Gardening in the Glen? Oh, Yes in the Estes Community!!

By Lynn Conley

When Bishop Gadsden residents think about gardening, their thoughts immediately go to BG’s Community Garden and all the beautiful garden beds that are planted and maintained by BG’s residents in the Apartment and Cottage community. However, there is now a Garden Club within the Estes Community of the Glen.

The Estes gardeners are all individuals who were avid gardeners when they lived in their own homes, and they are so very happy to have this opportunity now to work with plants again. The Garden Club is the brainchild of Resident Services Assistant Hannah Doyel, who is an accomplished, experienced gardener. When talking with residents, Hannah recognized a need in the Estes community - she heard that many of the residents missed gardening and felt they had an empty space in their life. She then sought a way to make gardening more accessible to them, and a way to meet their needs based on their living environment and mobility circumstances.

Hannah established the Estes Community Garden Club that now meets every two weeks in the Marterer Activity Room, located on the second floor in Estes.

The club members discuss what they would like to do for each planting project, and Hannah makes it happen. The members have planted many things from vegetables to flowers. After one of Hannah’s neighbors donated a large number of seed packets, for one of the first projects, the club members selected the packets they wished to plant, and shared the remaining packets with others. To date, club members have planted a total of 11 different types of vegetables and flowers from seeds.

The growing vegetables include summer squash, bell peppers, carrots, and radishes. Once the veggies mature in the fall, the club members plan to give them to the Glen’s chef to cook for them!

Flowers abound, such as primrose, coleus, zinnias, petunias, and Shasta daises. The club also has a raised garden bed, which they have filled with many lovely plants to attract Monarch butterflies. In addition, the club has been busy with other plant projects including group-made succulent garden pots for the Estes Community’s courtyard tabletops.

The Estes Garden Club also created a plant hospital in the Marterer Activity Room where they hold their meetings. They kindly take in “sick” plants from fellow residents. Providing tender loving care, the plant-knowledgeable club members nurse the plants back to health and then return them to the original owner, if desired. There is also the start of a plant library that includes books donated by family members and residents. The books are readily available and serve as a resource for everyone in the Glen who might have an interest in plants.

The next Estes Garden Club meeting will be on 30 August. Members will be deciding what they would like to add to their raised bed in the courtyard. One very active member has already suggested chrysanthemums in various colors to add some color to the Estes courtyard. If other club members agree, Hannah will make this happen. She will purchase the plants for them, and bring the raised bed to the activity room. Club members will then be able to plant the fall flowers in an arrangement to their liking. One club member summed up the whole activity of the Estes Garden Club in the following way: She said, “it is fun, it is therapeutic, and it is the best way to get your hands back in the dirt!”

Based on this comment, I don’t think anything more appropriate could be said about the importance or the value-added of this activity to the daily life of the participating residents of the Estes Community Garden Club. Plus, when one looks around the activity room at the plants that grace the windowsills, it is lovely to see how the greenery helps enhance the environment; the plants give the common space a homier look and feel. Hopefully, more Estes residents will see the welcoming signs Hannah has posted on the door of the Marterer Activity Room and come and check out the next meeting of the Garden Club in the coming weeks. Newcomers to the Garden Club just might find as much joy in planting and digging in the dirt as current residents are already experiencing.