A Gift To Come

The campus was blessed a year ago, when the Nina Mason Pulliam Foundation awarded the campus with a generous grant to create a sensory garden outside the entrance to the health Care Center for residents to enjoy with their families and caregivers. After months of planning and design, the garden will become a reality soon, when construction begins this week. The garden will be named in memory of the mother of Harriet Ivey, the founding ceo and president of the Pulliam Foundation who is now retired. Harriet's mother died many years ago from Alzheimer's disease and Harriet recalls having no place to visit with her mother other than in the facility where she lived. That situation was distressing to Harriet, her mother and her family. From this, the idea was born to create a sensory garden at Beatitudes Campus.

A sensory garden is a garden environment that is designed with the purpose of stimulating the senses

A sensory garden is a garden environment that is designed with the purpose of stimulating the senses, courtesy of plants and the use of materials that engage the senses of sight, smell, touch, taste and sound. The majority of the garden will be completed in the next three weeks. A water feature for the garden is scheduled for completion in the fall. A formal dedication of the garden, which will be named for Harriet's mother, will take place in the Fall.

The Phoenix-based Parsons design studio, a landscape architecture and urban design studio that specializes on urban infill and adaptive reuse projects, designed the garden. EnviroScape, a landscape construction and installation company in Glendale, is the constructing the garden.

Start date: july 6, 2015
Completion: TBA

The garden will be open for the enjoyment of all residents, visitors, and staff. The garden will feature two water features, an arbor, seating areas, an infinity walkway, potting benches, and plants designed to attract butterflies and birds.

The main entrances to Buckwald's and the Health Care Center will remain open. The resident smoking area will be relocated within the porte-cochere that is south of the large fountain.

Author Info: Barbara Wood

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