Serenity Garden

John Leaman, the inspiration behind the Serenity Garden - see below.

The Serenity Garden at Wekiwa Springs State Park, near Orlando, Florida, is a 'park within a park' that will allow people of all abilities and disabilities to enjoy the true park experience. It is the only one of its kind anywhere in the United States.

In the U.S. 61 million people - 26% of all adults - live with some type of disability.

The one-and-a-half-acre garden is a unique and innovative approach to expanding access for all to public spaces and enhancing the quality of the experience. The project is being managed by the Wekiva Wilderness Trust, the volunteer 501c3 organization that supports the work of Wekiwa Springs State Park.

Working with educational, healthcare and social service and horticultural partners, the garden creates a unique sensory experience for people of all abilities and groups with special needs such as fragile seniors, people in wheelchairs, veterans with PTSD, people with autism, and chronic conditions as well as their families and caregivers.

Visitors will be able to see, touch, smell, and hear nature and interact with it. The garden will also provide novel opportunities for therapy, education, art, and physical activities.

The design has taken almost three years to finalize to ensure that the views of all experts and focus groups have been accommodated. We are already working with universities to create studies to monitor outcomes.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is promoting the garden as something that other FL. Parks should follow and we hope that the project will become the template for other parks and public spaces both in the U.S. and overseas.

To date, more than $450,000 has been raised but as the project has grown both in complexity and size (from half an acre to one-and-a-half-acres), so has the cost. Nine-foot wide boardwalks that will allow wheelchairs to safely pass each other will alone cost $600,000. Final costs are expected to be around $1.5 million and we aim to set up an endowment to cover ongoing maintenance and updates. We also plan to provide two scholarships a year, one for an occupational therapy student and one for a therapeutic horticultural student.

We are waiting on the final permit and then work will start on the first phase – grading, retaining walls, paths, and boardwalks. Phase two will complete all the hardscaping and phase three will include all the planting.

The Serenity Garden is a unique project that aims to serve as a sanctuary for a largely underserved population throughout Central Florida. As such it deserves all our support.

Pictured above is John Leaman, the inspiration behind the Serenity Garden. John has been volunteering at Wekiwa Springs State Park for more than 40 years and was a founding member of the Wekiva Wilderness Trust. Although now confined to a wheelchair he is still a frequent visitor and it was during a volunteer shift at the nature center a few years ago, that he came up with the idea of the Serenity Garden. Looking up the slope behind the nature center he could see butterflies and hummingbirds, orchids and squirrels, and a wide range of wildflowers - but he could not get close to them. What if there was a way that people in wheelchairs could access and enjoy this area, he thought - and that is how the Serenity Garden was born.