Heron Terrace life enrichment team ‘rekindles’ residents’ love of gardening

Embracing residents’ interests has helped beautify Windsor LTC community
10/18/2019  - Deron Hamel
 

Heron Terrace administrator Amy Sworik says she couldn’t help noticing how well-maintained the gardens at the Windsor long-term care community were when she arrived at work one late September morning.

She approached life enrichment worker Barb Maloney and a resident, who were watering plants and flowers, and told them how nice the yard looked.

“I thanked the resident, and her reply was, ‘no, thank you, I can’t sew, but I can grow a garden,’” Amy recalls.

Starting in spring and throughout summer and into autumn, Barb and another life enrichment worker, Dorothy Thompson, have been working with residents who have a green thumb to make Heron Terrace’s gardens look bright and beautiful.

There is a variety of bushes, along with lavender, marigolds, petunias and other plants that residents have helped plant and care for.

Life enrichment co-ordinator Lori George says team members wanted to create programming that tapped into residents’ interests. Gardening is a hobby several residents have had in their lifetime, so it was a natural fit, Lori says.

“The idea is that their activities are incorporated into the life of the home, so one of their interests is gardening, and this is a way for us to fulfil that need,” she says, adding such programming “rekindles” the residents’ past interests.

“And it’s one of our goals for activities to do that.”

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