Open Voices News Roundup: September 24

Every week, we bring you the latest news in placemaking, landscape architecture, the nature-mental health link, and much more. Check back every week for new roundups and items.

13 Tips to Create Your Own Healing Garden
“No matter how large or small, it’s easy to transform your own yard, patio, or garden into a personal and meaningful garden for your soul by using the elements of water, scent, color, sound and planting schemes to create a “sensory” healing garden.”

How ‘Silent Spring’ Ignited the Environmental Movement
““Silent Spring” was published 50 years ago this month. Though she did not set out to do so, Carson influenced the environmental movement as no one had since the 19th century’s most celebrated hermit, Henry David Thoreau, wrote about Walden Pond.”

If You Want Walkable Development, You Must Show That It Pays
“That’s when Alfonzo realized that all the quality-of-life arguments she could muster about walkable communities, all the academic research she could conduct, all the idealism she felt about changing the way cities and towns are constructed, wouldn’t make a difference unless she could make an economic case.”

Low-income People Need Public Spaces the Most
“It’s easy to dismiss rising interest in public spaces as something that only the wealthy can afford to worry about. But take a look at any bustling place anywhere in the world—from the markets of Africa and Asia to the squares of Latin America to the street corners of Europe and North America—and you’ll find it’s poor people who depend on public spaces the most.”