Community garden blooms in West End senior community

With the advent of spring and the annual outburst of dogwood, azalea, tulip and daffodil blooms, it's virtually impossible to cruise the streets of Henrico without spying dazzling garden scenes and yards alive with color.

And nowhere are the blooms and buds more evident than in a garden spot off Pemberton Road, where residents, staff and neighbors of The Laurels of University Park have all pitched in to make it a showplace.

The spring scenery at The Laurels community got its start in 2017, when Catherine Blanche visited a home show and was charmed by a display of raised beds from Lavender Fields.

As activities director at The Laurels for the past 15 years, Blanche is always on the lookout for ways to keep residents active and engaged, and realized the raised beds could be stacked over sidewalks and other concrete surfaces to allow not only extra space for plantings but also access for residents using wheelchairs.

And from the moment she purchased that first raised bed from Lavender Fields, the project snowballed.

A few weeks later, The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen donated another raised bed as part of a special staff volunteer project.

"They filled it," Blanche said, "with lots of plants, flowers, herbs, and veggies."

The Cultural Arts Center has continued to be involved with the garden ever since, Blanche added. Cindy Rinker, the Center's arts outreach coordinator, comes each year to make spring and fall plant donations and to join in a fall cleanup session.

"She has been a real help for our garden ever since the beginning," said Blanche, who also credits her activity team – assistants Delores Edloe, Earle Jillson, Mary Simms and Catherine Buie – with helping advance the project.

Pandemic push
Today, the grounds at University Park boast a total of eight garden beds – seven raised and one in-ground.

"Two of our residents have their own garden beds outside their windows that they enjoy tending to," Blanche said. "We also have a lot of bird feeders around the facility."

Not surprisingly, the onset of the pandemic and resulting lockdowns played a significant role in boosting the garden's growth.

As Blanche pointed out, the garden did not simply provide a safe place for residents to slip outside and breathe fresh air; it also became a place of refuge, where residents could escape the depressing news, gloom-and-doom forecasts "and all the stress that came with it."

With the summer of 2020 approaching, Blanche called on long-time community partners like St. Mary's Catholic Church for help with garden supplies and donations of plants to fill the beds.
"Their parishioners really stepped it up during Covid," said Blanche. "We got wind chimes, garden décor, potting soil, seeds, plants, suet, bulbs, birdseed, bird feeders and planters. They really came through!"

Members of St. Mark’s Baptist Church, Abner Baptist Church and other local churches and organizations also chipped in with garden supplies.

Another supporter who stepped up to help that summer of 2020 was Peyton Boggs of Scout Troop No. 715. After Blanche reached out to the troop about obtaining more beds, Boggs handcrafted two wheelchair-accessible raised beds and filled them with soil and plants for his Eagle Scout project.

Among other community volunteers who have donated supplies for the garden are members of the Metropolitan Women’s Club and a core group of women from the CrossRidge community, said Blanche.

"Some of our staff’s children have also donated plants, planters, potting soil, and plant food for our garden. This helps them give back to their local seniors, while also getting credit for community service."

Bachelor buttons and BLTs
While Blanche readily admitted to being somewhat "obsessed" with bulbs – and the garden features thousands of them – the display is hardly limited to daffodils and tulips.

"In the summer months we plant our 'famous' sunflowers," she said. "Our residents love to watch them as they tower over them in the courtyard."

She ticked off an additional list of favorites that includes elephant ears, lilies, dahlias, poppies, cosmos, columbine, zinnias, morning glory, nasturtium, verbena, bachelor buttons, and marigolds, adding that the profusion of blooms often prompts guests to reminisce about their own gardens – or to usher grandchildren toward the beds for a tour.

Blanche said residents also love giving advice on what to plant, and recalled one visitor who was only at The Laurels temporarily – but requested a favorite flower before she finished her therapy and left.

"She asked if we had any balloon plants," said Blanche. "We didn't, but I planted some; and I think of her now whenever I see it."

Blanche noted that the garden also boasts herbs and vegetables, from rosemary, mint and basil to cucumbers, peppers, squash, and tomatoes.

The tomatoes are especially popular, added Blanche.

"The residents race each other to pick them when they are ripe. They love them fresh from the garden on a BLT."

'Happy spring'
In addition to the sensory pleasures of eating fresh vegetables and living amid so much beauty, members of The Laurels community can also attest to the therapeutic benefits of tending the plants and digging in the soil.

Four-year resident Laura Lindsay, who volunteers in the garden and serves as president of the resident council, contends that she feels less pain when she is gardening.

“Working outside makes my endorphins rise," Lindsay said. "I feel happy and I enjoy the fresh air. I like to water the plants, get my hands in . . . and feel the dirt."

Best of all, said Lindsay, are the times when she is able to share the garden with others. "It is great when my friends join me outside."
Even residents who stay indoors can enjoy the scenery, Blanche pointed out, since beds are located at the community entrance and easily visible from activity room windows. The activity room itself contains two miniature greenhouses – a source of endless wisecracks among the jokesters in the community, who amuse each other with tall tales about growing marijuana.

Although residents and staff alike miss the Easter egg hunts, cookouts and other gatherings that were held in the garden pre-pandemic, they have found ways to enjoy celebrations just the same. Blanche regularly decorates the garden for holidays like St. Patrick's Day, and come fall, she will deck out the grounds with a pumpkin theme.

As an Easter treat, she recently took dozens of photos of guests in the garden wearing bunny ears and surrounded by spring flowers, then mailed "Happy Spring" cards to family members featuring the pictures.

"It is such a nice keepsake for a family to receive as a surprise in the mail," Blanche said. "And our residents enjoyed getting copies of the photos for themselves."

Seeing the site transformed from a bare patch of concrete in 2017 into what she likes to call a "mini-Lewis-Ginter" today has been every bit as gratifying for Blanche as it has for the residents and visitors the display has touched.

“It really is a sight to see," she said. "It's just such a happy spot."

And without all the collective effort, dedicated volunteers and generous donations, Blanche emphasized, the garden could never have achieved such spectacular success.

"We are very lucky to have so much community support."