Memory Care at Rock Creek Senior Living Celebrates National Gardening Month

Gardening is potentially a “long-term” memory for Rock Creek residents with dementia. It was a way of life for many residents. Iowa does have very cold winters, but we have great soil and rarely are in a drought. Gardening can bring back many memories for our friends. From suckering tomatoes to snapping beans, gardening targets different dimensions of wellness.

It is vital to connect individuals living with dementia to their long-term memories. For some living with dementia, those long-term memories are still there. When we help them remember those times it is like watching a flower bloom. Their eyes light up, they get excited, and begin to tell stories from that particular memory. We are meeting their wellness needs physically, emotionally, socially, environmentally, cognitively, and for some, spiritually. 

Here at Rock Creek Senior Living in Ankeny, IA to celebrate and participate in National Gardening month we will start planting our starter seeds for our raised bed vegetable garden. We are working on the layout currently. Along with our vegetable garden, we will be planting flowers to attract bees to help pollinate the garden. Our friends really enjoy caring for the garden, but also watching the birds, bees, and butterflies that visit. Delilah, our female mallard duck, has already begun to nest.  She will lay eggs anytime in the next couple of months. She returns every March to nest and we all enjoy watching her.