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The gift that grows: Olivet woman donates time to help beautify local nursing home garden

Battle Creek Enquirer Neighbors Section
August 4, 2004
Sarah Chuby - The Enquirer

Kathy always remembers her father, Elmer, working in his vegetable garden. He always used a shovel and he had a green thumb, she recalled. Kathy, of Olivet, inherited her father's green thumb, but not his vegetable garden. She decided her garden would grow flowers. "He said, Kathy...you can't eat from that. It doesn't feed you." Kathy said. "I don't remember why I got into flowers. Maybe it is because they are beautiful. All I know is that when I am in my garden, I am in my own world." So Kathy, who is an advanced master gardener, decided to take her skills and her love of flowers to redo the flower beds at Evergreen Manor Senior Care Centre in Springfield.

Kathy said she got the idea to renovate the grounds after looking out a window of a resident's room. "I thought they needed something to brighten up their day," she said. Flowers are perfect. Flowers can brighten anyone's day." About 50 hours of volunteer work later, Kathy had replaced the old red mulch and red flowers with all different types of colored plants. "I worked my butt off taking out the shrubs, trimming hedges and I planted 10 flats of dahlias, oriental grasses and other flowers," she said. But it was worth it to me. I wanted to make a difference."

Melissa Walkinhood, Evergreen Manor's activities director, said Kathy has been a frequent visitor to Evergreen Manor. Kathy's good friend Ann Grevers, 101, lives at the home. "Kathy said she was taking a master gardener class and she wanted to redo the garden," Walkinhood said. "She said she wanted it to be beautiful for the residents."

Kathy, a mother of four and grandma of seven, said her dad made an impression on her, so she is trying to introduce the world of gardening to her grandchildren. While shopping, many grandparents buy their children toys or candy. But she buys them items like a bug box, butterfly net or a children's set of gardening tools. "When they come over they ask, "Can we cut flowers for grandma?" she said. "They are always learning something new." Even though she spends much of her time in her mixed floral garden in Olivet, Kathy hasn't forgotten what her father taught her about growing vegetables. Vegetables haven't made their way into her garden yet, but she keeps the memory of her dad's garden alive. Since he died three years ago, she has taken on the role of tending to edible plants in Rosebush, where her father is buried. The vegetable plants she puts next to his headstone represent him, and she leaves a basket of flowers, which represents herself. Every year I go up north and plant a tomato plant up there for him.Even though he is no longer here, I know that Dad knows what I am doing. I got my green thumb from my dad. There is no doubt about that.