March 31, 2025 • 14 mins
Amid the stresses of daily life and the uncertainty of the world around us, having a peaceful place to reflect and unwind can make all the difference. For participants in Project Renewal’s horticultural therapy program, that sanctuary is the rooftop garden at one of the nonprofit’s supportive housing sites, Bedford Green House. At heart of this healing space in the Bronx, is our guest Jonelle Green, Project Renewal’s horticultural therapist. For more, visit projectrenewal.org.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to get connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven Light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome and thanks for listening to get connected. We are
all stressed. The world is uncertain. All of us could
use a peaceful place to reflect and focus our energies.
For the people who participate in Project Renewals horticultural therapy program,
that sanctuary is the rooftop garden at Bedford Greenhouse in
the Bronx. Working at the heart of this healing space
(00:33):
is our guest, Janelle Green, Project Renewals Horticultural therapist, Janelle,
thank you for being on the show.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You can find out more about Project Renewal at Project
renewal dot org. And though we've spoken with people from
Project Renewal a few times on the show, Janelle, I
wonder for people who aren't familiar, could you kind of
talk a little bit about the overview of what Project
Renewal does. Yes.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Project Reneal is a housing program that helps rehabilitate the
homeless into jobs and take them out of shelters. I
work at the Bedford Greenhouse unit, which houses a mixed
group of formally unhoused people and I work at the
(01:17):
Greenhouse rooftop of Bedford Greenhouse.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
This building, so the Bedford Greenhouse. It's a thirteen story
building in the Bronx which was designed as supportive and
affordable housing and designed with the garden. The name kind
of reflects that there's a garden in there. Yes, what
does a garden and horticultural therapy have to do in
the conversation with assisting people getting back onto their feet
and having a sustainable life again, well.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's been proven that being around nature helps reduce stress
and anxiety. A lot of people who have been unhoused
have dealt with stress and anxiety. This facility, it acts
as a place where you can decompress. You can just
come up and be around nature. Sure, and we also
(02:02):
have group activities where you can be immersed into the garden.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
So the Bedford House again was built with the garden.
Since we can't see it, I think it's useful if
you could give us a picture of this garden. Can
you tell us what it looks like? This rooftop on
the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
It's amazing to say rooftop on the Bronx. So This
is a fifteen hundred square foot greenhouse. It's run by
an aquaponic system. An aquaponic system is where fish fertilize
plants by their waist and that water is then recirculated
(02:40):
into grow beds. And in the grow beds at this moment,
we have herbs pollinating flowers to bring in beneficial bugs.
The greenhouse actually is automated, so it opens and closes
to regulate the temperature. We also so have fruit trees.
(03:01):
It's large enough to have fruit trees and later in
the season we'll have vegetables.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
It sounds beautiful.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, it's truly incredible.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Horticultural therapy in itself sounds fascinating. What drew you to
that this work.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
I've always been interested in gardening. Gardening was really my piece,
but through a handful of traumatic events, I suffer from
PTSD and I personally healed myself through being around and
immersing myself in nature. And when COVID hit, I happened
(03:44):
to turn forty during the lockdown, and I wanted to
figure out what I wanted to do for the next
forty years of my life, and I quit everything and
I started studying horticulture, and I started studying aquaponic specific
just because the environment is changing and I think that
that is probably the way that we need to sustain ourselves.
(04:07):
And I kind of left it to chance. I was like,
I'm just gonna I'm gonna let the universe guide me.
And the place that I studied aquaponics, they had a
job offering and it was a temporary position and the
person who was there she never came back. And I
(04:33):
got this opportunity to create a space from what I
was studying. I was studying herbalism, I was studying anxiety,
I was studying PTSD. So it all kind of worked
itself out.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It's kind of a perfect job for you.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yes, it is very very happy.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
It sounds like a perfect job. Our guest is Janelle Green.
She is prot Renewals horticultural therapists. You can find out
more about the organization at Project renewal dot org. You're
listening to get connected on one oh six point seven
light FM. I'm Nina del Rio. I believe the garden
if I'm correct, it open like the ribbon cutting for
the building was in twenty twenty two, so you're sort
of you established this garden as it is when I.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Came in, it was already kind of flourishing. Aquaponic systems
usually take about five years to really like get its
bearings together, and I for the first year, I just
kind of assessed it. I met all the tenants in
the building, and honestly, this year, this full year, I've
(05:43):
been really recreating it to cater to the people in
the building.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Let's talk about the residents. Who are they participating, What
are they what are they bringing to the program? Right Like,
some probably have some experience and probably have none experience,
So how are they, you know, engaging with I'll talk.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
About three different groups of people. So I have one
tenant who really suffers from anxiety and does not like
to be part of the groups, and they just come
up there to decompress. Every other day. They are there
just to be immersed in the plants. I have another
(06:21):
tenant who didn't have any experience with gardening, but really
liked the atmosphere, and he shows up every day and
that routine really helped him have something to focus on.
