Healing Garden blooms with beauty, peace
A couple enjoys the peace and tranquility of the Healing Garden. Tucked away long Sand Creek and near Bonner General Health, the garden is a place of spiritual solace, designed as a retreat for both those visiting the hospital and those who work there. It serves, hospital officials said, to give the living a place to reflect and a place to remember those who have passed.
SANDPOINT — Tucked away behind Bonner General is a tranquil oasis.
Garden paths meander among the flowers, shrubs, and trees. A carved eagle, perched atop the waterfall, makes a fitting garden guardian. Leaves leaves imprinted on the pathways resemble fossils to remind those who visit the garden of the full cycle of nature.
A chapel is tucked into a corner of the garden, offering solace. A tea house, standing guard along Sand Creek, a blend of wood and stone.
An arbor offers a place for roses to climb up and over and round, offering entry into the garden's peace.
While health can mean many things, Bonner General Health officials knew decades ago that mental health, a place for calm and respite and solace was as important to their patients' health — and that of the community and hospital's staff — as mending broken bones.
Led by Linda Plaster, who passed away in 2016, and cheered on by then-CEO Gene Tomt, gardeners as passionate about the community as they were about gardening got to work. The dream was to create a place of beauty and contemplation, where those in need only had to slip just a few feet away to find themselves in another world.
Built on the hospital grounds in 2003, the garden borders Sand Creek with flowers in every corner. Garden paths winnow around this flower or that plant, under a trellis or past a waterfall. Benches are tucked along the strolling paths where the noise of downtown Sandpoint fades away, giving way to the sounds of the creek or birds chirping nearby.
Public art is scattered around the site: a metal-art tree where leaves immortalize the names of children; a large hand where the young or young-at-heart can perch for a moment;
The garden is a place of spiritual solace, designed as a retreat for both those visiting the hospital and those who work there. It serves, Bonner General Health officials said, to give the living a place to reflect and a place to remember those who have passed.
With the garden tucked away along Sand Creek by the hospital, many people often don't realize that the Healing Garden exists. From meandering pathways to hidden alcoves, from a children's garden with fun and quirky sculptures designed to ignite the imagination, the Healing Garden offers peace and tranquility, and a spot to heal the mind and soul.
"Even before it was built, the Healing Garden brought our community together," officials said on the hospital's website. "Allied with a common goal, residents, and volunteers worked to create a place of healing that truly reflects the surrounding natural beauty that we enjoy here in northern Idaho. In every way, in every season, the Healing Garden achieves this purpose."
The garden is funded by donations and maintained by community volunteers and more are needed to keep the garden thriving, Mary Ann Jeffers, a volunteer at the Healing Garden for over 18 years, said recently.
"Our volunteers are getting older and want to turn it over to others who are ready and willing to keep the garden going for our community," she said. "Without more volunteers, I’m not sure what will happen. This is my last year and I want to see the garden thrive but I can’t do it without more volunteers.”
Information: bonnergeneral.org
From meandering pathways to hidden alcoves, from a children's garden with fun and quirky sculptures designed to ignite the imagination, the Healing Garden offers peace and tranquility, and a spot to heal the mind and soul.
