- A community healing garden now is open to patients and the public at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg
- Peter Yenawine, along with the Auxiliary of Lehigh Valley Hospital and master gardeners, created the space
- Native and medicinal plants are incorporated in the garden
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Patients at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg now can enjoy the serenity of a garden while receiving treatment.
The hospital network debuted the newly renovated space Tuesday.
"This was a rehab garden, that's what they called it, and yet it was all concrete and there was river rock where the plants are now and so forth," industrial designer Peter Yenawine said.
"And I said, 'There's nothing healing about concrete.'”
Yenawine, of Bethlehem, said he was getting treatment at the hospital when he came up with the idea to breathe more life into the atrium.
“People who are rehabbing from injury or illness, they can come out here and there's different textures and grades. So they can actually make this a functional garden but also see the beauty of the garden and it's practical."
Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg President Jim Miller
“This was a space for the patients, everybody to come," he said. "A little serenity, a little healing. There's nothing more beautiful than plants."
Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg President Jim Miller said, “People who are rehabbing from injury or illness, they can come out here and there's different textures and grades.
"So they can actually make this a functional garden but also see the beauty of the garden and it's practical."
The community healing garden now is open to anyone visiting the Bethlehem hospital. Many of the plants that were put in are medicinal or native to Pennsylvania.
'Encaptured by beauty'
Kristen Lissy, who is a master gardener in the Lehigh Valley, said organizers love Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Chester County.
"So we went to almost bring Longwood into the hospital if that's possible, but we focus on beauty and foliage and flowers and research," Lissy said.
"We researched a lot of healing plants and also native plants. If it's grown in Pennsylvania, we included it, or if it's like drought-hardy, we included it. It had to be beautiful."
"Five to minutes of being in a healing garden is supposed to reduce stress."
Kristen Lissy, master gardener
Lissy said the group behind the renovations put many hours of planning and effort into designing the space.
"We did a lot of research," she said. "Five to 10 minutes of being in a healing garden is supposed to reduce stress and we wanted to speak to that and really be encaptured by beauty."
Leesa Wimmer, also a master gardener and part of the Bethlehem Garden Club and Emmaus Garden Club, was part of the design process and said she went through the Moravian archives to find the perfect plants for this area.
"I wanted to make sure that some of this garden reflected some of the medicinal plants and herbs that were used here 280 years ago,” said Wimmer.
Yenawine said he wanted to incorporate a fountain in the garden, but regulations prohibited running water, so he created one out of glass.
The gardeners said they next will plant 600 bulbs in the weeks to come, so the spring bloom will be colorful in the healing garden.
The master gardeners were among those at Tuesday's official opening of the garden, at which Yenawine addressed a crowd.
He thanked many organizations for volunteering their time and talents to creating a place where patients could go to sit and admire the beauty.
Yenawine said there are plans to add sound and a QR code that will give people a map of the healing garden.