Our gardener of the week is Mrs. Patsy, a very special lady to our program.  GEDSC DIGITAL CAMERARecently, she spends most of her week in the hospital for radiation treatments and is only able to be at home on the weekends.  Because of her need in planting her garden, volunteers from Scott Christian Care Center decided to surprise her, with the help of her husband and daughter, by planting her garden on the morning of June 1st.  We assembled at the Center where we gathered supplies before heading to Mrs. Patsy’s garden.  Some cut potatoes whiles others were gathering up seeds, plants, string and other gardening tools. When she walked out on her porch and saw all the people who had showed up to help, she was overwhelmed with tears of joy.  She  said that thank you just wasn’t good enough at expressing her true feelings and only wished she could better express them.  After asking her how she wanted her garden laid out, we all went to work.

First, a man who is not associated with the program or the Center volunteered his time and tractor with a tiller on the end to till the soil.  We were all thankful for him for saving us a lot of time because if we had to till it with a walk behind tiller, it would have lengthen our planting time quite a bit.

After this, we started planting all her varieties of plants.  It was interesting listening to the differing opinions on how and when to plant.  When it comes to potatoes some people said they plant on the 100th day of the year.  Another individual said to plant before St. Patrick’s Day.  There were some participants who say plant potatoes with the eyes facing up and some who just throw them in the ground a foot apart.

It was also good seeing the older generation teaching the younger generation gardening techniques and how to plant different vegetables, herbs, and flowers.  At one end of her garden, we made a tepee to plant beans around.

This is so they will grow up, and her grandchildren will enjoy playing and harvesting in it.  Also, another little surprise for Mrs. Hayes was a whisky barrel flower pot with a sign displaying “Patsy’s Garden”.  Mrs. Cathy made the sign and stained it with vinegar.

Now that you have seen what her garden looked like bare, you can see how it has progressed throughout the past few months.