BUCHANAN — Plans for a community garden that will serve Buchanan seniors are beginning to take root.

The idea was cultivated by avid gardener Jan Ferris, the program coordinator at the Buchanan Area Senior Center. When Ferris was first hired at the senior center about three years ago, she shared her idea for a community garden with Monroe Lemay, the facility’s executive director.

Since then, several other priorities have kept the garden from coming to fruition. But this spring, the timing is right. Lemay and Ferris said they are hoping to raise funds and break ground on the project in May.   

If all goes according to plan, a rocky planter on the building’s south side would be transformed to feature six raised garden beds, where seniors could grow and harvest vine ripe tomatoes, fresh lettuce and peppers and squash, among others.

A memorial gazebo named after the late Frieda Barker and a flower bed are also part of the garden’s design. Memorial contributions to the senior center in Barker’s name will support the cost of the gazebo.

While plans for the garden have been sowed, the Buchanan Senior Center will have to raise about $10,000 to get the project started. Senior center leaders are currently seeking sponsors to help fund the garden. So far, three Buchanan businesses have sponsored a garden bed at $500 a piece. Sponsors will have their name put on a plaque that will be displayed on the beds. Additionally, Lemay said she will be seeking several grants to help cover costs.

Lemay said she believes growing a garden could provide the seniors with numerous social and emotional health benefits by encouraging them to get outdoors and cultivate something with their own two hands. But she also saw the garden as a way to fill a nutritional void that Lemay said she has observed. 

As part of the senior center’s services, eligible Buchanan seniors and low-income residents can receive food commodity baskets. In the last few years, about 1,400 residents received these baskets as a source of food annually. However, Lemay said the baskets lack something basic for those in need.

“The only problem that we feel is that within those commodities given to us by the government and the state, there is nothing fresh,” Lemay said. “On the whole, it is processed and canned food. We all know that fresh fruit and fresh vegetables cost a fortune to our seniors.”

Lemay said the garden could offer a way to provide those ingredients to residents in need. The senior center also borders two senior living communities that could take advantage of the garden.

For the design aspects of the garden, Ferris and Lemay brought senior center volunteer Yvonne Shaw on board. Shaw is a landscape artist who has helped to design a number of notable landscape projects including the Buchanan Arts Center, Fireman’s Park and the Tin Shop Theatre.

Shaw’s design of the senior center garden incorporates several details that Lemay and Ferris think will serve seniors well. The garden beds will be raised so that seniors do not have to bend too far over. The corners of the bed will also have a seating area, where they can rest. A concrete path will also make wheel barrow transport easier.

Lemay said she credits Ferris for helping to expand what was before a limited set of senior center programs. She said plans for the community garden are but one example of this. 

“These seniors are active and their minds are among the most intelligent here,” Lemay said. “They have had the most life experience, and we don’t want to talk down to them. We want to give them some way into the world that is interesting.”

Those interested in helping to support the garden, can contact the Buchanan Area Senior Center at (269) 695-7119.