The Healing Garden.

Join us June 6th for the annual potluck and planting! Take time to watch it grow this summer.

The Michael's Place Healing Garden is planted each summer behind the Traverse Area District Library on Woodmere Avenue in Traverse City. We celebrate the event with lots of hard work, dirty hands, a potluck meal and good company.

On Monday, June 6th, we’ll be planting our Michael’s Place “Healing Garden” behind the Traverse Area District Library, just off Woodmere Ave. Michael’s Place will provide the flowers—you provide the green (or any color) thumbs.

In addition to planting, we will also be decorating with the stepping stones that have been made, and will have the oppor tunity to paint rocks with our loved ones names to add personal touches to our space. For dinner we will have a picnic potluck, so please bring a dish to share. There are a couple of electrical outlets if you want to bring something hot in a crockpot, otherwise salads, desserts, chips, whatever sounds good to you. Michael’s Place will provide drinks, plates, cups, napkins & flatware. Please join us for this special night.

The planting of the Healing Garden is an annual program that gives families the opportunity to plant flowers in memory of their loved ones. Whether it's a favorite flower, or a flower of a favorite color — or maybe gardening was something they loved to do. Sometimes tending a garden gives us something to nurture when the one we long to take care of is no longer here. Maybe it’s just the act of working in the dirt and seeing something you planted continue to grow and become something even more beautiful than when you started and even when you're away from the plants.  Any way you look at it, planting a garden is a healing experience for many, and planting flowers in memory of our loved ones has become a special tradition for our group members.

 It is a quiet, peaceful place to remember, or a place to pull weeds and vent sadness, anger, or any difficult feeling. Gardening can be a very healing activity for all who are grieving. It is a special way to remember and feel connected to the person who died.

Stop by the Healing Garden during the 'growing' season, located behind the Traverse Area District Library to tend the flowers or appreciate the beauty. The library is at 610 Woodmere Avenue in Traverse City.