Fall Harvest from Gardens

There is a lot of research going into finding the best ways to enrich the lives of people with dementia. The main goal is to foster a sense of meaning and purpose in their everyday lives, as well as reduce anxiety, redirect attention, and promote engagement and focus (. A great way to accomplish these goals is to provide activities that the individual has enjoyed doing for years—be it a common household task, such as sorting socks, or something they did as a career, such as farming.

A very popular activity in our Memory Support Household is working with fresh vegetables from the residents’ garden and staff members’ gardens. One day the residents of the Memory Care Household enjoyed sitting around the kitchen table snapping beans. It was a great task that brought back memories of the “good ole days”, so they did about as much reminiscing as they did snapping!

Another day, one of our residents was walking outside and noticed a ripe tomato in their raised garden and picked it off the vine. She ate it just like an apple and exclaimed it was one of the best tomatoes she’d ever had! There’s just something about eating produce you have picked just minutes before from your own garden that makes it taste better. We love seeing the residents continue to do the things they have enjoyed for years and the joy that a simple task such as gardening can bring.

Quality Life-We will create a living environment that radiates love, peace, spiritual contentment, dignity and safety, while encouraging personal independence.