By Richard Dagenais, SAPA Communications Specialist
It’s not quite a forest, but nearly 50 trees have been planted in the garden at Donald Berman Maimonides Geriatric Centre. Eventually, many will yield fruit for residents to enjoy.
The trees were provided by Soverdi, a Montreal-based non-profit organization specializing in the greening of urban spaces. Pollinating flower beds were planted by Polliflora, another local non-profit seeking to educate people about the importance of pollinators. And hives were installed by Apiguru, a Montreal-based company, to provide a home for those pollinators.
“The residents love the changes,” says Stéphanie Desgagné, Site Coordinator at Maimonides. “They enjoy sitting outside and benefiting from the nice trees, plants and green space.”
Joel Bohadana, Chief of Operations and Material Installations, who helped to oversee improvements to the garden, explains that the goal was “to turn a plain piece of land into an oasis for the residents—a place where they can soak up all of nature’s beauty.”
A presentation by Apiguru at Maimonides in September explained the intricacies of non-traditional beekeeping to residents, who can look forward to adding honey extracted from the garden hives to their meals.
Ms. Desgagné notes that the revitalized garden is already attracting more wildlife, including rabbits and a family of groundhogs.
Thanks to the Donald Berman Maimonides Foundation, the existing garden path has also been extended.