The Healing Garden Collective
The individuals described below have come together to form the Healing Garden Collective with SpruceLab, and are actively working to help make Diana Beresford-Kroeger’s vision of ‘healing gardens with plant medicines’ a reality. At Diana’s request, Sheila initiated two healing garden projects while managing the landscape architecture team at Toronto Region Conservation Authority. A Knowledge Keeper of ancient Celtic wisdom, Diana hosted a Medicine Walk at High Park to raise awareness of plant medicine and the growing need for restorative healing spaces for children with anxiety (as part of the 2018 Ontario Climate Consortium Symposium).
Healing gardens are designed with plants that offer effective phytochemicals (absorbed into the body through breathing or touch). As Diana writes in her books, the pharmacological properties of these plants include: improved breathing; calmed heart rate; cerebral vasodilation (opening up the arteries of the brain, which induces clear thinking); and an overall improved feeling of well-being. Healing garden designs are also guided by Indigeneous Knowledge, and informed by psychology (i.e. how environmental surroundings influence human behaviour and emotions), as well as permaculture principles. As therapeutic restorative landscapes, these special places attract life (e.g. birds, pollinators), are informed by research on play-based interventions, and involve therapists and caregivers in an interdisciplinary, participatory design process.
Diana Beresford-Kroeger
Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a world recognized author, medical biochemist and botanist. She combines western scientific knowledge and the traditional concepts of the ancient world. Orphaned in her youth, Beresford-Kroeger was educated by Celtic Elders who instructed her in the Brehon knowledge of plants and nature, and told her she was the last child of ancient Ireland and would one day bring this knowledge to a troubled future. Her ‘Bioplan’ is an ambitious, encouraging ordinary people to develop a new relationship with nature, and to join together to replant the global forest. Diana will be a special advisor to support the work of the Healing Garden Collective.
Diana’s books include: To Speak for the Trees, The Sweetness of a Simple Life, The Global Forest, Arboretum Borealis, Arboretum America, and A Garden for Life.
Gary Pritchard
Gary is Founder, Owner and Principal of 4 Directions of Conservation, with over 17 years of professional experience. Gary is a member of Curve Lake First Nation, and has had the privilege to work on behalf of First Nations peoples throughout Ontario. He has travelled and worked in almost 300 First Nations communities throughout Canada and northern United States. One of Gary's greatest strengths is that he is often able to be the one who acts as the bridge between the Indigenous Community and the western style of government. Gary has successfully collaborated with many stakeholder groups, researchers, institutes, government agencies, Indigenous communities, and political organizations to address environmental concerns and identify practical solutions to environmental related issues. Gary will provide Indigenous Knowledge (plant medicines and teachings), as well as ecological and engagement expertise, to support the work of the Healing Garden Collective.
Terence Radford
Terence Radford is a Registered Landscape Architect in Ontario (OALA) and member of the CSLA. He has over 7 years of experience in green infrastructure, landscape planning, urban design, indigenous placekeeping and environmental design. Terence carries a Bachelor’s degree in the fine arts from the University of Victoria and a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of British Columbia. In 2017 he opened Trophic Design as a sole proprietorship and 100% owned and operated Indigenous practice in the field of Landscape Architecture. In 2018 he was awarded his first major public art commission to create a Commemorative Public Artwork for the Alderville First Nation in Lake Ontario Park. Terence has also been an ongoing supporter of Indigenous programs like Nikibii Dawadina Gigwaag, an Indigenous youth education and training program where he has been a visiting professional and mentor since 2018. He believes that as an Indigenous practitioner, it is his responsibility to advocate for the rights and increase the presence of Indigenous peoples in the field of Landscape Architecture and the design of the public realm.
Gina Brouwer
Gina is a landscape architect and consulting arborist collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams and global firms for over 17 years. Typical project work includes parks and trails, naturalization, streetscapes, school grounds, commercial and residential development. Through the Master of Forest Conservation at the University of Toronto, Gina focused on heritage tree recognition and preservation and is a member of the Ontario Urban Forest Council and Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals. Gina is a heritage tree evaluator for the Forests Ontario Heritage Tree Program and has lead numerous tree tours with the Canadian Tree Fund and area naturalist groups. As a consulting arborist, Gina carries out tree inventory and preservation planning with tree valuation, risk assessment, and butternut health assessment qualifications. Gina has extensive experience with school ground and child care greening and playgrounds, integrating student and user engagement and participatory design. She is a Registered Playground Practitioner (RPP) and assistant instructor for the Ontario Parks Association RPP course. Currently, Gina is working on a Climate Ready School pilot project with Evergreen and the Halton District School Board in Milton and is consulting arborist for the Lower Don Trail Access Improvements. Recent projects include the Sunnyside Home Intergenerational Garden and Outdoor Activity Area and Kinsmen Children’s Centre playground restoration and naturalization. She is dedicated to lifelong learning and gleaning an understanding of play and the natural world from her two kids.
Jane Hayes
Jane is the principal at Garden Jane and partner at Hoffmann Hayes. Some of the projects she has helped design and animate include: ~25 residential & commercial building gardens in the GTA; The Erin Mills Farmers Market, Permaculture in Ontario map, the City of Toronto Children’s Garden Program and High Park Children’s Garden. Jane has worked with FoodShare, the City of Toronto’s Community Garden program and worked at Evergreen supervising LAs nationally in a School Ground Greening Program. She co-authored the City of Toronto’s Community Garden Action Plan, a foundation for the City’s community garden strategy. She is passionate about helping grow the infrastructure for gardens and garden programs that serve and help support thriving people and ecologies in the GTA and globally. Jane is a graduate of University of Toronto, and holds a Masters of Environmental Studies from York University. She’s certified in Permaculture Design and as a Permaculture Teacher. Jane will be providing design and programming advice on children’s gardens and permaculture to support the work of the Healing Garden Collective.
Dr. Angela Mashford-Pringle
Dr. Angela Mashford-Pringle is an Algonquin Assistant Professor and Associate Director at the Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Angela completed her Honours B.Sc in Psychology and Sociology, Master of Arts in Indigenous and Adult Education, and her Ph.D. in Indigenous Health and Health Policy. Dr. Mashford-Pringle worked for over a decade at the federal government in Indigenous initiatives like Aboriginal Head Start Urban and Northern Communities, Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program and Tobacco Cessation and Education. Angela is the founding editor of the Turtle Island Journal of Indigenous Health (TIJIH), a graduate student-led journal and the former co-editor of the International Journal of Indigenous Health (IJIH). Dr. Mashford-Pringle is the Program Director the Master of Public Health in Indigenous Health and the Director of the Collaborative Specialization in Indigenous Health. As the only Canadian and first Indigenous board member at the Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH), she has been finding ways to connect Canadian community organizations to university researchers in Canada. She works with Indigenous communities in urban and rural settings with issues related to Indigenous health including culture, language, land-based learning, climate action, and policy analysis and development. Angela will support the Healing Garden Collective as an advisor by providing an Indigenous health perspective to our work.