Residents at Clarendon Lodge Care Home, Croxley Green, have certainly caught the gardening bug. The Greensleeves Care home’s gardening project sees residents getting involved in growing fruit and vegetables in the greenhouse in the home’s garden, in a move to promote health and wellbeing, as well as sustainability.
At the spearhead of the project is resident Roy Davis, who is known in the local area for his lifelong history of growing Dahlia flowers, for which he has achieved many titles. With Roy at the helm, a team of gardeners have assembled to plant and grow an assortment of vegetables, from courgettes to cucumbers, aubergines to artichokes, and everything in between.
Clarendon Lodge’s catering team then incorporate their harvest into the weekly menu, ensuring that the residents are involved in the whole process.
Activities co-ordinator, Ramona, said:
“We are lucky to have such an engaged team of growers here at the home. It’s great to see them making the most of the outdoors, and of course we all love tasting the delicious vegetables that they grow. The residents definitely have a sense of satisfaction from growing and then eating the vegetables as part of their meals.”
The project was a great way for residents to keep busy during the lockdown periods earlier in the year, whereby care homes were under strict government restrictions which limited the activities that would normally occur at the home, such as day trips.
Ramona continued, saying: “The vegetable project gave the residents the motivation to get outdoors during those difficult times of lockdown. I think both staff and residents enjoyed the process of watching them all grow, all the way from the seeds to our plates!”
For more information about Clarendon Lodge, please visit: https://www.greensleeves.org.uk/care-homes/clarendon-lodge-croxley-hertfordshire/