The Mather in Evanston held a special garden walk yesterday to show off its residents' gardens and to highlight its gardeners, all of whom must be over 62, the lower age limit for the Mather. There are 40 garden boxes in the North
Mather garden, all of which are filled each year. In some cases a resident can get two boxes through a lottery. Douglas Cole, 79, (photo), a former Professor of English Literature, has created an exquisite miniature Japanese-style landscape, complete with a dry river, a rare dwarf holly (ilex crenata 'Dwarf Pagoda'), a dwarf hemlock, dwarf mugo pines, and a ground cover of Scotch Moss which is now blooming with tiny "daisies." Gazing into it one can feel its tranquility and gentle weaving of textures and hues against carefully selected stone "boulders." In the winter he covers the garden with three inches of pine needles and some burlap.
Other box gardens were filled with whatever the gardener loved to grow--snapdragons, herbs, zucchini, marigolds--a wide variety of plants. The containers enable the residents to garden without stooping over, and are usable from a wheelchair. The whole walk showed that there is no age limit to gardening with intensity and complexity.
Some of the words of the Garden Committee members crystallized the enthusiasm of their work:
Florence Jacobs: "To be able to be outdoors on a beautiful day tending to a garden is a joy for me and I am grateful for that."
Jane Roth: "We are trying to grow some of our vegetables in a system called 'earth box' gardening. Earth box gardening is a closed system where water is taken up by the plants from a reservoir in the bottom of the box."
Mary L. Quaid: "The miracle progresses as the flowers engulf my boxes, plus some herbs add delicious flavors to my few culinary creations."
Many home gardeners would benefit from the gardening style used at the Mather.
