Stewed new potatoes with piping hot cornbread is a perfect ending to a perfect day for Oaks of Louisiana resident Opal Wimberly. Even better when she has harvested the potatoes herself.

A love of digging in the dirt and anything gardening factored into Wimberly’s decision to move into Garden Apartments at The Oaks, one of two independent living options at The Oaks, when she moved there last August. Unlike the four-story Tower at The Oaks, Garden Apartments are one-story apartment homes with patios and flowerbeds that are beautifully maintained by Oaks staff or tended by residents if they choose.

“Gardening is good exercise and so much fun,” Wimberly gushes. “My little old daddy was 95 when he died and four years earlier he had bought a new tiller. My brother is 90 and gardens too.”

Dr. David Henry, of the Family Medical and Geriatric Center, several years ago suggested a community garden at The Oaks as a way of engaging not only able bodied residents in gardening but those in wheelchairs and walkers as well.

It was an idea enthusiastically supported by Sharon Champagne, campus and grounds manager.

Located on the north side of Garden Apartments, the community garden is available for any Oaks resident to plant, grow, harvest and enjoy whatever his or her heart desires.

Already this spring, Wimberly and fellow residents Al Fischer, Louise Choate and Max Greene have harvested potatoes and onions. They look forward to more bounty as the growing season progresses.

The community garden features specially designed raised wooden beds that are the proper height to keep residents from having to bend. They also allow anyone in a wheelchair to approach a bed conveniently.

“I watched them pour the pad, put a fence around it and build the beds and wondered what they were up to,” Al Fischer remembers about the community garden’s beginnings. “I said, ‘Hey, that could be a garden so I put out some experimental plants last June and it worked. I had a surplus of peppers so I planted in earnest this year. It’s really quite a bit of work. I’ve planted most from seeds and have tomatoes, radishes, beans and cucumbers.”

The cucumbers, he says, will be used to make pickles – “my own invention but it’s worked,” he chuckles. In the meantime, he has friendly competition from Wimberly and others who have planted this spring. Champagne couldn’t be more thrilled about the thriving garden and the resident participation. “There are eight raised boxes 12x36 and full of seeds,” she says. “We have added an area across the way that is plowed and has corn, pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers, cantaloupe, carrots, cabbage and lettuce planted.” Gutters also have been recycled and attached to the fence around the raised beds and are filled with a variety of herbs for residents “to come and take what they want.”

“We don’t use insecticides or pesticides so everything is pure, natural and organic,” Champagne says. “Residents can’t get any fresher than this and it’s great to see how proud they are of what they are growing and how they are enjoying the fruits of their labor.”

Like a pot of stewed new potatoes!