Planting New Life to the Play Deck at Shriners Hospital for Children

“This is fun, I like gardening!” said Katie in a soft voice with a smile on her face. Katie’s new purple garden gloves, a gift from the Shriners Green Thumb Garden Club, matched her blue outfit that day.  It didn’t matter that her little fingers didn’t quite reach to tips of the gloves, she was ready to plant. As Katie hung onto the side of the container for balance, she helped smooth the soil in the container, saying, “I like getting dirty!” Katie’s smile grew as she carefully helped plant purple pansies, bright green phormiums and wide leafed heucheras in the large container.

 

Tanner, dressed in his red shirt, heard the laughing and hurried down the hospital hallway scooting through the door to the play deck asking “are you having a party out here?” When Tanner was told we were planting some containers on the play deck, and he was welcome to help, he picked up a trowel and dug in! Tanner was such an eager digger, the soil was flying fast and furious around his container and those standing nearby had to dodge the stray scoopfuls of soil.

 

Katie and Tanner were two of a dozen children who enthusiastically helped plant large containers on the play deck at Shriners Hospital for Children on Monday, September 10^th 2007. The planting was made possible by contributions from Black Gold, Al’s Garden Center, “Garden Time” garden show, and the hospital’s own Green Thumb Garden Club. Several new large containers were filled with colorful plants which will look great all through the winter up on the Play Deck. The goal of the project is to create a roof top garden where children, their families, and the hospital staff can find respite, relax, and rejuvenate. The garden is a wonderful project and Al’s Garden Center is happy to help by providing plant material and staff to help plant. The planting was videotaped by “Garden Time” the garden show on KPTV Fox 12, and was a featured in a segment on the Saturday, September 29^th show at 9:00am.