River Heights finds luck in growing garden

Residents at River Heights Apartments on Riverside Ave. built raised garden beds out of concrete blocks earlier this spring, and with a bit of luck, the gardens are now flourishing.
Barb Parks, president of the Resident Advisory Board, said during construction of the garden they found a horseshoe mixed in the dirt purchased from Cumber Construction, Inc.
“It’s good dirt and when we found the horseshoe we thought it must be good luck,” she said.
So they made a sign, named the mini paradise “Lucky Gardens” which has proven to be an appropriate name.
Tracy Bethel also serves on the advisory board and he was asked to come up with a plan on how they wanted to build the garden. He mapped out a plan with measurements and calculated how much space would be needed and what they could potentially get into the gardens. At the time, River Heights had three wooden boxes on the property. When they looked at putting in more raised beds the materials to construct more wooden structures was too costly and they also debated using recycled plastic. Tom Petschl, a commissioner on the board suggested using cement blocks which would be cheaper, easier to construct, more durable and would require less maintenance.
The plans were then presented for approval to Sharon Voyda, complex manager; she had received grants as funding for the project. Northwest Minnesota Foundation supplied $500 to the efforts and Catholic Health Initiative donated $1,500 as part of the State Health Improvement Project Program. CHI St. Joseph’s Health was a recipient of the grant in order to become involved in activities that would encourage better nutrition. As part of that initiative gardening promotes good mental health as well as physical health for the tenants. The Housing and Redevelopment Authority put in $500 toward the project. All three donations covered the cost of purchasing the blocks as well as the soil, while all labor was provided by the residents.
Fred Hoernemann, a resident at the apartments graciously accepted the task of building the 10 beds and recruited his son and son-in-law to help. They had to dig up and level the ground before they began to build the raised beds.Terry Londo, Thomas LaFleur, Connie Bien and Charlene Stansbury were all instrumental in the construction of the boxes and filling them with soil in order to finish the project according to Voyda. The crew was asked to complete the beds by Memorial Day weekend and they were finished the last day of the deadline.
“Everyone involved in the project has a disability and every one of them was more interested in what they could do, not what they couldn’t do,” Voyda said of the level of participation among the tenants in finishing the gardens.
Voyda expressed her joy in the opportunity the project provided for the tenants to interact with the neighbors as the concrete blocks seemed to draw a lot of attention from passersby. Bethel joked that during construction, one of the neighbors asked if they were putting in a cemetery since the blocks gave off an appearance of tombs when they were still empty.
River Heights is a 68-unit facility. Parks posted a sign-up sheet for the garden and the 10 open spots went fast.
“Now we’re hoping to get a few more to finish it off. There’s interest if they could get the money,” Parks said. “We definitely need more, the money is the only thing stopping us,” Bethel added.
The garden is surrounded by a tall fence to keep out the critters. Water hoses are posted on both ends of the garden to make it convenient to water the plants from anywhere in the garden. After the raised beds were constructed with the heavy concrete blocks they measure nearly 18 inches tall, making them even with wheelchair seats so the residents can pull up next to them in order to tend their gardens. The beds are 4-feet wide and 16-feet long making them very spacious for a variety of plants.
According to Bethel and Parks, there is indeed a wide variation of plants being grown in “Lucky Gardens” including corn, tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers, herbs, peas, beans, squash, different varieties of lettuce, celery, cucumbers, onions, spinach, and catnip just to name a few.
“We’ve got a lot of plants in that garden,” Bethel confirmed.
A few of the lucky residents are new to gardening but Voyda said everyone pitches in to help each other and there’s usually someone who can distinguish a plant from a weed. With an abundance of goodies growing, people have too much that they put out to share with any one of the residents who want a taste. And the garden has been good for building a community among the residents.
According to Voyda, River Heights has a very diverse tenant population. The oldest tenant is 92 years old while the youngest is 7-months old.
“There have been a lot of changes over the last 17 years and they do really well with a lot of challenges all living under one roof,” Voyda explained.
“I’ve been here for nearly 18 years and I’ve seen a lot things,” she said. “This was the best. It was such a group effort. During planning they did research and through that process they expanded on their existing knowledge as well as learning new things.”
Parks explained that she wrote names on paint sticks and placed them in each garden bed so the participating residents could remember where their gardens were.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Parks said. “It’s really nice to get enthused over something like this.”
According to Parks, each gardener is responsible for taking care of their beds and keeping it nice, and then in the fall they will be responsible for cleaning it up.
“It’s good for you, it gets you out, it’s like therapy,” Bethel said.
One resident has been using Lucky Gardens to introduce his granddaughter to gardening by tending the garden together on occasion. “I didn’t realize how much work gardening was, I just figured you plant it and it grows,” Parks teased.
“I didn’t really think I’d take care of mine. I’m lazy and I thought ‘I’m not gonna go out there and pull weeds’ but once it got started everyday I go out and pull weeds now,” Bethel said. “It’s fun to go out and look to see what’s coming.”
The residents are anxious to see what Lucky Gardens will continue to produce throughout the summer, even the residents without gardens of their own. “They are all anxious for next year, they’re already talking about next year, it’s something to look forward to,” Parks said.