{"id":8519,"date":"2026-10-02T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=8519"},"modified":"2026-10-02T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:30:00","slug":"project-grow-how-gardening-helped-a-veteran-heal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=8519","title":{"rendered":"Project GROW: How gardening helped a Veteran heal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tni-source-date\"><strong>Originally published:<\/strong> 2026-10-02T14:30:00+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Edward Beale found healing, connection and a reason to come out of his shell<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the past three years, Air Force Veteran Edward Beale has reaped what he\u2019s sown, literally. Beale joined Project GROW, a five-week virtual gardening course with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/?s=Atlanta+VA+Healthcare+System\">Atlanta VA Healthcare System\u2019s\u00a0<\/a>(VAHCS) Whole Health team. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Being from Chicago, he knew nothing about gardening. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI didn\u2019t know anything about fertilizing. I didn\u2019t know anything about growing from seeds, nothing. I was looking for whatever I could find to help me with my PTSD; you know I was looking for any type of relief,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was introduced to the Whole Health Gardening Group, led by Kelly Fripps, health promotion disease prevention program manager, and Charolette Hamilton, a diagnostic radiologic technologist.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Project GROW teaches Veterans the mental health benefits of planting and growing food. Participants also benefit from the opportunity to connect with other people who enjoy gardening. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What he didn\u2019t expect was to also grow closer to the others in Project GROW.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey are still with me. I can e-mail them, send pictures or whatever, ask them a question,\u201d\u00a0 he said. \u201cEven though I finished the classes, they did not just kick me to the curb. They\u2019re steady with me. If I have a question, they\u2019re gonna answer it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Healing by learning\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beale has grown several crops over the years, including tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, strawberries, watermelons, cantaloupe, string beans, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, red potatoes, collard greens, kale and spinach.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf I get triggered for something, I go down into the garden and start fiddling around; that just keeps me chill. Each year I\u2019ve been learning different things, and it\u2019s all coming off of the class, and it\u2019s all by trial and error,\u201d he said. \u201cI tried different things, like this year I tried to grow corn.\u00a0I didn\u2019t get anything out of it, but I learned something. So, I don\u2019t call that a loss. I don\u2019t call that a failure. I found that to be a success because I learned from it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Beale\u2019s opinion, PTSD hinders many from moving outside of their comfort zones. \u201cWe get into that hole, and we get comfortable being in that hole and don\u2019t want to come out of it. Gardening helped me come out of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sharing the growth\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beale, who also worked 20 years with the Department of Homeland Security, shares the bounty with his community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA lot of the stuff that I grow I give away to my neighbors and my family. I don\u2019t have much family here, but my neighbors, they can\u2019t wait. I bring stuff in the house and it\u2019s like, \u2018OK, I can\u2019t eat all of it,\u2019 so I give it to the neighbors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beale said the gardening program helped bring him out of his shell, and he\u2019s since joined a Veterans\u2019 fishing organization, where he volunteers to take Veterans fishing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cKnowing that I can take the information that they provided me and I can now grow stuff from a seed and bear fruit, that in itself is therapeutic. It\u2019s not for everybody and that\u2019s why so many things are available and it\u2019s so important that VA offers stuff like that in different varieties for the Veterans that have PTSD. I just happen to find it in gardening.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While digging is part of the gardening process, rising is just as important.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt allowed me to get to a place where I was able to, I should say, come out of my hole.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"tni-attribution\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/149902\/project-grow-gardening-helped-veteran-heal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>. Its Veterans is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Air Force Veteran turned to gardening through Atlanta VA\u2019s Whole Health program to manage PTSD, finding community, purpose and a way to give back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-health-care"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Project GROW: How gardening helped a Veteran heal - Its Veterans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An Air Force Veteran turned to gardening through Atlanta VA\u2019s Whole Health program to manage PTSD, finding community, purpose and a way to give back.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=8519\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Project GROW: How gardening helped a Veteran heal - 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