It gave him a goal, which then led him to
(06:41):
work within Project Renewal with a pairing company to get
him back into the workforce, and then we have families though,
we have groups, so some of the children come and
we do groups of planting, plant touching. I created a
sensory for the kids. Later on, once the harvesting comes in,
(07:06):
we do tinctures, we make pulpari, so it's just a
wide range. And then some people just have plant questions
and plant care so they can come up and talk
about their plants and get new plants. And for some
people it's good for their sobriety to start taking care
(07:27):
of something. So it's just that it's it's incredible because
it's so many different people.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
And the levels of engagement you talk about are really interesting, right,
just from being there to actually really being immersed in
it and leading you onto a job path even right, Yeah,
as you said in the beginning, you kind of came
into this with your own anxiety as well. Can you
talk a little bit about how touch and smell and
sound play a role in healing and giving people something
(07:54):
else to focus on, some access to something else.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
It's actually what I noticed the first thing. When you
walk into the greenhouse, you can actually physically see people's
bodies change. So just the warmth of the greenhouse, the
smell of the greenhouse changes your attitude touching plants. Like
(08:20):
I said, it's been scientific proven that touching plants actually
is a stress reliever. But being around plants and having
these little activities, you can just focus on one thing
at a time, and that's very very helpful for people
who just need some kind of stability. The sensory aspect
(08:44):
of it, the smells, I've really tried to incorporate seasonal smells.
Winter is really rough for people, so I made a
point to really bring in color and senses so that
it would kind of liveln up people's spirits during you know,
(09:05):
winter depression, which a lot of people do have.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
There's also this thing about to me, the practice of
tending to any garden includes structure, responsibility, and routine, which
is highly yessful.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
And for some people, this garden group is the only
thing that they do every week. I just met a
new tenant who he suffers from gout and it's very
difficult for him to get out of the apartment and
he makes it a point to be there on Thursday
just to get out of that apartment and have that
(09:39):
structure and have that routine. And right now what we're
working on is sowing seeds for the spring summer harvest,
and for him being able to pick out what he
wants to eat, you know, is so just to look
on his face, you know, when leave there, it was
(10:00):
just so warming that like this is the one thing
that he looks forward to every week.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
And for you looking ahead, what types of projects do
you hope to grow at the house and what do
you hope to bring you were talking about the acoponic system.
It takes a few years to get going.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I am extremely impatient, and I believe that adding more
plants solves all your problems. So we have four tanks.
Two of them have goldfish in them and two are
just kind of barren. And I created another little ecosystem
within those tanks by adding crush coral, some water plants,
(10:44):
and it actually is sped up the system a little
bit more so it's it's very balanced in there.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Your experiments you'd be able to do in that facility
sound amazing because it's such a huge space.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
It is, and we also have an outside space and
you have to be just because it's on a rooftop,
which means that it's extra sunny and extra windy. So
this year I plan on taking that outdoor space and
turning it into a pumpkin patch and hopefully growing some melons.
(11:16):
Everything we grow is of the dwarf variety, just because
we live in a colder climate and because we have
so many people in the building. You can't just grow
one little tiny water melon. So yes, so I'm really
trying to utilize the outdoor space for more vegetables and
things that they can take home.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I think this is a useful conversation too for people
who aren't connected to Bedford Greenhouse. But you have a
little rooftop, you have a little window box in New York,
you have these small spaces. Can you talk a little
bit about just the meaning of growing something even in
these small little spaces.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Oh, it's more beneficial now than it's ever been. A
lot of people don't know where their food comes from.
It in their food, and this is a great chance
for people to learn. In a small urban environment, you
can grow urbs in your apartment. And I do encourage
(12:17):
everyone to just try it. And we have people every day. Janelle,
I just got this plant, and I just got this,
and I just got that. So it's really nice to
see how this has Peaud people's interests into healthier foods
and herbalism and really kind of getting a grasp on
(12:45):
our food system and really doing things for themselves.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Also, I think the idea of just tending to something
in a place where we're always kind of people are scattered,
people are thinking about other things. The focus on that thing,
you know, green beans on your rooftop deck. Whatever it is, right,
it's kind of wonderful.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
It isn't It's simple, it doesn't have to be difficult,
and you know so many people. I have a brown thumb,
and I will find you a plant. I will make
it work. And it's been really it's really been helpful
(13:28):
to understand people's environments of what they have in their
space and what they want to achieve. And that's the
part I really like, is like actually finding the perfect
plant for the resident to take care of.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Well. Congratulations on finding the perfect job for you. Janelle
Green is Project Renewal's horticultural therapist. You can find out
more about Project Renewal at Project renewal dot org. Thank
you for being on to get connected.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
This has been Get connected with Nina del Rio on
one oh six point seven Light FM. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed any part of our
show or want to share it, visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one O six seven lightfm dot com.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to get connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven Light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome and thanks for listening to get connected. We are
all stressed. The world is uncertain. All of us could
use a peaceful place to reflect and focus our energies.
