By Otterbein Granville resident Kathie H.
Planting a garden, tending a garden, and sharing a garden are activities that enliven me, that invite me to partner with Creation as a spiritual practice. Leaving a house and garden after more than 45 years was difficult, but not impossible. I trusted the call to a new adventure, and I was not disappointed.
Try-It Stay Introduces Gardening Opportunities
Our March “Try-It Stay” at Otterbein introduced us to the garden guru of this property, Facilities Director Cindy Dill. What a comrade-in-planting she has become!
Knowledgeable, energetic, and encouraging, with a practical eye for landscaping solutions, Cindy has been a BIG part of why moving to Otterbein Granville has been a delightful transition.
Even before our move-in date of June 30, I was able to bring plants from my awakening garden in Upper Arlington. I set them either in pots along the walkway or in the partially landscaped front gardens of the Ranch House, a newly designated resident option just around the corner from Kendal Drive on Columbus Road.
Related: Green Thumbs Welcome at Otterbein Granville >>
While wild orange “ditch lilies” had claimed most of the garden space, Cindy’s helpers came to my rescue and removed enough of them so I could install perennials like Lenten Rose (Hellebore), Clematis, Astilbe, and more.
I learned quickly that my suburban Hostas could be left behind. Many of my garden favorites became a deer buffet in this semi-rural landscape.
Gardening Invites Adventure and Partnership with Nature
Gardening is always an adventure, a learning experience, a daily invitation to partner with Nature, to love what is given, and in return, to play with the possibilities of enhancing the landscape.
Outside the renovated garden room, also known as the three-season sunroom, the barren, sunny, west-facing backyard needed some visual interest. A future garden blossomed in my imagination.
Cindy’s trusty paint-gun quickly helped define a generous flow of a planting bed bordering the house. The project progressed quickly, even with July’s oppressively hot days. A few strategic hanging baskets of Lantana immediately attracted hummingbirds and butterflies while the deer looked the other way.
More to come in this story of garden design. Seasons change and bring new possibilities. Some bigger additions to the landscape will come with cooler autumn days. We are off to a great start — always in partnership with people and nature.
Related: What is a Resident-Driven Community? >>
Otterbein Granville Supports Individual Lifestyles
Rather than think of this as starting over, it is more like building on a lifetime passion for plants and people, for learning and growing, for patience and purpose, that result in daily pleasure and amazement.
To learn more about life-fulfilling opportunities at Otterbein Granville, visit our website. You’ll find information on services, lifestyle choices, amenities, lifelong learning, and more.
