Senior living community residents keep the love of gardening

Nancy Fisher has been a gardener all her life.

Nancy Fisher, 78, works in the community garden at the Vi at Bentley Village in North Naples on Saturday, June 17, 2017.

So when she and her husband, Bob, moved onto the campus of Vi at Bentley Village six years ago, she didn't want to put down the clippers and spades. Instead, she found the community garden and plant house, where a team of other residents have transformed the space into a tranquil paradise.

"Everybody that works here has gardened before," Fisher said. "We're all so happy to still have a place to dig."

Each Saturday, a small group of garden lovers volunteer their time and effort pruning, replanting and organizing the plant house. They've taken ownership of the garden, which is overseen by the lifestyle department at the senior living community in North Naples. 

When the Fishers first arrived at Vi at Bentley Village six years ago, the garden was a little on the messy side.

"Many things became overgrown," she recalled. "Hundreds of bromeliads got cleaned out. That western area was not at all like it was when we came."

Fisher took on a leadership role, and the team of volunteers got to work. 

Residents work in the community garden at the Vi at Bentley Village in North Naples on Saturday, June 17, 2017.

They gathered stock of plants, tools, furniture and garden ornaments and statues from donations, like the bronze, chubby cat with a soft smirk. The plant house is nearly overfilling with donated clay pots, which stack up on shelves and reach to the ceiling.

A donated staghorn fern hangs from a tree, and the statue of a Japanese woman in a kimono, her hands carrying a bowl, overlooks a new section of the garden.

A statue sits in the rain at the community garden on Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at Vi at Bentley Village in North Naples.

With vibrant orange and red bromeliads, a peace lily and Florida hickory tree, the volunteers hope to give this area a more tropical, oriental look with the addition of the "Lady of the Garden," as they call her.

Volunteers have also added hibiscus and a butterfly-attracting lilac chaste tree. They've tied orchids to trees and added wind chimes and an abundant queens reef around an arbor honoring the plant house founder.

A plaque reads: "In memory of Beverly McHugh."

Vi at Bentley Village residents can board plants under a shaded patio area while they go out of town, and volunteers will care for them.

Fisher's husband, Bob Fisher, is the "fix-it man." He works in the wood shop at Vi at Bently Village, crafting wooden trellises, benches and other structures to go into the garden. He fastened wooden brackets to the side of the plant house so a passion flower vine could grow up the walls.

When tools need to be sharpened, when pots need drain holes or when the women need help with a tall ladder, they call on him.

"I say yes ma'am an awful lot," he said, laughing.

Several other community residents contribute to the space. One man visited a few weeks ago to clip back an unruly angel wing begonia. Another just fills the birdfeeder. Still another trims the hedges.

Gardening activities for seniors can even have numerous benefits, said Jordan Scardigno, associate executive director and director of sales at Vi at Bentley Village.

"There's a health side of it and a social side of it," he said. "The unique thing about our garden is that our residents garden together. When they're home they're gardening by themselves, but here it's really a community effort. ...It gives them a sense of purpose, a sense of contribution that you might not otherwise have living in our home.

"From a physical standpoint, they are the ones that run the show. They are the ones keeping it organized, they're planing, trimming. ...It's a way for them to keep busy and have fun doing it."

Judith Jacobs, 78, works in the community garden at the Vi at Bentley Village in North Naples on Saturday, June 17, 2017.

Since the most recent additions to the community garden, it's not uncommon for residents to host birthday parties or card games in the garden, or to just find them enjoying morning coffee among the fluttering butterflies. The volunteers hope gardening groups might want to tour the green space they've created and continue to update. To schedule a tour of the community garden, call the campus's lifestyle department at 239-431-2028.

"This has been everything to all of us," Nancy Fisher said. "We think we've done something for the community."