Hortitherapy is a form of therapy where participants enhance their mental and physical wellbeing through plant care, garden activities and other forms of contact with nature. Although hortitherapy had been established as a recognized practice in the late 1990s, its industry remains largely untapped in Slovenia, despite abundance of green areas. This is probably due to the fact that most hospitals built in the 20th century were located in city centers and were consequently deprived of parks and other green areas intended for therapy. In recent years, however, more attention has been directed towards this type of therapy, especially in the form of hortitherapeutic gardens located next to educational and protective care institutions, such as kindergartens, primary schools, day centers for adults with special needs and nursing homes. Most hortitherapeutic gardens focus primarily on useful fruit-bearing plants and herbs, although they constitute only a part of the proposed plant selection criteria. The key guideline when using plants for therapeutic purposes is to stimulate all senses, especially those which positively affect the psychological, physical and emotional health of target groups. The thesis provides general guidelines and presents new options of introducing hortitherapy in Slovenia, all while considering its history, existing research findings and examples of foreign practices. The example of a hortitherapeutic garden in Velenje encourages the development of hortitherapeutic gardens as independent units that are indirectly connected to various public institutions. Such gardens could be positioned on the already existing unused green areas, rooftops, areas of various abandoned buildings or some other locations, which are – despite their distance from the city centers – placed along the path of frequent daily routes.
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