Opportunities continue growing through collaborative gardening

Claire Boozer doesn't know much about gardening, but she's not letting that stop her from creating an outdoor area for people to learn how.

The Athens Community Council On Aging - where Boozer is outreach coordinator - partnered with the University of Georgia and its Department of Horticulture last fall to revamp an existing garden and make it accessible to more people in the community.

"I don't really have any experience in (horticulture) so we pulled (Dr. David Berle, associate professor at the Department of Horticulture) in to see what he could do to help us and he has taken it and run with it," Boozer said.

Berle's students cleaned up the garden, surveyed the area and built raised beds for vegetables and flowers. A dozen raised beds now make gardening easier for people who can't sit or bend down to ground level.

A master gardener and a few master-gardeners-in-training also planted vegetables and flowers, and others have helped the council keep up with the plants that are growing so far.

Boozer hopes to see multiple generations in the garden, where children learn from older adults and older adults stay active while learning more about vegetables and how to eat and cook healthy food.

"Most recently we had a workshop where some of the senior participants talked to some Clarke County middle school students about what food was like when they were young, how much different it was living on a farm, and how they knew where their food was coming from,&q

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