Boyce Thompson Arboretum: The Healing Power of Nature and Art

Boyce Arboretum

Superior Arizona

If it's a choice between Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens and Boyce Thompson Arboretum I'm going to choose Boyce. It's not that the Phoenix Botanical Garden isn't beautiful, and well curated with fabulous events but there is a wildness about Boyce that appeals to me. Because it's out of the way there are less crowds and more 

chances to find a quiet spot to sit and soak in the surroundings, the sounds, and the smells. Right now the air is filled with the  sweet grape cool aid scent of the Texas  Mountain Laurels.

We usually start our visit in the demonstration gardens and sit and read for an hour before walking around, however walking was a struggle today. I  have just recovered from BronchoPneumonia and excited to get back out on the trails and in nature and then BOOM I now seem to have developed plantar fasciitis, so yep I was hobbling around the place.  Obviously the healing power of nature is more a matter of healing the mind because despite the pain it felt so so good to feel the sunshine on my cheeks, smell the fresh air and just be in nature, part of it. 

In this article by Leif Hass talks about the Healing Power and Forest Bathing, which was popularized in Japan. Forest Bathing  means taking in the forest atmosphere, a form or ecotherapy. 

In celebration on their 100 year anniversary the arboretum asked artists to paint/decorate fiberglass  Hedgehog cactus displayed throughout the Arboretum.

cactus and have them located throughout the Arboretum.