GARDENING WITH THE MASTERS
Upcoming seminars
Preregistration required: 770-721-7803 or uge1057@uga.edu
Container Gardening: Using containers to grow flowers and vegetables. 10 a.m. April 25, Cherokee County Senior Service Center, 1001 Univeter Road, Canton. Preregister by April 22.
Raised Bed Gardening: Make the most of your space by using raised beds for vegetables and flowers. Noon April 25, Cherokee County Senior Center, 1001 Univeter Road, Canton. Preregister by April 22.
Advanced Vegetable Gardening: Visit a working farm to expand your knowledge of vegetable gardening. 10 a.m. May 16, Ball Ground Community Center, 250 Civic Drive, Ball Ground. Preregister by May 13.
If weather predictions can be trusted, the season’s last freeze date has passed, and the 50 tomato plants that Gerald Phillips, 73, grew from seed can finally bed down in a new home: a 4-by-20-foot plot of rich soil behind the Cherokee County Senior Center.
The senior community garden here will soon be bustling with activity. As usual, all 28 garden spots have been claimed by renters who pay $20 a year for the privilege of hoeing, weeding, watering and harvesting whatever they want to grow.
The vast majority of these gardeners are, like Phillips, retired seniors who enjoy working in the soil and seeing things bloom. Friendships are sure to bloom, as well. Marked-off plots bring added benefits of socializing with neighbors and sharing gardening tips and bounty.
“This place will be packed during the summer,” Acworth resident Phillips noted on a dreary early spring day. He and other volunteers were building potato towers by planting seed potatoes in-between layers of wheat straw and soil.
Cherokee’s garden was established in 2010 with a grant from the Atlanta Regional Commission with the funding provided by Kaiser Permanente, a health care company. ARC’s Senior Community Garden Initiative was a way to give seniors access to healthy food and keep them engaged and active, said Roz Tucker, senior programmer for ARC’s Area Agency on Aging.
Eleven gardens were awarded grants, and while they are open to anyone, a certain percentage of the plots must be occupied by adults 62 or older. The requirement has never been a problem; seniors do the majority of the work in most gardens.
“They’re the ones with the time and knowledge needed to garden,” Tucker said, adding that older adults are usually the ones instructing everyone else.
“There’s really a nice intergenerational exchange going on,” she said.
Many of the gardens were placed at senior centers or senior residential communities so that transportation would not be an issue. Some community gardens were already well established, and the grant money was used to improve access for seniors. In DeKalb County, for example, a wheelchair ramp and stairs with railings on both sides were added to the Tucker community garden.
Five years later, almost all of the gardens are still thriving, especially those established in communities that bolstered initial efforts.
In Cherokee County, Senior Services Director Nathan Brandon asked Phillips, a Master Gardener, to help secure the grant and get the garden started. It quickly became a community effort.
Through countless volunteers, Eagle Scout projects and additional grant moneys, the operation has almost tripled. There are compost bins, pathways are lined with mulch, and water lines and hose bibs have been added. Throughout the growing season, Cherokee County Master Gardeners are available to share their knowledge and provide encouragement.
The beds are not raised, but they’re easy enough for seniors to dig into without crawling in the dirt, Phillips said. While most of the gardeners have some prior experience growing vegetables, there will be a beginner from time to time and Phillips will need to explain a little plant management — like the necessity of weeding and harvesting the crop so plants will keep producing.
The area has what many of these gardeners don’t have in their own yards: a sunny spot to grow beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and the like. Retiree Suzie Thomas, who lives just outside of Woodstock, said her yard is too shady for vegetables, which makes the community garden such a value. It’s also a great place to socialize, she said.
But there are many other benefits, as well.
Roz Stampf, 73, of Cherokee County, said gardening provides good exercise and is also “wonderful therapy.”
“It makes me feel very peaceful,” she said.
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