Volunteers help Healing Garden bloom

SANDPOINT — Among the roughly half-dozen volunteers getting Bonner General Health's Healing Garden ready for the season was Sharon McCormick, dressed warmly against the chilly spring morning.

Busy raking leaves covering plants just beginning to poke above the ground, the longtime Sandpoint resident has been helping at the Healing Garden since its founding more than 20 years ago. Saturday, McCormick was back at the garden — among a small group of gardeners busy raking, weeding and sprucing up the garden to get it ready for spring and summer.

One of the "originals," McCormick was introduced to the garden by longtime friend Linda Plaster, the garden's founder. Plaster, who passed away in 2016, was passionate about both gardening and the community and quickly gathered a cadre of like-minded residents to transform the site bordering Sand Creek into an oasis.

"The open space was here and she loved flowers, so it was just a win-win," McCormick said of her friend, noting Plaster had noticed the unused parcel of hospital land and dreamed of something more for it.

Plaster approached then-CEO Gene Tomt with her idea and gained a quick and enthusiastic thumbs-up for the project.

Soon, Plaster had gathered fellow gardeners, friends and community members. Soon, the garden began to bloom.

"It's a wonderful place for people," McCormick said. "If you come down in the early evening, there are people walking, and I think it gives them solace. It's a place of calmness."

Built on the hospital grounds in 2003, the garden borders Sand Creek with plants of every variety tucked into corners and bordering pathways. Garden paths winnow around this flower or that plant, under a trellis or past a waterfall. Benches are tucked along the strolling paths where the noise of downtown Sandpoint falls away, giving way to the sounds of the creek or birds chirping nearby.

Public art is scattered around the site: a metal-art tree where leaves immortalize the names of children; a large hand where the young or young-at-heart can perch for a moment.

The garden is a place of spiritual solace, designed as a retreat for both those visiting the hospital and those who work there. It serves, Bonner General Health officials said, to give the living a place to reflect and a place to remember those who have passed.

With the garden tucked away along Sand Creek by the hospital, many people often don't realize that the Healing Garden exists. From meandering pathways to hidden alcoves, from a children's garden with fun and quirky sculptures designed to ignite the imagination, the Healing Garden offers peace and tranquility, a spot to heal both the mind and soul.

"It's a space of solace where people can come and just sort of take in nature and really just enjoy the beauty of it and the silence," BGH volunteer coordinator Kate McAlister said. "… It's about reflection and it's just enjoying everything that's in here."

While there are different zones — the stone waterfall, a children's play area and a small chapel among them — the garden is an ever-changing spot, with different plants bursting into color or lending a quiet spot of color depending on the season.

"I think you just have to come and wander," said Janae Dale, a member of the Bonner County Gardeners Association. "It's a wandering style of garden and you might not see it all but you'll enjoy whatever you do."

While BCGA members have adopted a section of the garden, more than a half-dozen association members turned out for Saturday's event, an annual tradition of raking leaves, pruning debris, weeding and shaking off winter's slumber.

Members said they view their time at the garden as both a service to the community and a way to soak up the serenity built into its bones.

"This is a special place and you should help keep it special," Dale said. "If you come and make the rounds, you will easily see what makes us excited about being able to help with it because it really is unique."

Fellow BCGA member Becky Crook agreed, noting that association members have volunteered at the garden for years.

"This is just a special place," she added. "When you come down here, you feel good when you work here. There's just a feeling of peace."

A private park that is open to the community, the Healing Garden is dependent on volunteers and donations, McAlister said. The garden is in need of additional volunteers and donations to fund new plants, mulch and dirt to remain self-sustaining.

It's that volunteer aspect of the garden that makes it extra special: groups like the BCGA have adopted sections of the garden to maintain, and residents donate to help purchase needed supplies such as mulch, dirt or plants.

Without those volunteers and donated funds, the garden may not exist.

"It's 100% driven by donations, so if there's no money, we can't continue to do this," McAlister said. "It's also a 100% volunteer effort."

More volunteers are needed to give the garden the love it needs to be a healthy, vibrant place, and McAlister invited anyone interested to reach out to her to sign up to adopt a zone. The investment of a little bit of time goes a long way with everyone pitching in, she said.

"I don't know much about gardening at all," McAlister said, joking she knew just enough to be dangerous. "I don't have to know anything, but I can pick up a rake, and I can clean up my small section."

From master gardeners like many in the BCGA to novice plant enthusiasts just figuring out what is a plant and what is a weed, all are welcome to volunteer — from church groups to community groups to families looking to be a part of the community.

"There are quite a few empty sections that need somebody to give them love," Crook said.

For more information on the Bonner County Gardeners Association, go to bcgardeners.org. To learn more about volunteering in the Healing Garden or how to donate to keep the garden growing, go to bonnergeneral.org/the-healing-garden. McAlister can be reached at kate.mcalister@bonnergeneral.org.

    Bonner General Health volunteer coordinator Kate McAlister rakes leaves at the hospital's Healing Garden as part of an effort to rake leaves, clear debris and ready the site for the spring and summer.
  

    Sharon McCormick and fellow Bonner County Gardeners Association members work to clean up Bonner General Health's Healing Garden. More than a half-dozen people turned out for the annual cleanup on Saturday.