Boston Globe reporter Kara Baskin and photographer Jonathan Wiggs had a nice feature in yesterday’s paper, focusing on the garden therapy program at Emerson Health in Concord.

“Most patients stay on Emerson’s psychiatric floor for about eight days,” Baskin wrote. “Still, anyone who has languished in a hospital knows how medical time can feel elastic and looping: the same walls, the same faces, the same suspended reality. But for two hours on a Friday morning, in a small art room, the mood shifts. A garden therapy program, run in partnership with the Acton Garden Club and Trader Joe’s, brings a splash of color and a sense of agency to the unit — groundedness amid isolation and loss of control.”

According to the article, the therapy program has reached more than 11,000 patients since starting in 1982. Flowers are donated weekly by Trader Joe’s in Acton. The program became a weekly event in 2018. Each week, two Acton Garden Club volunteers retrieve the donated flowers, assist patients during the workshop, and clean up afterward, under the supervision of an occupational therapist.

Steve Reider, the hospital’s director of behavioral health, is quoted as saying, “When we partnered with the Garden Club, it was about bringing the benefit of flowers — and that quieter cultural element — to our patient population. We want to decrease stress, anxiety, depression, and mood dysregulation. It’s a time to focus, to complete a task, and to walk away knowing you’ve created something. There’s a sense of purpose.”