by Cornelia Seigneur
She grew up with a father who could grow anything in their garden.
“When my dad got home from work he was always in the yard and I was right there with him, with my little shovel ready to work, and I followed him around in the garden. He had a little shadow.”
She has not stopped playing in the dirt. Eventually, she became a master gardener, which means she took lots and lots of classes on gardening and learned a little bit about designing a garden. Part of keeping up the certificate to stay a master gardener was volunteering 35 hours a year in various public gardens like the Rhododendron Garden or at nurseries.
“When I first started, it was 70 hours. I would sit at nurseries and answer questions and that was hard. Once a man asked me what kind of flower the blue flower at the corner of Flavel and another street was, and I did not know, and the man was angry with me.”
“When I was really active, I did a garden at church and grew vegetables near the Swamp and offered classes for little kids, ages 4 to 7. We had them planting things and we had a day where we focused on Good Bugs-Bad Bugs. The children were very dirty when their parents picked them up. All but one boy who would not get dirty.”
Through life’s transitions this past year, she hung up her master gardening gloves.
But, when Transitional Youth needed help getting a rural residential facility home called Royal Ridges in Washington ready for youth to move into, this garden enthusiast got her gloves back on. It is the mission of Transitional Youth to support homeless youth in Portland - known for its high homeless youth population - by assisting with housing, outreach and life skills with the ultimate goal of reducing youth homelessness. Royal Ridges is the newest venture where youth have the opportunity to live in a rural residential facility to help them detox from street life.
“There is a large flower bed that is there in very poor shape where this ex-hot tub was and hopefully we can make this into a little pond. It will be neat. I want to add a birch tree and Oregon grape and other things native to the area.”
So far, she has laid out a design of the front of the house, where the driveway is and where the deck is. There is no way to get to the deck without a path, so that needs to be added.
“I want to make it look like it is a house that is staying. So the youth feel like they are in a home.”
She is enjoying doing the research for the landscape design. She has been online checking plants out and perusing through her gardening books to make sure the plants she wants to use will work. She has visited several nurseries asking about what new plants will thrive in the climate.
“I am just delighted I can help in this small way for Transitional Youth. God has given me an opportunity.”
“One of the things Gary Gorsuch told me, is that some of these kids have never had to get up at a certain time and they’ve never worked. They have been in certain foster care homes so many times. There was one girl who has been in more foster care homes than she was old.”
This former master gardener is helping sow the seeds of beauty in others that were planted into her heart by her father so long ago.
What is her favorite plant?
“Spring Bouquet Viburnum. It starts blooming at the end of December. It has white and pinkish white flowers. I like it because it blooms when most other things are not blooming.”
“And, there is a new variety of Spring Bouquet Viburnum called Spirit. I had never heard of Spirit and I am thrilled about using it at Royal Ridges.
“It seems fitting. There is going to be Spirit out there.”
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Visit Transitional Youth’s website at: http://www.transitionalyouth.org/
Visit Cornelia’s blog at www.corneliaseigneur.com
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