STUDIES ON MAKING COMMUNITY PLACES WITH FLOWERS MADE FROM PET- BOTTLES

Tasha Tudor charmed people around the world with the inspirational gardens she created in Vermont. People from around the world admired her lifestyle as well as her gardens. It can be said that she created a community setting on a worldwide scale through her work with natural plants. In Japan, there are many elderly persons who love flowers and create flower gardens around their homes. Here too, people come from great distances to view these gardens. One such elderly woman was forced to give up her gardening after contracting osteoarthritis in both her knees. The woman’s niece, however, was an occupational therapist, and she suggested to the elderly woman to create plastic flowers with used PET bottles, instead of cultivating real flowers. The woman filled her garden with these PET-bottle flowers and soon people from all over Japan came to see her gardens. As her fame grew, people asked her to teach groups from school children to seniors. In this paper we report the process of generating community support through activities with PET bottle flowers, and discuss the potential use in both rural and urban environments.