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PITTSBURG —
You’re never too old to make something grow.
That’s the point of the raised beds at the Pittsburg Community Garden, and three Via Christi Village residents are proving it with a bountiful harvest including tomatoes, leaf lettuce and parsley. Even the peanuts and popcorn are coming along nicely.
“We were targeting the nursing homes when we were trying to fill the raised handicap accessible beds in the garden,” said Matt Troth, head gardener. “With the addition of these beds, we now have a spot where everybody can participate. We’ve had people say they wanted to help in the garden, but they can’t bend down to pull weeds. The raised beds should take care of that.”
Via Christi Village group members are Bettye Haggard, Fern Aikman and Leo Gilmore.
“Bettye is the president, Fern is the vice president and Leo is Big Boy, because he wanted to plant Big Boy tomatoes,” said Sally Starkweather, who has been assisting the group. “I’m their gofer. I don’t garden for them, but if they need something, I go and get it.”
She said that Blossoms Saddles & Sequins gave the senior gardeners a gift certificate to help them get started, and they went shopping and picked out plants.
Gilmore, at 92, is the most senior gardener. The two women are in their 80s.
“There were 12 kids in our family and we all worked in the garden,” Gilmore said. “We were out in the garden from the time we got up until our father got home at night.”
Haggard is also an experienced gardener.
“When I was home, I always had a big garden,” she said. “I’ve got some potatoes and a pepper here.”
She’s also the one who decided to grow peanuts.
“I went to Blue Ribbon and got some peanuts, and the man there said ‘good luck with that’,” Starkweather said. “Then we found some peanut plants and they’re growing.”
She thought that the leaf buds on the plants were the peanuts, until Haggard informed her that the peanuts actually form under the ground.
Haggard also wanted to grow popcorn, and her daughter, Barbara purchased some for her to plant.
“I’m looking forward to roasting the peanuts and popping the corn,” Haggard said.
Aikman had very limited gardening experience.
“I grew up surrounded by gardens, and I assisted my father and my husband in harvesting the bounty,” she said. “I never enjoyed putting a crop in the ground.”
You’re never too old to make something grow.
That’s the point of the raised beds at the Pittsburg Community Garden, and three Via Christi Village residents are proving it with a bountiful harvest including tomatoes, leaf lettuce and parsley. Even the peanuts and popcorn are coming along nicely.
“We were targeting the nursing homes when we were trying to fill the raised handicap accessible beds in the garden,” said Matt Troth, head gardener. “With the addition of these beds, we now have a spot where everybody can participate. We’ve had people say they wanted to help in the garden, but they can’t bend down to pull weeds. The raised beds should take care of that.”
Via Christi Village group members are Bettye Haggard, Fern Aikman and Leo Gilmore.
“Bettye is the president, Fern is the vice president and Leo is Big Boy, because he wanted to plant Big Boy tomatoes,” said Sally Starkweather, who has been assisting the group. “I’m their gofer. I don’t garden for them, but if they need something, I go and get it.”
She said that Blossoms Saddles & Sequins gave the senior gardeners a gift certificate to help them get started, and they went shopping and picked out plants.
Gilmore, at 92, is the most senior gardener. The two women are in their 80s.
“There were 12 kids in our family and we all worked in the garden,” Gilmore said. “We were out in the garden from the time we got up until our father got home at night.”
Haggard is also an experienced gardener.
“When I was home, I always had a big garden,” she said. “I’ve got some potatoes and a pepper here.”
She’s also the one who decided to grow peanuts.
“I went to Blue Ribbon and got some peanuts, and the man there said ‘good luck with that’,” Starkweather said. “Then we found some peanut plants and they’re growing.”
She thought that the leaf buds on the plants were the peanuts, until Haggard informed her that the peanuts actually form under the ground.
Haggard also wanted to grow popcorn, and her daughter, Barbara purchased some for her to plant.
“I’m looking forward to roasting the peanuts and popping the corn,” Haggard said.
Aikman had very limited gardening experience.
“I grew up surrounded by gardens, and I assisted my father and my husband in harvesting the bounty,” she said. “I never enjoyed putting a crop in the ground.”
But she was motivated by fond memories of eating leaf lettuce with her special homemade salad dressing.
“I wanted a big bowl of lettuce and dressing, and I got it,” Aikman said.
“Fern said that her husband would be very proud of her, because he always wanted her to get into gardening,” Starkweather added.
There have been some adventures in the garden, especially when the group noticed a mysterious hole at the base of a raised bed.
“Somebody told us it was just the bed settling, but I thought it might be a snake,” Starkweather said.
The critter turned out to probably be a crawdad.
“We had a crawdad meeting to discuss it,” Starkweather said. “They talked about putting put mothballs down the hole, but I called Jacob Weber and he said that wasn’t a good thing to do in a garden where you were going to eat the produce.”
Other suggestions were to poke a broomstick down the hole and pop the crawdad in the head, which didn’t seem to work, and “fishing” out the crawdad with a piece of raw bacon on a string, a suggestion made several years ago by the late Dan Willis, local radio legend.
“We’ve decided now to just live with it,” Starkweather said.
If temperatures get too hot, the senior gardeners may scale back their trips to the garden a bit, but for now, they’re having a great time. So is Troth.
“It has been a lot of fun learning from the Via Christi group,” he said.
