Beginner Gardening: Gardening in shared spaces, 1 by Dea

Dea wrote:
Late in the winter we encouraged DH's parents to sign up for a 10 x 10 garden plot in their retirement community. They were both such avid gardeners for years and my sweet MIL is now in the early stages of that hideous alzheimer's :(

So we made a deal, we'll do all the planting and weeding and cleaning and re-planting if you will take a stroll and water 2x a week - sneaky, eh? :)

Today was our bi-weekly visit to weed and just visit of course. There are 100 plots, each 10x10 and it always amazes me the varieties of vegetables, flowers, herbs these people enjoy growing. It's so much fun to take time and chat with the residents about gardening techniques and ooooh and aahhhh over their plots. We wish more of their children stopped by to get their hands dirty and laugh and work, but ah well :) These are some of the most enjoyable hours we spend each week.

Clare (MIL) just can't get over these things we call Elephant Ears - she was a woodland gardener and just can't believe them. She must have told me 30 times today - "Can you believe they grow so fast?" The amazement in her face each time she looked at them was great. After we weeded and watered, we strolled all around the other gardens and she helped me point out bugs and butterflies to take pictures of for the BugFiles here :)

Alzheimer's is cruel indeed, but I tell you, these gardening hours bring back moments of clarity that give us all great joy :)