A Therapeutic Horticulture Summer Program for Teens
Sow to Grow is a 3-week summer program for teens, 13 years olds through high school seniors, from June 3 through June 24, 2024.
Hosted by UT Gardens, Sow to Grow is a fun, socially engaging summer program that involves a variety of fun gardening activities. The program is held in a natural, safe, environment that uses people-plant connections as a foundation to improve the well-being of the whole person.
Through participating in various plant-based activities participants will learn a variety of skills including: a better understanding of what is expected of them in gaining employment and in the workplace, how to manage stressful situations using nature, and how to work both independently and as a team!
Sow to Grow is for teenagers, 13 years olds through high school seniors, who have disabilities.
Example activities include:
- Plant-based activities such as propagating a succulent plant will provide participants with the tools necessary to meet the expectations of performing job tasks correctly and expeditiously, building self-confidence.
- Learning and practicing stress management techniques through spending time in nature, focusing on the sounds of birds, wind, leaves rustling, and the smells of various flowers and trees will give participants a tool to improve their physical and mental well-being.
- Through building a “Memory File” on a daily basis, information about themselves, and using it as a tool to encourage interaction with the other participants in the program will help promote socialization and confidence.
- Students will share what good and bad bugs students found during a scavenger hunt and whether they were beneficial or not for the plants they were on, correlating it with jobs that provide or don’t provide the skills needed toward obtaining their dream job.
June 3- June 24, Monday-Friday (no session June 19th as UT campus is closed)
Time: Half Day and Full Day options
- Half Day: 8:30 am- 12:00 pm (no lunch)
- Full Day: 8:30 am- 2:00 pm (lunch break included)
Sow to Grow Daily Schedule Example:
| 8:30 am | Drop off and Clock-in / Morning introductions and announcements |
| 9:15 am | Education on plant care and tools |
| 9:30 am | Planting activity |
| 10:30 am | Morning Break |
| 10:45 am | Planting job-skills focused activity and job discussions |
| 12:00 pm | Dismissal of Half-Day Participants and Lunch |
| 12:45 pm | Stress Management Activities and Discussions |
| 2:00 pm | Dismissal and Clock Out |
Our program is led by Derrick Stowell, Registered Horticultural Therapist, and Deb Wolf, Therapeutic Horticultural Specialist. Both have many years of experience utilizing plants and nature in a therapeutic setting.
Derrick has been working for the University of Tennessee Gardens since 2012. He is the Education and Horticultural Therapy Program Administrator for the UT Gardens. Derrick is responsible for directing education programs and horticultural therapy programs for the UT Gardens, Knoxville location. He received his bachelor’s degree from Maryville College in 2003 with a double major in environmental studies and outdoor recreation. After graduating, Derrick spent a year as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Knoxville working with Ijams Nature Center and its Earth Flag program teaching environmental education to students in Knox County schools. Derrick went on to complete his master’s degree in therapeutic recreation from the University of Tennessee in 2006 and directed Camp Koinonia in 2006. He spent five years directing the national camp program for the Amputee Coalition of America and was also their Annual Giving Manager. He received his Ph.D. in plant, soil and environmental sciences from the University of Tennessee. Derrick has developed numerous programs for the UT Gardens including horticultural therapy programs. He is a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (CTRS). In 2015 he became a registered Horticultural Therapist (HTR) through the American Horticultural Therapy Association. Derrick served on the Board of Directors for the American Horticultural Therapy Association (AHTA) from 2016-2018. He also served the American Horticultural Therapy Association as President-elect (2021), President (2022), and Immediate-past President (2023).
Deb Wolf, Therapeutic Horticultural Specialist currently works as the Horticultural Therapy Program Assistant/Program Development at UT Gardens under Dr. Derrick Stowell. Deb holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Applied Psychology from Regis University and a Certificate in Horticultural Therapy from HT Institute affiliated with Colorado State University. In 2010, she volunteered for Community Cultivation in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and eventually worked as their Therapeutic Horticultural Specialist until moving out East. While at Community Cultivation she helped prepare youth and young adults with disabilities ages 15-25 for work in the real world. Using horticultural therapy, she taught them the social and professional skills they would need to be appropriate and successful in their future jobs. As a Therapeutic Horticultural Specialist at UT, she currently oversees and develops horticultural therapy programs for residents of various Senior Facilities in the Knoxville region. She has always loved working with plants and people so what better way to do both than through horticultural therapy.
“[Staff]made me feel like I was leaving my child with people who knew disability and prompted me to give information I would not have thought to give. [Following the program] he was very verbal after we were in the car and used non scripted speech which was huge for him”
Sara Felts (Parent of 2022 Participant)
