What started as a wish to make the courtyard more beautiful has grown into something much bigger at Claiborne Senior Living’s Baton Rouge community.
The community’s Gardening Club began a couple of years ago, when resident Rudolph “Coach Red” Smith put up a simple interest signup sheet and invited his neighbors to join him. What started with a handful of names has since grown into a club of 18 members and counting.
Independent living residents Jim Mire and Judy Hale have helped carry that momentum forward, transforming the outdoor spaces with flowers, herbs, vegetables, and a whole lot of heart. Their work spans both the independent living and assisted living courtyards, turning once-plain spaces into places that feel colorful, welcoming, and very much alive.
For Judy, the inspiration was personal. Before moving to The Claiborne at Baton Rouge, she spent years tending her own home’s landscaping, and when she looked at the pool area, she saw potential for added beauty.
“We had a pool and well-landscaped two and a half acres at our home, and I wanted that,” she said. “I like being outside. I just want the pool to look like it’s paradise.”
Jim brought a lifetime of gardening experience with him. The oldest of ten children, he grew up helping his father work a two-acre garden. “I raised stuff from the time I was big enough to walk,” he said. That lifelong love of growing things has shaped the project from the very beginning.
The gardening effort has been supported from early on by a local Walmart, which has generously provided a $250 gift card each year to help the group buy soil and plants. Residents say the donation makes a meaningful difference, especially since much of the flower bed area is heavy clay and needs a lot of improvement before anything will grow well.
From there, the project just kept growing.
Jim brought about 100 amaryllis bulbs from his previous home, and many of them are blooming around the community right now. Over time, the club has also added tomatoes, herbs, zinnias, sunflowers, geraniums, agapanthus, bottlebrush, and more. The herb garden has also become a point of pride. Judy recently picked basil, thyme, rosemary, and parsley for the kitchen, and any resident who likes to cook is welcome to step outside and snip their own.
Just as meaningful as the garden itself is the way it has brought people together.
To encourage participation, the club began offering tomato plants to anyone who was willing to join. What began as a small effort quickly drew a crowd. Some residents sat at a table transplanting zinnia seedlings into pots. Others who weren’t able to garden themselves chipped in financially. According to Judy, 13 residents have contributed more than $400 to help support the planting beds.
“Some of them said, ‘Oh, we’ve never done anything like this. This is fun,'” Judy recalled.
Now the garden has become a gathering place. In the afternoons, Jim and Judy often bring drinks out to the courtyard and invite others to join them and enjoy the beauty they helped create.
The project has reached beyond the independent living areas. Jim and Judy have worked to bring plantings into the assisted living courtyard as well, helping spread the joy of the garden to even more residents. Some assisted living residents have become especially invested, including one 92-year-old gentleman named Tommy who came along on a flower-shopping trip simply because he loves the garden so much.
For Judy, the deeper message is clear: residents are capable of more than people sometimes assume.
“People can do anything if they put their minds to it,” she said. She would know. She’s had four major back surgeries and still wears a back brace, but she continues to find ways to garden. When people tell her they can’t, she doesn’t buy it. There’s always something to do, she says, whether that means planting, transplanting seedlings, handing over a pot, donating a few dollars, or simply coming outside to enjoy the space and keep other residents company.
That spirit is part of what makes this story so special. It’s about more than flowers or garden beds. It is about pride, purpose, friendship, and the kind of community that grows when residents are encouraged to share their talents and take ownership of the place they call home.
At The Claiborne at Baton Rouge, Jim, Judy, and the rest of the Gardening Club are doing more than planting gardens. They helped plant connection, beauty, and a fresh sense of possibility.
