We are happy to report that The Aged Woman’s Home of Georgetown has had a banner gardening year, all thanks to the efforts of two of our Guests, DJ and Catherine. They apparently have not just green thumbs, but green arms as well. Diligently tending the garden every day—rain or shine, hot or hotter—the efforts of these two gardening gals have paid off in spades. After a substantial donation from The Town and Country Garden Club allowing us to purchase plants and soil and a few extra pots, our guests spent hours planning out “what to get.” When the plants arrived by catalogue or staff delivery, they agonized over “where to plant?” DJ set about wrangling pots of vegetables and herbs into the garden landscape. The list of her plantings—rainbow Swiss chard, kale, bush beans, purple and green beans, peppers, tomatoes, bush cukes, arugula, alpine strawberries, lavender and sorrel, and a bit of parsley was impressive. Even more impressive and exciting is how generous she is with her bounty and her delightful habit of “letting us have some.”
Surprisingly to the non-gardeners among us, it is not just the flowering trees, hibiscus, hydrangeas, clematis, caladiums, impatiens, roses, and coreopsis bringing joy to the eye in the Home’s garden this year. DJ’s towering tomatoes have brought us a two-fold beauty—once as the plant is seen powering out of its pot, sprouting an endless sea of anticipatory yellow blossoms (we know what those will eventually be) and secondly, when the mature succulent red fruit is sliced upon the plate and enjoyed by the palate.
Catherine was our go-to gardener in the summer heat. She spent her formative years on the island of Grenada, so she loves the warm weather. She waits until it warms up (85 plus degrees) before she dons her linen outfit, gardening gloves, island hat, and heads out to deadhead, snip and snipe a few wayward branches, pluck a few weeds, and tend the roses. She strolls about when the mercury hits 95 degrees and the humidity is 98, as if she is in the air conditioning. Her laugh, no matter how hot or how humid, is always merry.
DJ and Catherine are a remarkable gardening team. The next plan our erstwhile gardeners have hatched is for a fall planting. We can’t wait for a mid-October harvest of bush beans, tatsoi, kale, peppers, greens, and red cabbage!