Garden Club celebrates Arbor Day by getting a jump on spring planting

Recently members of the United Methodist Communities at Pitman Garden Club celebrated Arbor Day by planting a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Last year Assisted Living Social Worker, Lisa Kozlowski launched the Garden Club and quickly discovered there were many residents who used to be gardeners and still loved getting their hands in the dirt.  She mentioned her idea to expand the Garden Club to Community Life Associate Jessica Hepner and well….things just grew from there.   The pair discovered that the new executive chef Rich Scheeter in addition to knowing his way around the kitchen, was a green thumb as well.

“Rich loves to grow fresh vegetables and herbs and use them in the meals he prepares at

home and thought our residents who love gardening could grow some here on the grounds of United Methodist Communities at Pitman.  Rick pitched in and helped us get the plants, soil, pots and fertilizer,” said Kozlowski, who added, “We really could not have expanded our club and its activities without the assistance of Neil Haley, our Assistant Director of Building Services, who built us two raised flower beds for our residents that are wheelchair accessible.”

The Garden Club which currently has about 10 active members meets every other Friday to work on a wide variety of horticultural projects and plan how they are going to use the fruits of their labors.  “We are so glad that we are able to provide hands-on gardening activities for the residents and look forward to expanding the scope of the projects we will work on throughout the spring and summer months,” concluded Kozlowski.