Oct 20, 2016 3 min read

Spring may be the time a gardener’s fancy turns to turning over the soil, but during the recent warm days of autumn, people at Washington County Health Center have been digging it in more ways than one.

Kathleen Madigan, a former elementary school teacher in Avella Area School District, has been brightening landscapes at the health center and at group homes through Washington County’s Penn State Extension Master Gardeners program for about five years, specifically through the gardening partners committee.

A former board member of the now-defunct Wash Arts organization, Madigan obtained a $12,000 grant available after the sale of the Wash Arts property on South Street and proposed to prepare and plant a garden outside the Alzheimer’s unit at the health center in Arden.

She had researched the benefits gardening can provide to those who have dementia: Working outdoors provides exercise, reduces stress and a gives friends, family and staff members an opportunity to converse about their surroundings. Following a design by landscape artist Jeffrey Moyer, Madigan is striving for a garden – surrounded by the health center on three sides and with a security fence around the remaining perimeter – that will change with the seasons with a succession of blooms.

She asked residents and their families about what types of plants they’d like to see there.

For those unwilling or unable to venture outdoors, the garden can be seen through the unit’s windows. She also hopes her group can stage horticulture classes for the public there, such as how to develop a bonsai tree, and begin a garden club for residents’ loved ones.

Madigan already had worked with Master Gardeners to plant “pocket gardens” around the health center. There is an outdoor cart that gives residents in wheelchairs access to soil at a level they can easily reach.

“They planted basil and herbs,” Madigan said. “One of the caregivers was into gardening, and that helped a lot. ‘Smell the basil!’ a resident exclaimed. We saw how much joy they got from it.”

She has been working on the project with volunteers, and those assigned to the county jail’s Furlough Into Service program for work-release and weekend prisoners have been doing some heavy lifting this week, preparing the site, spreading manure and shoveling out a space for a shallow pond.

“Trees are to be delivered by the end of the week, weather permitting,” said Tim Kimmel, health center administrator. Concrete walkways already in place will remain, as will well-established trees.

Kimmel said the 50-bed Alzheimer’s unit, known as One West, had 48 residents as of Wednesday, and the behavioral health unit known as One South has an additional 36 residents who also would have access to the garden.