Redding woman who grows ‘showstopper’ dahlias tends community garden for her neighbors
Judy Derryberry wants senior residents at her Redding assisted living facility to have fresh vegetables on their plates and flowers to see on their outings.
The avid gardener tends a 1,000-square-foot community garden at Oakmont of Redding Assisted Living and Memory Care on Bechelli Lane. The facility’s six raised beds allow residents with physical challenges to tend flowers, vegetables and herbs with Derryberry, who is 89.
The garden is surrounded by a walking path so residents, staff and visitors can stroll through it, regardless if they want to get their hands into the soil.
And Derryberry loves to do just that when she gardens. She refuses to wear gardening gloves. “She told me the dirtier it is, the more fun it is,” said Oakmont spokesperson Sue Allen.
“I love that I can plant something as tiny as a seed and be part of bringing it to life,” said Derryberry who cultivates seedlings in her Oakmont apartment window, then transplants them into the garden.
Shasta County resident Judy Derryberry, 89, grows vegetables and flower displays for seniors and staff at Oakmont of Redding Assisted Living and Memory Care. She learned gardening from her father, and is passing her love for it to her great-grandchildren, who help her tend the community garden when they visit.
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Oakmont uses Derryberry’s tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables and herbs from the garden in seasonal salads, but her floral displays are the biggest hit. Residents and staff like her tulips and snapdragons, but dahlias are Derryberry’s “showstopper,” said Allen.
Seeing the garden is the highlight of many of Oakmont’s residents’ daily walk, she said.
Gardening and other forms of exercise can “lighten mood and lower levels of stress and anxiety.” They’re good for people’s mental health, and fresh grown produce can improve diet, wrote Minnesota nurse practitioner Lisa Wimmer in her Mayo Clinic healthy lifestyle column.
Gardening with others in community spaces like Oakmont’s also provides social stimulation, Wimmer wrote.
Redding woman part of family’s 5-generation gardening tradition
Derryberry brought more than 80 years of gardening experience with her when she moved into Oakmont with her husband in 2021. Over her lifetime, she tended gardens at her homes in Alaska, Orange County and Weaverville, she said.
Shasta County resident Judy Derryberry, 89, grows vegetables and flower displays for seniors and staff at Oakmont of Redding Assisted Living and Memory Care. She learned gardening from her father, and is passing her love for it to her great-grandchildren, who help her tend the community garden when they visit.
“I learned to garden from my dad” in Minnesota, Derryberry said. “When I was about 3, (he) took me out and showed me how to plant flowers in the backyard.”
A retired elementary school teacher, Derryberry moved to Redding in 2016 to be close to her family.
Now a widow, her botanical adventures are aided by three more generations of her family, she said. When they visit, her daughter, Lisa, her four adult grandchildren and 4-year-old great-granddaughters, Remie and Kinley, help with watering and other gardening duties.
Shasta County resident Judy Derryberry, 89, grows vegetables and flower displays for seniors and staff at Oakmont of Redding Assisted Living and Memory Care. She learned gardening from her father, and is passing her love for it to her great-grandchildren, who help her tend the community garden when they visit.
The public is welcome to tour the gardens, but staff require they check in at the front desk first, Allen said. Oakmont also schedules tours of the facility through its website, oakmontseniorliving.com/redding.
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Judy Derryberry tends garden for Redding seniors at Bechelli facility
