Last week when residents of J.G. Commons and Charter House gathered for their monthly potluck, there was a new dish on the table: a brightly colored salad made with lettuce from the residents’ own garden.

The sight of the greens was the realization of a dream that a group of residents at the Vashon HouseHold subsidized apartments has had for several years — to plant their own garden and enjoy its fresh produce. But as it turns out, the garden, now bursting with life after only one month, is giving the elderly and disabled residents much more than just vegetables.

During a sunny break in the weather last Friday, a small group of the residents, both young and old, gathered in the garden to work, pick lettuce and beets and enjoy the warm sun. They were joined by Jenn Coe, who recently began working at Vashon HouseHold and last month helped the residents make their dream garden a reality. Coe, a veteran of farm-to-table programs, also runs the Vashon Maury Community Food Bank’s farm and garden program.

“When they found out I had a farm background, they said, ‘Jenn, please help us make a garden,’” Coe recalled.

Impressed with their diligence, Coe set to work, designing a 1,500-square-foot garden with four long, raised beds surrounded by wide paths for easy wheelchair access. Maintenance workers cleared a corner of the property, which is tucked in a quiet neighborhood east of town, and many residents contributed money and plants to get the garden going. Once it was completed, built with discounted materials from True Value and LS Cedar and topped off with a wooden bench donated earlier by the Vashon Rotary, residents didn’t waste any time filling the garden with their favorite vegetables and even some berries.

“We had just envisioned plants in the raised beds,” Coe said, “but before I knew it, they had planted the edges too. I turned around and boom, there were plants everywhere.”

The garden’s maintenance has been spearheaded by a few elderly women who prove they are truly young at heart when they get their hands in the dirt — planting, watering, pulling weeds and doing whatever they can to keep marauders out of the small parch. 

“Look at that rat in here,” shouted Dee Arnold, 75, as she spotted a robin landing inside the garden’s tall chain-link fence on Friday. Bonnie Nelson, 69, ran toward the bird, waving her hands and chasing it off.

“I’m 57,” Arnold joked later as she leaned back and relaxed on the bench.

“We like to flip our ages here,” explained Nelson as she took a hoe to the dirt around one of the beds. “But that doesn’t work for me; it would make me 96.”

Already the garden has provided the residents — both those who help tend to the plants and those who are unable — with lettuce, chard, radishes and beets. And they’re looking forward to the onions, carrots, potatoes, squash, berries and more that will soon come. 

“There’s nothing better than vegetables gown in the garden,” Arnold said. “You can’t get tomatoes like these at the store. They just don’t have the same taste.”

Another resident, Bryson Hvatum, 33, stood nearby and talked with the women about what he looked forward to making with the produce.

“I really want to use the chard in an Asian salad with chicken,” he said.

Coe said she was thrilled to see the residents embracing the garden, maintaining it themselves and getting excited about what they grow.

“They really, really love it,” she said. “Plus they get exercise and nutritious food.”

Arnold said she was especially pleased about the fresh food’s health benefits.

“Greens are good for everybody,” she said. “That’s where you get your iron for your blood.”

Over the past month, the garden has also turned into an unexpected gathering place that has brought together residents of the two apartment complexes. Every day a few people can be found tending to the plants, and even more simply enjoy relaxing there.

“We like to come out here and just sit and watch it grow,” Arnold said. 

Nelson cheerily explained how she sits in the garden each day while drinking her morning coffee. “If it’s not raining,” she added.

Coe said the garden project has gone over so well at J.G. Commons and Charter House that Vashon HouseHold is considering building a similar garden at Mukai Commons, another apartment complex near town that provides subsidized housing to 20 families.

“They’re interested in a garden there as well,” Coe said. “They’ve been asking us about it.”

And though they’ve yet to reap a full season of produce from the garden, the J.G. Commons and Charter House residents already have big plans for the future. Aside from planting the few bare spots left in the garden, they dream of building a small greenhouse in the back of the plot to start plants over the winter.

“Every year it will grow and grow and grow,” Nelson said with a grin.

To donate to the J.G. Commons and Charter House garden, send a check to Vashon HouseHold, P.O. Box 413, Vashon, WA 98070. Note on the check that the donation is for the garden.