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Gardening nurtures grounds and residents

Green-thumbed residents are rolling up their sleeves and getting their knees dirty at Carol Woods and loving every minute of it. From the famous pink roses at the campus entrance to the “Farmer’s Garden” at the back of the campus, both novice and experienced gardeners can easily find a plot of soil and a committee to suit their gardening desires.

Residents of the community have ample room for gardening around their cottages or apartments. In addition to these spaces, residents can “adopt” a plot wherever they see an open space as long as they clear it with the Grounds staff.

On most Monday mornings, residents can be seen on their hands and knees working the land at the Harkness Garden near the pond, ripping out weeds and pruning bushes. Residents spend their cool early morning hours beautifying this and other sections of campus as part of the “Garden Gopher” group, an assemblage of between nine and seventeen green thumbers that resident Marian Stephenson created in March of 2007.

Stephenson started the Garden Gophers because she noted there were a lot of serious gardeners with an itch to beautify the community and enjoy their favorite hobby. “Now that we’re here and this is our home, I think we want to make it as lovely as we can and contribute,” said Stephenson.

Residents have said they know they’re “home” when they see the pink roses blooming at the front entrance to the campus. They are referring to the twenty-six “Rhonda” rose bushes that line the wood fence separating the campus from Weaver Dairy Road. Over twenty “Fence Rose” volunteers take the time to deadhead the roses and keep them in prime blooming condition. Residents like Sally Rohrdanz and Gay Brashear spend their spring and summer mornings and nights tending them about twice a week during peak blooming periods.

“So many people stop and thank us for doing it; they really look forward to it!” said Rohrdanz. “We’ve become known by our pink roses out front.”

The glassed-in walkway between the Dining Room and Central Assisted Living offers a special view of some well-loved roses. These garden roses are also tended by resident volunteers and are home to over ten species.

Garden Roses’ volunteers Nancy Sitterson and Gay Brashear, along with many other residents, spend lots of time in the newly established community rose garden.. Brashear says the roses are there for the viewing pleasure of the residents and staff, but an occasional rose may be clipped during gardening to brighten up someone’s day.

Sitterson, an experienced rose enthusiast, loved roses so much she had a rose garden planted at her cottage when she moved to Carol Woods. Now in a Central Apartment, she tends the rose beds as co-chair of the Garden Roses Committee.

“Well, I just love to look at them!” said Sitterson. “I don’t cook anymore or bake to take things to people, and people are on diets and things, so it’s much nicer to take them arrangements!”

With the cost of produce creeping higher and higher, it is an economical advantage for garden-savvy residents to have the Farmer’s Garden on campus. Here a resident can have a plot and grow whatever they’d like. There are 56 10’ x 10’ plots and 28 farmers tilling the soil in this sunny, fenced garden area. Much of the produce grown here is placed in a basket and put in the main building with a donation box for residents and staff to enjoy. These donations go right back to the Farmer’s Garden Group for expenses and upkeep.

Residents can also become actively involved in the Gardens & Landscaping Committee. These committee members educate residents and explain Grounds Department decisions, as well as convey resident concerns to the staff. A strong and healthy working relationship exists between Director of Grounds, Tony Bayless, and the Chair of the committee, which makes it all the more successful.

“I have one of the most robust grounds committee groups I’ve ever had, and the numbers of participants are larger, and have grown probably double to what I’m used to seeing. That’s kudos to the chairperson who is usually the driving force,” said Bayless of Gardens & Landscaping Committee Chair Marian Stephenson.

Bayless has been very impressed with the level of dedication of this group.“I’ve never seen anything like this!” Bayless exclaimed when asked about the seriousness of the gardeners (Gophers).

Over two dozen “official” gardens dot the community landscape and offer a chance for residents to exercise their gardening muscles and also be creative in plant choices and colors.

Unofficial gardens consist of adopted areas of campus that residents have requested use of for creating new gardens that they plan, tend, and maintain all on their own without the help of the Grounds staff.

Muriel Easterling, a resident, enjoys native plant gardening and became a wildflower lover after walking on a country road where she saw a farmer’s field that had been dormant. It had gorgeous wildflowers in it and “I just couldn’t get over how beautiful they were and no one had weeded or watered them.  From that moment on, I have been a real native gardener,” said Easterling.

Easterling adopted an open spot on campus where she created her own wildflower garden. Due to her efforts, this spot now attracts butterflies and birds and is home to Butterfly Weed, Asters, Evening Primrose, Sundrops, Asters, and much more.

Carol Woods’ gardens are the perfect accessory to the already beautiful natural habitat that residents enjoy and cherish as an important part of life here.