Community Corner
Local Garden Club to Add Color to Holy Cross Healing Garden
Community invited to help with this weekend's plantings, which will blossom into vibrant color this spring.
The Silver Spring Garden Club is bringing new color and cheer to Holy Cross Hospital's Healing Garden, with a planting scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 22, from 3-5 p.m. (The rain date is Saturday, Oct. 29.)
The Healing Garden, at in Silver Spring's Forest Glen neighborhood, is a place of solace and recuperation for hospital patients, visitors, and staff. Currently, the garden has lots of native perennials and shrubs, but does not have many spring-blooming bulbs or annuals. The Holy Cross Hospital staff approached the club to take on the project of introducing more color and vibrancy into the garden.
Jason Gedeik, a Silver Spring Garden Club member, is organizing the Healing Garden planting. Gedei is the Orchid and Tropical Collections Manager at Hillwood Estate and Museum (in northwest Washington, DC), and a resident of downtown Silver Spring.
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“I truly believe in the power of nature to heal,” said Gedeik. “It is why I initially started gardening actually.”
The hospital staff and club members met earlier this year to view the garden and assess project needs. During the summer, club members discussed various improvement possibilities and what would create the most impact for the garden’s visitors.
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The club reached out to the community for project donations. EcoTulips, based in Brightwood, VA, gifted 100 organically-grown tulip bulbs for the planting. The Takoma Horticultural Club (THC) contributed more than $250 worth of spring and summer-blooming bulbs, from daffodils to alliums. The THC bulbs were unsold inventory from their recent fundraiser at the Takoma Park Street Fair.
Holy Cross Hospital and the Silver Spring Garden Club are also contributing funds to buy plants at local garden centers to bring seasonal color and flowers to the garden. They plan on adding containers in the spring as well, which can be switched out seasonally to add spots of interest around the garden when the perennials and shrubs are not in bloom.
“So many people come to Holy Cross not only to receive health care, but also are friends and family who visit and need some natural space to relax, pray and meditate,” explained Gedeik. “The garden is a wonderful space to find solace and healing. Whatever we can do as a club and community to enhance the space is worthwhile to make it truly live up to its name and purpose.”
The planting event coincides with Montgomery County’s Community Service Week, designed to help residents make a difference in the community. Volunteer projects are listed at www.montgomeryserves.org.
The club welcomes non-members from the community to help out with the planting. To participate, bring gloves and a shovel or trowel and meet up this Saturday at 3 p.m. at the hospital's main entrance, 1500 Forest Glen Rd. Many hands make light work!
Kathy Jentz is editor of Washington Gardener magazine and a long-time DC area gardening enthusiast. Washington Gardener is all about gardening where you live. Jentz can be reached at www.washingtongardener.com and welcomes your gardening questions.
