Grant allows Village Manor to put in garden

“The development of the garden is to support the health and well being of the residents of Village Manor and not only the residents of village manor but also the staff and the broader Abilene community,” Gieber said. “This is going to give the residents of Village Manor an opportunity to go out and work in the dirt and grow plants.”

The grant stipulates that the project is for at least five years and no less than 50% of the garden is dedicated to produce. 

“The produce can be used for personal or institutional use, they can donate it, sell it or use it for food demonstrations,” she said. 

The site will be two gardens — one between halls two and three and one between halls four and five. Residents will have easy access to the gardens. Community members who wish to visit the gardens will need to go through the facility. However, another piece of the project is the planting of fruit trees along the backside of Village Manor on Maple Street. Those will be available to everyone.

The gardens will be planted in raised beds making them accessible for people who use wheelchairs and won’t require anyone to stoop down low to work with the plants.

The specifications for the beds and plans for what is grown where and when were developed by one of Village Manor’s residents.

Vernon Wranosky taught courses in microbiology genetics, botany and dendrology at Colby Community College for 36 years. Although the room he shares with his wife at Village Manor is full of plants, being outside working the ground is something he has missed in the year and a half he has lived at the facility.  

Before moving to Village Manor, he had a large garden, which included 60 tomato plants.

“I grew up on the farm,” he said. “I started driving a tractor when I was six years old. We had wheat, milo and alfalfa — I was immersed in plants.”

When he went to college, he had a biology instructor who, “was a nut,” he said. “I patterned myself after him. He really liked microbiology and I got my interest from there.”

When he was approached about helping with the garden at Village Manor, he saw it as an opportunity to get his hands back in the dirt and to have something to do. But the number one reason he wanted to be involved was to help with, “campus beautification because of all the shade flowers that can be planted, which is part of the grant,” he said. “And two, the vegetables that can be raised.”

His plans are for eight raised gardens, each with a variety of vegetables; shade flowers planted under the canopy of trees on the property; and fruit trees. 

With several days of sunshine and warming temperatures, gardeners are itching to get outside but Wranosky said he knows better than to get impatient.

“We’re in growing zone six,” he said. “After the last frost we’ll start planting.”

He expects to start planting around March 15 but said coming from planting zone five, he hasn’t been here long enough to know for sure. But he does know there are several other factors that will make planting in Abilene different than what he was accustomed to Colby.

“The number one difference is that the wind blows all the time out there,” he said. “So, there’s a lot of dust and sand particles in the air.”

Wranosky is looking forward to having something to stay busy with and to get outside.

“Growing up on the farm … there was always something to do,” he said. 

Now, he’ll have his hobby and life’s work back.