Gardening Club Keeps Arbour Terrace Residents Active, In High Spirits
HERNDON, VA — While most of the grounds at Arbour Terrace of Herndon are maintained by a professional landscaping company, the raised garden beds behind the the senior living center are tended by a group of residents.
The beds are located behind the center’s dining hall, where residents can enjoy views of the gardens through the windows. If the weather is nice, there are plenty of chairs on the patio to sit in and watch the butterflies and hummingbirds flit between the blooms.
Jean Millers, who’s in her 90s, is the leader of Arbour Terrace’s gardening club. Each spring, the group’s six members meet to decide what flowers they’ll be planting that year.
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“We usually go after Mother’s Day and look at what they have, because every year they have something different.” Millers said, giving a Patch reporter a tour of the gardens recently. “Those are perennials back there, those coneflowers, and the butterfly bush there, which the hummingbirds and butterflies like. We just keep working.”
Helen P. always liked having a garden when she was married and decided to join the garden club when she moved to Arbour Terrace.
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“Jean is really sweet. When I first met her and I said, ‘I’ll join the garden club,’ she said, ‘Oh, thank goodness, because we need somebody to dig,'” Helen P. said, with a laugh. “I’ll never forget that.”
Every morning, Helen gets up early and starts working in the gardens, which have raised beds so that residents don’t have to bend down too far.
“I just go out, water them and then help with the rest of the garden, anytime. I like trimming things,” she said.
At 101, Clara is the oldest member of the group. She confessed that she didn’t do a lot of the gardening, but she enjoyed looking at the colorful blossoms.
“I like the garden,” she said. “I love the flowers.”
When the flowers are in bloom, garden club members will clip bouquets that they deliver to residents’ rooms or place on their walkers.
Jean pointed to a yellow flower with a black center she called “Shirley’s Lillies.”
“That was named for a lady who lived here,” Jean said. “Her daughter bought that from the company. Now, if you want that, you have to order ‘Shirley.'”
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