower, or taking a quiet moment in the garden can foster resilience, connection, and well-being. While PTSD Awareness Month is ending, our commitment to supporting veterans continues all year long.

At Trellishta.org this Memorial Day, we pause to honor the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. Their sacrifice and courage will never be forgotten.🇱🇷🌿🇱🇷

At Trellis, we are honored to provide garden therapy for veterans on the journey of recovery from PTSD and mild brain injury. In the garden, veterans find more than plants they discover mindfulness, grounding, new learning, accomplishment, coping skills and the support that comes from coming together with others who share similar experiences and camaraderie.

Through connection, purpose, and community, we witness strength growing every day.

As we gather with loved ones this weekend, we remember and honor those who gave everything in service to our nation. 🇱🇷💕🇱🇷

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Straw bale gardening is a simple way to offer raised-bed gardening without having to purchase or build a raised bed structure. The process involves "curing" a bale of straw over several weeks to speed up the composting process by watering and fertilizing it. This process allows the straw to decompose slightly so that planting holes can be made in the top of the bale, The straw serves as a moist, nutrient-rich environment that requires only a tiny bit of soil in the planting hole. It saves space and your back!

We at Trellishta.org tried out this gardening method with our Gather & Grow group in April to see how this method could be used for a wheelchair user. Our inspiration came from the North Carolina Tomato Man, aka Craig LeHoullier, who wrote a book about the method (shown in photo above). Mr. LeHoulier's claim to fame is his book Epic Tomatoes. He is a hobby tomato breeder based in Hendersonville, NC, and shared some of his tomato seeds with Trellis for us to try. 🍅
We also used a companion planting approach in which flowers and herbs are planted alongside the tomatoes.

The flowers attract beneficial pollinating insects, the strong-scented herbs repel pests, and the tomatoes will provide much-needed shade in summer. 🍅🌿🌼

Check out the growth of those strawbales after six weeks!