4-H club plants berry bushes at Veterans Home garden
Tierra Johnson, left, and Kylie Greenkrause plant a blueberry bush at the Veterans Home garden Monday.
Girls from the Country Cousins 4-H club in Kalispell helped out the Farming for the Future Academy garden at the Montana Veterans Home Monday.
Tierra Johnson and Kylie Greenkrause were busy planting eight blackberry and 10 blueberry bushes at the garden. The club raised about $250 for the plants through a grant from the Association of Montana Turf, Ornamental and Pest Professionals, and other fundraising efforts.
The 4-H club in the Flathead Valley is turning 100 this year and the girls wanted to do something special, Johnson noted. Leader Dana Higgins said her father, Duane Olsen, used to work at the Veterans Home.
The garden has raised beds that veterans can work on from a wheelchair. It also has several sheep, a llama, a few chickens and ducks, and a miniature pony that visits veterans at the home.
Despite the heat, the garden is growing well this year, with a lot of cabbage plants, ripe raspberries, big potatoes and other vegetables.
Paveco recently donated an asphalt path for the garden so veterans could get around in their wheelchairs. In the past, Home Depot donated time and materials for a classroom and storage building, and the Columbia Falls Rotary donated time and labor to put up a greenhouse.