Lauren Bevard, Gathering Place; Gerrie Carey, President Clarks Summit borough council; Gary White, Master Gardener; Gretchen Ludders, Master Gardener; Lori O’Malley, Master Gardener; Natalie Khalife, Gathering Place and Selena Waters, Gathering Place pose for a photo recently after a morning of gardening.
Geri Gibbons | For Abington Journal
Pocket park allows adults with special needs a chance to grow
Verve Vertu’s Tracey Tribendis, Shawn Lambert and Megan Howanitz recently gathered at a pocket park near The Gathering Place, to plant flowers across the park, including in a special raised bed which is handicapped accessible.
Geri Gibbons | For Abington Journal
Selena Waters, from The Gathering Place, works on a rock garden for a pocket park on Depot Street.
Geri Gibbons | For Abington Journal
CLARKS SUMMIT — For a second year in a row, adults with special needs are honing their gardening skills this summer at a pocket park on Depot Street near the Gathering Place.
The group recently met, trowels and shovels in hand, to tend to their gardening areas that fill the park.
The Gathering Place Craft & Chat group, the Penn State Master Gardeners, participants of Verve Vertu/the Deutsch Institute and carpenters from the Appalachian Service Project joined together to make the garden reality.
Borough council president Germaine Carey also joined the group this year for a morning of planting and learning about the process.
She pointed out that the borough partners with local organizations to make Clarks Summit a friendly place and a pleasant area to live and work.
This year, the group added a handicapped accessible raised bed, to facilitate the planting of flowers for those with special needs.
Lackawanna County Master Gardeners provide direction to participants about which plants are likely to be successful in several areas around the park. Flowers, both annual and perennial, add a splashes of color that rotate during the season, and provide a great area for special events or quiet reflection.
Master Gardener Gary White said this year the project wasn’t doing vegetables, but instead herbs and flowers. “Perennials will bloom every year,” he said. “And then will add some annuals, such as Zinnia and some flowers.”
This year participants are expected to dry some of the flowers and utilize the herbs for cooking.
“It’s growing your own food, you know what you’re getting, a lot of it’s organic and its your own,” White said. “Its satisfying.”
White pointed out that basically it is a matter of putting plants in the ground and tending them properly, with Mother Nature taking over to do the rest.
Dori Waters, board president of The Gathering Place, said planting and gardening efforts at the pocket park provided an opportunity for education and beautification of an area well used by residents.
