Retirees growing into their places

Lots of senior residents are enjoying cultivating their gardening hobby.

McClatchy Newspapers

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Moving into retirement housing can mean downsizing and sharing your living space, and forfeiting your outdoor space.

Unless, that is, you are fortunate enough to live in a retirement community that values the therapeutic and recreational benefits of gardening.

Reva and Tom Brehm live in such a place: Richmond Place in Lexington, Ky. The Brehms have easy access to flower beds from their first-floor apartment. Reva Brehm has nurtured a bank of black-eyed Susans, and the Brehms have seen all sorts of wildlife, even foxes, since they arrived more than 20 years ago. And they keep a hummingbird feeder outside their bay window.

Richmond Place residents enjoy the benefits of the gardens that were created years ago, when the staff began building raised beds in an empty yard just inside the property’s far boundary, said Jacqueline Kennedy, marketing director at Richmond Place.

The gardens’ height raises the soil and makes it easier for the elderly residents to cultivate without a lot of bending.

Now, there are more than 20 individual gardens packed with flowers and vegetables, and the area is expanding into the surrounding hills. Every spring, a party is held to celebrate getting the gardens started with soil preparation and transplants.

“Gardening keeps them independent longer, working to do things they enjoy,” Kennedy said. “When I help people leave home after 50 years, it’s a difficult time, but gardening is a part of them and who they are, so here they can use their time to do what they want.”

Many residents agree.

Helen Kelley Endres enjoys sitting in a lawn chair next to her Celtic garden box.

“Gardening is the best therapy in the world,” she said.

Barbara Clark, sporting sunglasses and a straw hat, said she can’t get enough of the gardens. “Keeping a garden requires you to go out into the fresh air,” Clark said.

She and resident Ken Stewart collaborate to plant beds with sunflowers, peppers, zinnias, collard greens and Lexington Deauville dahlias. Clark’s “Celebrity” tomatoes are prolific enough to share with friends, and her mulch technique, using recycled carpet samples to keep vine crops off the soil and weeds under control, warrants a second look.

Indoor gardens flourish in the upstairs bay windows, where Thelma White keeps a windowsill filled with gorgeous blooming orchids. At age 91, she has collected some tips for success: a bright window with an eastern exposure, watering once a week but not letting the pots sit in standing water, and using a foliar plant-polish spray for the leaves.

At Sayre Christian Village Nursing Home, where most of the residents require wheelchairs, the central courtyard garden is a hub of activity.

About three years ago, administrative director Jeff Stidam hired gardener Chris Strecker to bring the courtyard to life. The commitment to the garden resulted in so many positive benefits, Stidam said, that “I could not express the personal value and positive effects these areas have on the residents.”

Strecker, who visits her father in a nursing home without a garden, was a perfect match for the needs at Sayre Village.

The residents “spend a lot of time in the gardens watching the plants grow, the birds, butterflies, bees and other wildlife they attract, including a pair of wild ducks nesting,” she said.

Strecker has planted strawberries in raised beds, so the residents can pick and taste them as they ripen, and tomatoes and watermelons. They’re hoping for a watermelon party soon.

With the goal of reaching as many senses as possible, Strecker also has placed strongly scented basil at nose level for residents to rub for scent, encouraging them to “engage with the elements and feel the breeze.”

Recently, a resident counted 23 sunflowers and noted that the yellow birds came daily to them.

The garden also is a gift for the residents’ families, who can enjoy sunny moments there while visiting. The courtyard garden is visible from many surrounding windows, and gazebos with wheelchair-wide entryways are popular spots where residents can share lunch.

A volunteer pianist sometimes brings a keyboard into the yard for impromptu concerts. “You think you must be in Paris,” Stidam said about a performance of the “Wizard of Oz” this summer that brought more than 50 residents out into the garden.

The center’s community relations director, Beverly Roberts, said that with Strecker’s guidance, “We are forging ahead with implementing the dreams of what the gardens can be.”

That example brings health to the body and the spirit, recognizing that no matter what stage of life you’re in, spending time in a garden is a way to well-being.