RUSKIE PIASKI, Poland - An elderly woman leans over to smell a lush flower bed of lavender in sprawling gardens surrounding an imposing early 20th-century palace in a pastoral corner of eastern Poland.

Slowly a smile lights up her face, erasing her previous stony expression - she suffers from paranoid schizophrenia which often renders her emotionless.

The sudden burst of happiness is one of the benefits of horticultural, or garden therapy, as it is better known.

She is among 59 female patients at this state-run, mental healthcare home in the village of Ruskie Piaski who are undergoing the springtime treatment, introduced here in 2014.

"Gardens provide an environment that stimulates many senses; the patient can smell the scents of flowers and plants, touch them, and even get pricked by thorns," says biological scientist Bozena Szewczyk-Taranek, who has created a horticultural therapy training course at the Agricultural University of Krakow, due to start in September.

"It also facilitates physical exercise, for example, for patients who have problems with their balance, they can hop from one stone to another.

Sense of well-being

"But when we have intellectually-impaired patients, we must make sure there are no toxic plants in the gardens like yews, hydrangeas or lily of the valley," she said.

While horticultural therapy does not cure mental illness, it can stimulate patients both intellectually and socially, boosting their self-confidence and sense of well-being, experts say.

Even just getting them out of their rooms into the fresh air can help by improving their physical condition.

Alina Anasiewicz, the director of the Ruskie Piaski care home which is one of the leading centers in Poland for garden therapy, says she came across it on a 2013 study trip to Switzerland.

"We brought home quite a few of the methods we learned from the Swiss," she said.

She points proudly to a fountain, where, on hot days, patients can touch the flowing water and wade into a small pool with pebbles lining the bottom that tickle their feet.

To reach the fountain, patients must walk barefoot along a "sensory path", of gravel, sand and wooden logs, allowing the varied textures to stimulate their senses.

Patients at the Ruskie Piaski care home can stay as long as their condition requires medical supervision and are able to leave for family visits or have visitors, but their daily garden therapy can depend on the weather.

Staff say that when the weather is bad or in winter, patients are more depressed. One went on a visit to see her family, but asked to return earlier than planned.

She'd said simply, "I miss the garden", they explained.

Agence France - Presse