Mountain View Garden

Mountain View Manor (MVM) is the extended care unit on the west side of Delta Hospital. MVM is surrounded by 4 gardens - the flag pole berm marks its entrance off Harvest Drive, 3 enclosed, areas are for therapeutic/recreation garden programs for the residents. MVM residents, their families, and staff also enjoy these areas. SDGC has been involved here since the mid-2000's, now led by Angelika Hedley. 

The South Delta Garden Club supports it with $500 annually to support the purchase or materials and supplies as well as volunteers to maintain it.  Additional many plants are donated from various sources.

Residents and their visitors frequently express surprise and delight that this pleasant oasis and the gardening opportunities exist in an ECU. Please do not judge these gardens by your own standards; they are neither yours nor public. MVM is for the residents. Most are wheelchair bound; many have physical or cognitive limitations. MVM gardening revolves around when residents can go outside, Mid-May to mid-September. This means living with garden mess and planting selectively. Challenges include:

- Weeding - Residents like to weed. Anything. From horsetails to seedling bedding plants. We leave as much as possible, all year, or risk losing alyssum, marigolds, petunias, ...

- Cutting - Any flower with a stem is vase-bait, including for staff and empty-handed visitors. Entry flowers, especially hydrangeas, are choice temptations. (Select Roses donated 6 roses. That summer each flower was picked just as opening, by a resident to give to his person of the day. Charming, but no one else enjoyed the roses.)

- Watering - All can use the hoses, anytime, especially noon to dinner - hence overhead watering, overwatering, sun damage. We do use soaker hoses in the raised beds and measure the soil moisture levels.

- General - We deal with rogue plantings (mint, vinca, ...), pruning (wisteria & Clematis montana in March), rabbits, borrowed storage space to name a few.

In 2018 we decided to shift the beds to be drought-tolerant and low-maintenance. Residents' annuals are now in embedded pots, easy to access and plant/putter. Tough perennials like euphorbia, nepeta, knautia, species geranium, anemone and sedum replace dead plants. Our maintenance is reduced considerably as a result. SDGC has no control over external gardens. Internally, private contactors prune hedges and trees and do all maintenance under the direction of MVM and DH/Fraser Health.

SDGC role is supportive. We advise on plant selections, planting, and layout choices but the ultimate decisions are MVM recreation staff and rise out of resident input and programs. With so little left in residents' control, we are respectful of and work around their decisions even when we disagree, and do our best to ensure the plants remain healthy.

Contact Angelika if you wish to assist with MVM gardens on an on-going basis.