Woodworkers Build Raised Beds For Congregate Residents

CHATHAM – Every morning, Amy Crowell visits the new raised garden beds behind the housing authority’s congregate units where she lives to tend the growing plants.

 “It makes my heart happy,” she said.

 Indeed, the three new raised beds behind the congregate units off Crowell Road are making a lot of people happy. Since they were delivered in April, the 17 residents of the independent living facility have carefully taken care of the beds and are now harvesting fresh produce and admiring beautiful flowers.

 “It brings people out,” said Housing Authority Director Tracy Cannon. It’s something she’s wanted to do for the tenants for 15 years, she added.

 The raised beds — one of which is lower so it can be easily accessed by folks in wheelchairs — were designed and built by the Chatham-Harwich Newcomers Club’s woodworking group, which has been responsible for building furniture, shelving and many other projects for local nonprofit organizations, municipal buildings and schools. The Women’s Club of Chatham’s community investment grant program provided funding for soil, plants and seeds. Usually funding for materials for the woodworking group’s projects comes from the client, but in this case the Newcomers Club had some money left over from a Mid-Cape Homes grant and was able to use that to purchase discounted cedar lumber from The Farmstead. Pro Fence provided posts at cost. ACE Hardware in East Harwich donated the hardware. Woodworker Bob Braman was the project manager.

Cannon said tenants met to weigh in on what they wanted to grow in the raised beds. Radishes, lettuce, cucumbers, turnips, tomatoes and herbs were among their choices, all organic. She said residents take turns watering and weeding the beds. 

Crowell said she’s always loved to garden and the raised beds have made it possible for her to do so again.