Nature

Snow and ice spell trouble, maybe danger, probably extra work, and certainly limits to mobility. Hardest hit won’t be those who live in snow country and are used to it, but those who live in the marginal areas that rarely get snow or ice. Overcoming the inconveniences of snow requires preparation. This series of posts provides checklists to help you create and prepare for a better winter experience. The posts in this series are: Universal Design for Winter, Preparing For Winter, Snow Remov

The restorative garden can be as simple as a well-situated pot of healthy sage at a window-sill or as sublime as a cathedral forest. It’s how we respond to a garden that makes it restorative. Are there gardens that are universally restorative? Gardens that evoke a healing response in each and every one of us? I believe so.

I’ve learned that the most restorative of gardens are those that embody “nothing less than the entire universe” – to borrow from Luis Barrigan.

Stepping back from a focused view on universal design, I see that there are other ways to achieve an environment that disappears the effects of many conditions that would otherwise be considered disabling. What is it and how is it possible?

A new and beautifully illustrated book, Restorative Commons: Creating Health and Well-Being Through Urban Landscapes, not only values that calming experience we all feel after time spent in nature, it looks at how to bring nature back into our urban settings