The garden

project started in mid-April and is just sprouting. Elliott decided to

establish the garden as a form of physical and spiritual therapy for the

seniors and for the kids. Nearly 25 plants, vegetables and fruits are

being planted and Elliott's daughter, Tegan Elliott, 13, has been helping.

"There

were plants and weeds so we had to take out weeds and the dead plants

and then fertilize it. Then we had to pick plants and vegetables we wanted,"

says Tegan. "We still have more to plant."

Ruth Banks

who lives in Moore Manor walks every day and has seen the children working

in the garden. Banks' sister used to maintain a garden on the same spot.

"It's

a job to keep the weeds out but it's good that they are doing this,"

says Banks. "You appreciate more if you have to work for something."

Elliott hopes

the garden will serve as a meeting place for both young and old.

"It's

very new, and we don't have a lot of adult participation yet so we are

hoping that more will get involved. Come and bring your experience and

stories, and we will bring the energy and enthusiasm," Elliott says

of anyone that wants to get involved.

Two children's

cottages with 20-24 kids are participating in the garden project. Each

child has to learn a about a plant or vegetable and research and prepare

a recipe.

"I'm doing

corn and it says it tastes better when you grow it than when you buy it,

that's what I read," says Tara, 9. "I didn't know about corn

at all except that it's yellow."

Twelve-year-old

Lee, an aspiring zoologist, has been focusing on the bugs in the garden

and hopes to catch a praying mantis for the garden so it will eat the

aphids that destroy the roses. He deposited a lizard in the strawberry

bed to eat bugs.

When asked

when she expects to see the fruits of her labor, Kit Elliott cries, "We

don't know when the harvest party iswhen everything is ripe! We hope before

the kids go