Last summer, senior citizen’s in Heart’s Delight-Islington took a different approach to get through the pandemic: pouring their time and effort into a community garden.
Members of the Island Harbour 50 Plus Club were looking for
something to do as a group - while apart - during COVID-19. Since they couldn’t meet as they usually did, the garden was the perfect way for members to get out of the house and get active.
“The garden would provide some interaction for the seniors and give them some activity to do because we haven’t been able to do anything all year,” said club president Joanne Ryan.
After the club got the go-ahead from its head office in Carbonear, club members found a location on Mill Road in Heart’s Delight, where there used to be an old swimming pool. They filled in the swimming pool with crushed stone and topped it off with composted soil. Some members of the club decided to build a small greenhouse to grow some tomatoes.
Approximately 50 people began work on the garden the first week of June and remained dedicated to the task into early fall.
Club member Don Higdon says he grew most of his vegetables for the winter at the garden and called it a big success.
“I grew some carrots in a half barrel, some lettuce, some parsnips, some potatoes, and some collard greens,” he says, adding that going to the garden every day to check on his crops got him out of the house and kept him active over the summer.
“It was something to do that I never thought I would get into doing was gardening. It worked out great, and we will keep doing it as long as we can,” said Higdon.
Gardening, says Ryan, has been proven to help with mental health. By the end of the harvest, she says club members looked a lot happier than when they started planting. She’s glad it helped them enjoy their summer.
“Where a lot of people were feeling a little bit lonely and a little depressed, the garden gave them the opportunity to see friends that they haven’t seen in three or four months,” said Ryan.
Ryan says plans for having the garden again this summer are still not finalized, but she's optimistic they will be out gardening again when the weather warms up.