For the people who participate in Project Renewals horticultural therapy program,
that sanctuary is the rooftop garden at Bedford Greenhouse in
the Bronx. Working at the heart of this healing space
(00:33):
is our guest, Janelle Green, Project Renewals Horticultural therapist, Janelle,
thank you for being on the show.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You can find out more about Project Renewal at Project
renewal dot org. And though we've spoken with people from
Project Renewal a few times on the show, Janelle, I
wonder for people who aren't familiar, could you kind of
talk a little bit about the overview of what Project
Renewal does. Yes.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Project Reneal is a housing program that helps rehabilitate the
homeless into jobs and take them out of shelters. I
work at the Bedford Greenhouse unit, which houses a mixed
group of formally unhoused people and I work at the
(01:17):
Greenhouse rooftop of Bedford Greenhouse.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
This building, so the Bedford Greenhouse. It's a thirteen story
building in the Bronx which was designed as supportive and
affordable housing and designed with the garden. The name kind
of reflects that there's a garden in there. Yes, what
does a garden and horticultural therapy have to do in
the conversation with assisting people getting back onto their feet
and having a sustainable life again, well.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's been proven that being around nature helps reduce stress
and anxiety. A lot of people who have been unhoused
have dealt with stress and anxiety. This facility, it acts
as a place where you can decompress. You can just
come up and be around nature. Sure, and we also
(02:02):
have group activities where you can be immersed into the garden.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
So the Bedford House again was built with the garden.
Since we can't see it, I think it's useful if
you could give us a picture of this garden. Can
you tell us what it looks like? This rooftop on
the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
It's amazing to say rooftop on the Bronx. So This
is a fifteen hundred square foot greenhouse. It's run by
an aquaponic system. An aquaponic system is where fish fertilize
plants by their waist and that water is then recirculated
(02:40):
into grow beds. And in the grow beds at this moment,
we have herbs pollinating flowers to bring in beneficial bugs.
The greenhouse actually is automated, so it opens and closes
to regulate the temperature. We also so have fruit trees.
(03:01):
It's large enough to have fruit trees and later in
the season we'll have vegetables.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
It sounds beautiful.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, it's truly incredible.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Horticultural therapy in itself sounds fascinating. What drew you to
that this work.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
I've always been interested in gardening. Gardening was really my piece,
but through a handful of traumatic events, I suffer from
PTSD and I personally healed myself through being around and
immersing myself in nature. And when COVID hit, I happened
(03:44):
to turn forty during the lockdown, and I wanted to
figure out what I wanted to do for the next
forty years of my life, and I quit everything and
I started studying horticulture, and I started studying aquaponic specific
just because the environment is changing and I think that
that is probably the way that we need to sustain ourselves.
(04:07):
And I kind of left it to chance. I was like,
I'm just gonna I'm gonna let the universe guide me.
And the place that I studied aquaponics, they had a
job offering and it was a temporary position and the
person who was there she never came back. And I
(04:33):
got this opportunity to create a space from what I
was studying. I was studying herbalism, I was studying anxiety,
I was studying PTSD. So it all kind of worked
itself out.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It's kind of a perfect job for you.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yes, it is very very happy.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
It sounds like a perfect job. Our guest is Janelle Green.
She is prot Renewals horticultural therapists. You can find out
more about the organization at Project renewal dot org. You're
listening to get connected on one oh six point seven
light FM. I'm Nina del Rio. I believe the garden
if I'm correct, it open like the ribbon cutting for
the building was in twenty twenty two, so you're sort
of you established this garden as it is when I.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Came in, it was already kind of flourishing. Aquaponic systems
usually take about five years to really like get its
bearings together, and I for the first year, I just
kind of assessed it. I met all the tenants in
the building, and honestly, this year, this full year, I've
(05:43):
been really recreating it to cater to the people in
the building.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Let's talk about the residents. Who are they participating, What
are they what are they bringing to the program? Right Like,
some probably have some experience and probably have none experience,
So how are they, you know, engaging with I'll talk.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
About three different groups of people. So I have one
tenant who really suffers from anxiety and does not like
to be part of the groups, and they just come
up there to decompress. Every other day. They are there
just to be immersed in the plants. I have another
(06:21):
tenant who didn't have any experience with gardening, but really
liked the atmosphere, and he shows up every day and
that routine really helped him have something to focus on.
