The Plots Thicken at Garden Club

At the Oasis Senior Center, people really do take time to stop and smell the roses. In fact, it’s difficult not to pause and enjoy the colorful garden meticulously manicured by 60 senior citizens who are members of the Oasis Garden Club.

Besides flowers in vibrant pink, yellow, purple and orange, the garden produces a variety of vegetables.

“We have people come on Sundays, all dressed up after church, to walk through the gardens,” said Greenleaf Sargent, 68, the club’s vice president.

“They bring their kids, and that’s nice because a lot of kids have never seen anything grow--they think everything comes from the grocery store,” he said.

Founded in 1977, the garden club uses city-owned land next to the senior center. The property is divided into 54 garden plots, each 15 square feet. The project is so popular, members say, that the club’s members sometimes have to wait as long as two years to get a patch of land.

“My whole yard on Balboa Island is cement. If I want a garden, I have to come here,” said Harry Kemp, 76. Kemp has kept a garden at the center for six years. He is growing tomatoes now and would also like to plant some zucchini and Brussels sprouts.

The club has installed three planter boxes reserved for disabled seniors. The boxes are elevated from the ground so that people in wheelchairs can reach them. “Some people just can’t get down on their knees anymore,” Kemp explained.

And one planter box is designated for a group of blind seniors who visit the center once a week.

The garden, behind a short chain-link fence at Marguerite and Fifth avenues in Corona del Mar, is open to the public.

“It’s kind of nice to see people admire what we’ve done,” Kemp said.

But club members hope visitors will mind their manners and keep in mind that the vegetables and flowers are private property.

“I’ve seen people drive up in BMWs and drive off with a sack of tomatoes,” Sargent said.

That can be upsetting, Kemp said. “It’s awful when you have a nice, big tomato you are waiting to ripen, and when you go to pick it, it’s gone.”