Autumn at Red Oak Recovery is filled with activity as we harvest the last bounty of our garden and mountain orchard. All hands join in to harvest apples, and tomatoes are picked green before the first frost and hung to ripen. Fall vegetables like winter squash, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins add variety and rich nutrition to our daily meals.
Then, before winter sets in, it’s time to enrich the garden beds, mulch the orchard, and turn autumn leaves and garden debris into compost that will nurture next year’s crops. Soon, the berries, trees, and vines that have provided for our sustenance will turn dormant, as they rest and replenish before returning in the spring.
For clients recovering from addiction, the gardening chores of autumn provide a wonderful opportunity to connect with each other and put into practice the recovery skills they have been learning. This is a time to:
- Practice new social skills, share experiences & forge supportive friendships
- Develop the competence and confidence that come with accomplishing a task
- Learn to tend to their own nutritional needs just as they tend to the garden’s needs
- Understand the importance of physical and spiritual renewal
The result is a greater understanding of themselves and their ability to live healthy and productive lives.
A Holistic Approach to Recovery
Organic tasks like tending to the garden and mountain orchard are part of the unique experience here at Red Oak Recovery. In our beautiful N.C. setting, young adults learn to share and appreciate the connection between nutrition, health, and cooperative work. This therapy for the soul is coupled with gender-specific clinical treatment to provide a lasting change to sobriety for our clients. Call 866.457.7590 to speak with an enrollment counselor about an individually tailored recovery program for you or your loved one.