It gave him a goal, which then led him to
(06:41):
work within Project Renewal with a pairing company to get
him back into the workforce, and then we have families though,
we have groups, so some of the children come and
we do groups of planting, plant touching. I created a
sensory for the kids. Later on, once the harvesting comes in,
(07:06):
we do tinctures, we make pulpari, so it's just a
wide range. And then some people just have plant questions
and plant care so they can come up and talk
about their plants and get new plants. And for some
people it's good for their sobriety to start taking care
(07:27):
of something. So it's just that it's it's incredible because
it's so many different people.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
And the levels of engagement you talk about are really interesting, right,
just from being there to actually really being immersed in
it and leading you onto a job path even right, Yeah,
as you said in the beginning, you kind of came
into this with your own anxiety as well. Can you
talk a little bit about how touch and smell and
sound play a role in healing and giving people something
(07:54):
else to focus on, some access to something else.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
It's actually what I noticed the first thing. When you
walk into the greenhouse, you can actually physically see people's
bodies change. So just the warmth of the greenhouse, the
smell of the greenhouse changes your attitude touching plants. Like
(08:20):
I said, it's been scientific proven that touching plants actually
is a stress reliever. But being around plants and having
these little activities, you can just focus on one thing
at a time, and that's very very helpful for people
who just need some kind of stability. The sensory aspect
(08:44):
of it, the smells, I've really tried to incorporate seasonal smells.
Winter is really rough for people, so I made a
point to really bring in color and senses so that
it would kind of liveln up people's spirits during you know,
(09:05):
winter depression, which a lot of people do have.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
There's also this thing about to me, the practice of
tending to any garden includes structure, responsibility, and routine, which
is highly yessful.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
And for some people, this garden group is the only
thing that they do every week. I just met a
new tenant who he suffers from gout and it's very
difficult for him to get out of the apartment and
he makes it a point to be there on Thursday
just to get out of that apartment and have that
(09:39):
structure and have that routine. And right now what we're
working on is sowing seeds for the spring summer harvest,
and for him being able to pick out what he
wants to eat, you know, is so just to look
on his face, you know, when leave there, it was
(10:00):
just so warming that like this is the one thing
that he looks forward to every week.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
And for you looking ahead, what types of projects do
you hope to grow at the house and what do
you hope to bring you were talking about the acoponic system.
It takes a few years to get going.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I am extremely impatient, and I believe that adding more
plants solves all your problems. So we have four tanks.
Two of them have goldfish in them and two are
just kind of barren. And I created another little ecosystem
within those tanks by adding crush coral, some water plants,
(10:44):
and it actually is sped up the system a little
bit more so it's it's very balanced in there.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Your experiments you'd be able to do in that facility
sound amazing because it's such a huge space.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
It is, and we also have an outside space and
you have to be just because it's on a rooftop,
which means that it's extra sunny and extra windy. So
this year I plan on taking that outdoor space and
turning it into a pumpkin patch and hopefully growing some melons.
(11:16):
Everything we grow is of the dwarf variety, just because
we live in a colder climate and because we have
so many people in the building. You can't just grow
one little tiny water melon. So yes, so I'm really
trying to utilize the outdoor space for more vegetables and
things that they can take home.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I think this is a useful conversation too for people
who aren't connected to Bedford Greenhouse. But you have a
little rooftop, you have a little window box in New York,
you have these small spaces. Can you talk a little
bit about just the meaning of growing something even in
these small little spaces.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Oh, it's more beneficial now than it's ever been. A
lot of people don't know where their food comes from.
It in their food, and this is a great chance
for people to learn. In a small urban environment, you
can grow urbs in your apartment. And I do encourage
(12:17):
everyone to just try it. And we have people every day. Janelle,
I just got this plant, and I just got this,
and I just got that. So it's really nice to
see how this has Peaud people's interests into healthier foods
and herbalism and really kind of getting a grasp on
(12:45):
our food system and really doing things for themselves.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Also, I think the idea of just tending to something
in a place where we're always kind of people are scattered,
people are thinking about other things. The focus on that thing,
you know, green beans on your rooftop deck. Whatever it is, right,
it's kind of wonderful.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
It isn't It's simple, it doesn't have to be difficult,
and you know so many people. I have a brown thumb,
and I will find you a plant. I will make
it work. And it's been really it's really been helpful
(13:28):
to understand people's environments of what they have in their
space and what they want to achieve. And that's the
part I really like, is like actually finding the perfect
plant for the resident to take care of.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Well. Congratulations on finding the perfect job for you. Janelle
Green is Project Renewal's horticultural therapist. You can find out
more about Project Renewal at Project renewal dot org. Thank
you for being on to get connected.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
This has been Get connected with Nina del Rio on
one oh six point seven Light FM. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed any part of our
show or want to share it, visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one O six seven lightfm dot com.
Thanks for listening.
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