Some of the 30 herbal garden themes include: Asian, antioxidant, fragrance, children’s herbs, human systems (including digestive, respiratory, musculo-skeletal, excretory, cardiovascular, reproductive, central nervous and immune), Southwest pollinator, international cuisine (including Mexican, Mediterranean, Southeast Asian, French, Chinese, and Middle Eastern), and first aid. The ABC New Hope greenhouse (donated by New Hope Natural Media) is where plants are born and housed during unfavorable weather. (For a full list of gardens see the ABC Demonstration Gardens sidebar.) One of the greatest ways that the gardens contribute to ABC’s mission of educating the public about medicinal herbs is through ABC’s internship program with pharmacy and dietetic students. Many of these students connect with ABC through the University of Texas and Texas State University, although some travel from other states to intern with ABC. Ferguson primarily uses these gardens to teach interns how to make medicinal teas, tinctures, salves, and lotions. Students are also able to view the natural sources of some pharmaceutical ingredients through their work in the gardens. “This is an especially valuable lesson to the pharmacy students who, before ABC, may have made no connection between the pills they know and the plants they may be derived from,” said Ferguson. “The dietetic interns also learn numerous aspects about plants as food and sources of nutrition.”

ABC hopes that this instruction can help bring more balance to the understanding of natural products to those who are taught primarily conventional medicine. Also it will possibly encourage students to incorporate the use of herbs in their work along with conventional pharmaceuticals, bringing more of an integrative approach to the medicine field.

“The gardens were conceived over 10 years ago as a prime public-facing project designed to promote ABC’s educational mission on a local basis as well as through its internship program,” said Engels. “We try to reach the public, not only through educating their future healthcare professionals but by showing them, through classes and tours of ABC’s gardens, how they can incorporate the healthy herbs into their own lifestyles.”

Ferguson has also implemented various community outreach programs. She frequently attends a local farmer’s market on Wednesdays and sells medicinal and culinary herbs from the ABC gardens to spread awareness of herbs and increase the visibility of ABC. Often she accepts the services of those wishing to fulfill community service hours, allowing them to volunteer in the gardens. Recently, she and Denise Meikel, ABC’s development director, have been exploring the possibilities of creating an herbal health education program for disadvantaged youth. Various local organizations, such as LifeWorks, a local nonprofit homeless shelter for youths, and Southwest Key Programs, Inc., a national nonprofit that specializes in community-based treatment programs for troubled youths, have brought groups of students to the gardens where they get a chance to experience nature and learn about medicinal herbs. This fall, there will also be workshops on the ABC grounds that consist of lectures coupled with in-garden experience. The ABC gardens will become a demonstration area for those who want to volunteer their time while gaining garden and medicinal plant education.

Several gardens on the ABC property have resulted from the ABC Garden Dedication Program, in which ABC creates or names an existing medicinal herb garden (usually 10 feet square) of a donor’s choice that displays a desired theme. Gardens that have been dedicated in this manner include the planned Ayurvedic garden, adopted by Nature’s Formulary and Organix-South, and the Oriental garden, created in collaboration with the Academy of Oriental Medicine at Austin (AOMA) and made possible by a grant from High Falls Gardens.⁴ (Parties interested in helping ABC build a new garden or dedicating an existing garden should contact Denise Meikel at ABC.)