We are celebrating 13!!! years gardening with seniors this 2023 season!!!!!
Stay tuned for exciting new projects and celebrations!!!!!
Stay tuned for exciting new projects and celebrations!!!!!
Great Projects!
We completed the building of accessible garden beds for Darlington Manor (senior apartments), the Hamilton House (assisted living facility), another cluster of beds for an assisted living facility in Bozeman, a beautiful large pollinator bed for the City of Belgrade (partnering with the Belgrade Bloomers Club), and building raised garden beds for our senior friends who are aging in place in and around Gallatin County.
We just finished summer planting at Parkhaven Retirement Home, Churchill Retirement Home, and have been delivering plants and seeds to Legion Villa, Darlington Manor, Apartments, Summerwood Apartments, Bozeman Senior Center, and private residences.
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A Recap on Some of our Recent Projects!
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In 2016, our work brought purposeful activities to improve the quality of life in many ways that we observed: improvement in nutrition and food security, increases in social and physical activity, decreases in loneliness and isolation, and increases in mental stimulation, cognitive development, and memory retrieval. Friendships were gained, volunteers were appreciated, extra produce was taken to the food bank, companionship was found, and a productive gardening season was well earned! We are happy to share with you the following successes from 2016:
This year, Sage Gardeners was able to: provide raised, accessible, vegetable garden beds to the Belgrade Senior Center, twelve private residences in Bozeman, Belgrade, and Three Forks and we focused a majority of our time on our Maintenance Project. This is an annual project that assists in maintaining and supporting past year’s gardens to the need of that recipient; this project is annually increasing in demand. Through this project we deliver hands-on “how to” gardening classes, seasonal garden tasting presentations, seed and planting days, weed and harvest days, and “putting the garden to bed” days. We coordinated volunteers to help with check-ins and personal contact with residents. It was a busy year, indeed. Lots of harvesting meant delivery of veggies to lots of seniors and the food bank; and we created tasty dishes to share with our harvests. Basil pesto, roasted beets with goat cheese, and a strawberry/rhubarb galette were among the favorites. Of course, we would have liked to have helped more as there is always a waiting list, but funding always limits how many gardens and seniors we can reach out to each year. We are hoping to expand our services next year to include a greenhouse/kitchen/gathering/educational space for all of our extracurricular activities like mini presentations, cooking classes, and canning. Sage Gardeners had a lot of media exposure this season. DIYPete.com is a local company (with over 35k subscribers) that focuses on building your own projects. They loved what we were doing and wanted to be able share our successes and raised garden bed plans nationally. We were filmed with some of our senior participants and projects - it turned out to be a delightful little media piece for Sage Gardeners. We were able to have a week of exposure in the window at First Security Bank in downtown Bozeman the second week of August, and we had two great articles written up on Sage Gardeners in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. I would say, a season to be proud of, indeed! And, despite limited funding for a small organization, we are very proud of our work and our yearly accomplishments!
This year, Sage Gardeners was able to: provide raised, accessible, vegetable garden beds to the Belgrade Senior Center, twelve private residences in Bozeman, Belgrade, and Three Forks and we focused a majority of our time on our Maintenance Project. This is an annual project that assists in maintaining and supporting past year’s gardens to the need of that recipient; this project is annually increasing in demand. Through this project we deliver hands-on “how to” gardening classes, seasonal garden tasting presentations, seed and planting days, weed and harvest days, and “putting the garden to bed” days. We coordinated volunteers to help with check-ins and personal contact with residents. It was a busy year, indeed. Lots of harvesting meant delivery of veggies to lots of seniors and the food bank; and we created tasty dishes to share with our harvests. Basil pesto, roasted beets with goat cheese, and a strawberry/rhubarb galette were among the favorites. Of course, we would have liked to have helped more as there is always a waiting list, but funding always limits how many gardens and seniors we can reach out to each year. We are hoping to expand our services next year to include a greenhouse/kitchen/gathering/educational space for all of our extracurricular activities like mini presentations, cooking classes, and canning. Sage Gardeners had a lot of media exposure this season. DIYPete.com is a local company (with over 35k subscribers) that focuses on building your own projects. They loved what we were doing and wanted to be able share our successes and raised garden bed plans nationally. We were filmed with some of our senior participants and projects - it turned out to be a delightful little media piece for Sage Gardeners. We were able to have a week of exposure in the window at First Security Bank in downtown Bozeman the second week of August, and we had two great articles written up on Sage Gardeners in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. I would say, a season to be proud of, indeed! And, despite limited funding for a small organization, we are very proud of our work and our yearly accomplishments!
