Donations Benefit Strainhurst Green Thumbs

Taking a Break: Richard Jara, Cynthia Kaza, Bob Harris and Sharon Poe

It’s just a small sized plot of land at the Strainhurst Apartment Complex along East Cedar Street in Lamar, but it means a lot to many of the residents.  Using $300 in funds from a past yard sale, coupled with $2,000 in donations of materials, the residents there have built an above-ground vegetable garden.

Planning the Next Move at the Garden

“It took them only three days to complete all this,” said Kim Fournier, Executive Director of the Lamar Housing Authority, “They really were happy to get all this donated and get the project underway,”  The donations mentioned consisted of cut railroad ties, plastic sheeting, manure, seeds and dirt.  “We got the railroad ties from Diana and Dustin Tixier when we called to price some,” according to Prudy Osborne from the Authority, “They just said, tell us what you need and there’s no charge involved.”

Big R provided plastic sheeting and seeds; the city added the dirt and the manure came from Tom Torrez.  Fournier said Strainhurst has a storage shed and the garden tools are available when someone wants to work in their space in the garden.  She singled out four residents, 91 year old Bob Harris, Sharon Poe, Cynthia Kaza and Richard Jara for doing most of the construction work to increase the scope of the garden.  “Bob is amazing.  When he sets his mind to a project, it gets done.  He doesn’t like to just sit around,” Fournier explained.

Strainhurst has 80 apartments with about 100 residents and the ages vary from 60 to 91 and Osborne said there’s a 98 year old lady that is planting her tomatoes for another year.  “Over the past three years residents have gotten really involved in adding some color to our place, putting up planters on patios, painting poles and benches, growing lots of rose bushes, patio furniture, bird feeders…they’ve really brought this place to life,” Fournier added, “You should stop by, the whole community should come and take a look in a couple of months to see what they’ve accomplished.”  Residents plant a host of table-ready produce including radishes, tomatoes, watermelon, squash beans, carrots and a few blue pumpkins were harvested last year.

Osborne said they’ll begin to build some benches using the leftover timbers and circle a few of the trees so residents can sit outdoors in the shade.  The Strainhurst annual yard sale is over the Memorial Day weekend and they will receive donations of unsold items from the SDS yard sale held on May 2.  A special day is being planned to dedicate the garden to Shirley Hartley, who meant quite a lot to the Strainhurst residents.

By Russ Baldwin