I met with the new Mansion Director Morgan Jones (she is quite wonderful, smart, competent, available and especially loving) and gave her my idea for a permanent Mansion Community Geranium Garden, to be located in the Great Room of the Mansion building.

She loved the idea, after grilling me a bit about how it would work.

It’s a simple plan (thanks to Supreme Town Gardener Bliss McIntosh for her advice), we’ll start with Geranium cuttings, put them in seedling box – in the Great Room.

Plant lights may not be necessary all the time, and the residents and the staff will water the Geraniums until the grow up and can be kept in their boxes or transplanted to the residents rooms.

I’m not a plant person, but I have loved watching Maria fill out home with growing things, it enriches our home greatly.

I was thinking of ways to bring some living things into the Mansion for the residents to nurture and grow, and as they grow, they can migrate into individual rooms if people want them.

From dogs to fish to parakeets, it is essential to have living things in assisted care facilities, they speak of love and life and nurture. Sometimes, it feels gray and dry in there, color and life really matter.

Geraniums are relatively easy plants to grow indoors, they do need six to eight hours of sunlight (I might get some smaller boxes for individual rooms) and moist soil. The staff will figure out the best places, Bliss McIntosh has agreed to come and speak to the residents about Geranium care and check out the lighting and advise me on getting the necessary planting boxes.

She suggests cuttings rather than seeds, they don’t require artificial light.

The Geraniums will come under the collective care of the residents, just like the two fat and happy parakeets the residents dote over. I already received a welcome donation for some small and safe LED plant lights, if we need them. A number of gardeners wrote me to urge me to go ahead with the Geranium garden, she says she often sends flowers to the Mansions, but hates the idea that they are gone in a few days.

They want to support the garden, I welcome the guidance and help.

The next phase for me is to find cuttings (Bliss McIntosh has some) and get an inexpensive soil box that can go on a table. And then, some good soil.

I think this will be great for the residents, they so love taking care of the parakeets, and they need living things around them. I’ll talk to Bliss this weekend and get moving, it would be wonderful to have it up and running by Christmas, another gift to the residents, one that will keep on giving back.