My Big Backyard is a small for profit, LLC, which operates in conjunction with the non-profit Hobson Foundation, Inc. Our goal is to provide and/or maintain a series of sympathetic and purposeful gardening sites which will offer safe and structured programs for those who wish to reap the many benefits of horticulture therapy.

The vision of this project is to empower disadvantaged members in the society, including at-risk youths and disabled and transitional adults by using sustainable agriculture as means to help them develop entrepreneurial and life skills and establish a positive connection with the community.

The mission of this project is to establish youth development and empowerment programs and programs directed toward disabled and transitional adults, which use sustainable agriculture as means to effect lasting change for participants on Maryland’s Eastern Shore area.

Through these programs the participants can connect to the land and learn the benefits of growing, eating, selling and donating sustainably produced food. These programs will encourage the development of leadership, entrepreneurial and life skills, and the importance of giving back to their community.

Although horticulture therapy is a comparatively young profession the concepts upon which the profession is built are as ancient as the pyramids. These concepts were evolved many centuries ago simply because they made good sense. Each of us who has marveled at a perfect flower, taken pride in growing a plant or felt excitingly renewed upon discovering the first blooms of spring has experienced these founding principles which gave rise to the profession of horticultural therapy. There is a special connection between people and plants, between people and the gardening pursuit and between people and natural surroundings. The therapist who is trained in horticulture simply uses these realities as nonthreatening ways in which to introduce and facilitate therapy and rehabilitation. The profession of horticulture therapy is a result of two disciplines merging complementarily: horticulture in support of therapy and rehabilitation.1

1Sharon P. Simson, PhD and Martha C. Straus, HTM eds., Horticultural as Therapy: Principles and Practice (CRC Press, 1998) 3.