Belgrade Senior Center |
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The Belgrade Senior Center located adjacent to the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport is a community facility that is committed to fostering an active environment for seniors. They offer many active classes, engage in several annual fundraisers, and serve healthy and fresh meals (using lots of fresh veggies from their new gardens!) to local community members. This past season Sage Gardeners, along with the help from volunteers, installed raised accessible gardens in the back on the senior center. We spent the day filling garden beds, pots, and planters to later be filled with organic tomatoes, greens, peppers, and some beautiful flowers that Carl tended to so carefully. As with all of our projects we will maintain these gardens annually to the needs and desires of the senior center.
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Eastern Montana Veteran's Home
This project is serving approximately 80+ elder honorably discharged veterans and/or their spouses (~40) in a skilled/ intermediate nursing care facility. Glendive is a small rural town in Eastern Montana with a population of ~5,300 with 19% of residents over the age of 65. We will design, build, deliver, install, fill the raised redwood garden beds, and provide seeds, plants, and gardening tools and supplies. We will assist and modify the raised beds to the VA Home's need. The goal is to improve the quality of many senior's lives by encouraging mental, social, and physical activity outside throughout the summer for both the residents and their spouses. Fresh organic vegetables are a key component here for improving their nutrition... if they care for it, tend to it, take pride in it, they are more likely to harvest and eat more of it on their own or in their daily meals. The facility kitchen will harvest and use produce for daily meals and quick veggies like carrots, radishes, and cherry tomatoes will be planted for easy picking and satisfaction! See what has become of the Eastern Montana Veteran's Home gardens:
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Cancer Support Community
Even into October, we were still going strong and building beds! As most of our gardens were getting ‘put to bed’, we had one last project underway at the Cancer Support Community (Fall 2014).
This specific project for Sage Gardeners, Cancer Support Community Project, involved building several large raised redwood vegetable garden beds at the Cancer Support Community’s new therapy garden, Garden of Hope, located at their facility in Bozeman. In collaboration with many businesses and volunteers, our goal was to complete our portion of the gardens by the end of October 2014. The design portion of the gardens was first completed (six large (different sizes) raised redwood beds), and then we built, delivered, installed, and filled with the assistance of many community volunteers. We had two separate planting days - it was a joy to say the least!
The Cancer Support Community served roughly 640 individuals from across Montana in 2014. Statistically, 60% of all cancers in the United States occur in people age 65 and older. We could only be so grateful knowing that we helped one family or even one individual improve their quality of life because they were able to get their hands dirty and garden; or maybe they learned healthier eating habits from taking a cooking class that encourages adopting an organic-friendly lifestyle (one of the many classes offered at the CSC that will utilize our gardens).
This specific project for Sage Gardeners, Cancer Support Community Project, involved building several large raised redwood vegetable garden beds at the Cancer Support Community’s new therapy garden, Garden of Hope, located at their facility in Bozeman. In collaboration with many businesses and volunteers, our goal was to complete our portion of the gardens by the end of October 2014. The design portion of the gardens was first completed (six large (different sizes) raised redwood beds), and then we built, delivered, installed, and filled with the assistance of many community volunteers. We had two separate planting days - it was a joy to say the least!
The Cancer Support Community served roughly 640 individuals from across Montana in 2014. Statistically, 60% of all cancers in the United States occur in people age 65 and older. We could only be so grateful knowing that we helped one family or even one individual improve their quality of life because they were able to get their hands dirty and garden; or maybe they learned healthier eating habits from taking a cooking class that encourages adopting an organic-friendly lifestyle (one of the many classes offered at the CSC that will utilize our gardens).
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Private Residence Project |
Edgewood Vista Memory Care Community |
We built over 13 new raised redwood garden beds this summer (2016) for seniors living in their own home and wanting to continue gardening in their backyard.
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Located in Belgrade, Montana, Edgewood Vista is a senior care community that offers memory care and adult care services in a skilled nursing environment. We were so excited to do this project... it was mid-summer but we were gifted with some large veggie and herb starts; the gardens, once planted, looked like August gardens! Young volunteers helped fill and plant - the residents were in awe!
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