Community Pitching in To Help at New Hospital
New planter boxes sit at the Healing Garden, ready to be installed. The old boxes have decayed over time, and La Grange High School Wood Shop students designed and built the replacements. Many other beautification efforts are planned for the Gar- Members of Freddie Behnke’s Wood Shop classes at La Grange High School stand behind some of the planter boxes they designed and built for the La Grange Garden Club, whose members have taken on the job of revitalizing the Healing Garden at the new Progressive Health hospital. More than sixty students worked on the boxes during their shop classes. Students shown here are, left to right, Aldo Hernandez, Travis Hill, Kameron Behrens, Sergio Hernandez, La Grange Garden Club project chairman Dana Sternadel, Conner Brooks, Cesar Martinez, David Xetey, and Darius Johnson. The Garden Club invites anyone interested to help with this project, which will be completed in phases.
When St. Mark’s Hospital shut its doors in October 2023, everything was left unattended, including the Healing Garden, the large outdoor space in the center of the building. In anticipation of Progressive Health’s upcoming opening of the hospital, members of the La Grange Garden Club recently voted to revitalize the Garden. They decided the first step would be to replace the existing planter boxes, which had originally been built many years ago by longtime hospital volunteer Ted Borgstedte, and had decayed over time. Thanks to Freddie Behnke’s Wood Shop classes at La Grange High School, students designed and built nine new boxes with landscape timbers and hardware donated by McCoy’s Building Supply. Local Walmart manager Kevin Ickles donated 40 cubic feet of potting soil, and soon Garden Club members will replace the old boxes with the new ones, add amendments to the existing soil, and plant a variety of herbs, flowers, trees, and plants as recommended by local consultant David Will. Garden Club members were pleasantly surprised at the condition of the dozen red rose bushes that had survived on their own, as all they needed was pruning.
Garden Club president Marian Tajchman says this has already proven to be a big job. “Although we expect some financial help from the hospital owners,” she said, “we are looking into possible grants to help with the costs of revitalizing the Garden. We will also be inviting other organizations to help with the manual part of revitalizing the Garden as this hospital is a very vital and necessary segment of our community, so I’m hoping many individuals and groups from within our community will get involved.”
The La Grange Garden Club dates back to the summer of 1937, and has played an active role in various endeavors throughout the years; more recently, maintaining the flowerbeds at the Faison House, as well as the Grandmother’s Garden at the Texas Quilt Museum, and bringing back the Plant and Flower Exhibit at the annual Fayette County Fair. In 2015, the Garden Club was invited to help rejuvenate the Healing Garden at St. Mark’s Hospital, and lots of work was done then, but later, the covid virus would interrupt that work. With the hospital’s closure in 2023, the Healing Garden has survived on its own, but several new beautification efforts are needed.
New planter boxes are just the beginning. Because of the scope of the project, the Garden Club will complete the revitalization in phases. If you, your business, or your organization is interested in helping, contact Healing Garden project chairman Dana Sternadel at dana.sternadel@gmail.com or La Grange Garden Club president Marian Tajchman at mtajchman238@gmail.com.