Mater Dolorosa’s ‘green thumbs’ issue a fresh challenge

The gauntlet has been thrown down! Residents of the Apartments at Mater Dolorosa challenge other Christopher Homes properties in the archdiocese to see who can yield the most from their community garden.

“We want to challenge them to see how many fruits and vegetables they can produce, how many meals they can make with them and how many smiles they create,” resident Ethel Mitchell said.

Mitchell and fellow Mater Dolorosa residents Audrey Coulter and Genie Flanery are so proud of the lovely garden they created in a triangular patch of ground in the parking area behind their independent living apartments that they want others to know the joy and satisfaction derived from nature’s bounty.

“This is for the residents,” said Flanery, whose grew up learning about gardening from her mother in south Louisiana. “It is for them to enjoy.”

Residents pick own goodies
In the Mater Dolorosa garden that began in May, pole beans cling to a trellis, Asian spinach, lemon grass, okra, bell peppers and other vegetables and spices such as parsley, thyme, basil and oregano can be viewed growing out of the ground.

Before it was properly tilled and refilled with soil, the garden was mainly inhabited by muck, cement and clay.

“It was always just left-over pieces of cement, dirt and weeds,” Mater Dolorosa manager Dagianna Pertuit said.

In ventured Sister of Charity Monica Gundler, who heard about the garden. She had first come to New Orleans in 2007 with other sisters to clean up the city after Hurricane Katrina, and Mater Dolorosa graciously provided their lodging. The Sisters of Charity loved the city immensely and decided to move here and provide ministry. Mater Dolorosa has been close to Sister Monica’s heart since.

“They said they wanted a garden, and this was an empty space,” Sister Monica said.

She provided the start-up money and the volunteer labor of Mount St. Joseph University faculty and staff in Cincinnati to ready the garden for planting – digging up the muck and replacing it with proper soil.

“You can’t grow food in bad dirt,” said Coulter who, during her youth, had agricultural experience. “We hoed it into rows and planted it.”

Coulter said they experimented with vegetables and had some success with okra and peppers. She even bagged herbs for residents.

“Some of the plants were doing fine until the rainy season,” Coulter said. “Okra loves the rain, but the beans didn’t.”

While Mitchell, Coulter and Flanery are the main garden workers, other residents assist with watering and upkeep, they said. The majority of the 65 residents, though, just love to walk outside, sit under the gazebo that Christopher Homes installed near the garden and gaze.

“I think most people here, with their age, they haven’t seen a garden in a long time, and it brings back memories, like ‘Oh, Momma grew that,’” Flanery said. “Residents just light up when they are out here.”

That sentiment is shared by resident Joseph Batiste, 91, who in former years gardened all around his New Orleans home.

“I enjoy watching vegetables grow,” he said. “It reminds me of when I used to grow all kinds of vegetables anywhere I had a spot at my house.”

Flanery also believes that their garden sparked Mater Dolorosa Parish to beautify other areas of the parking lot with flowers. And Franciscan Handmaid of Mary Sister Vincent Marie Wilson, a Mater Dolorosa resident, created a second garden on the property.

Mitchell and other residents with an apartment with a window sill also grow herbs to spice up their cooking.

“You can taste it,” Mitchell said about her chives. “It’s really good in red beans.”

Support from managers
Ann Laiche, services coordinator for Christopher Homes, says in addition to Mater Dolorosa, other Christopher Homes senior residences have gardens, including Metairie Manor, with raised container gardens, and Nazareth Inn.

“We try to keep the residents living as independently as we can, and we try to help as much as we can,” Laiche said. She believes a decrease in available monies to residents from the Louisiana Agriculture Department to use at local farmer’s markets prompted the garden.

The residents are looking forward to cooler weather to start planting fall vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers and the like.

“We have to go to the garden center and explore what’s available,” Coulter said.

The benefits of the garden have been immeasurable, especially in creating a closer-knit community.

“The garden teaches you patience and to be creative that you can eat good food without pesticides, and it teaches you community – that people can work together if they have a common goal,” Flanery said.

Christine Bordelon can be reached at cbordelon@clarionherald.org.