I'm sympathetic to the challenges with mobility as I have a chronic illness with pain and fatigue complicated by a recent ankle fracture. Now my raised beds are more helpful than ever since I'm in a wheelchair for a season. I've done plenty of gardening with children both at my home & when working with our camp's nature center, so hope these tips help you out. 1. Plan ahead to have supplies ready for them to do something hands-on for each gardening session. It's not fun for them to watch you do it without getting their own chance. 2. Involve them from planting to harvest. 3. Ask what they want to grow & eat. 4. Include your food service staff in on the process. Might be fun to have chef/cook out in the garden, too. 5. Get donations for weed free soil mix ingredients like square foot gardening method suggests (bagged compost, peat moss, vermiculite). Method doesn't use any fertilizer just the compost, so no fertilizer burning of crops. Keep gardens weed free by controlling nearby weeds in the ground & mulching (especially in the off season if you're not year round gardening) 6. Plant short rows. 7. Assign space to people or individual crops. 8. Create themed gardens such as: salad, pizza garden, tea garden, soup garden, butterfly, hummingbird, etc. 9. Use transplants or only easy seeding with seed tape for small seeds (homemade could be fun project) or just plant large seeded crops from seed. 10. Plant transplants of lettuce at the same time as planting seeds. Can also be done with cucumbers. Then they can compare which is growing faster & how the seedlings may catch up with the transplants. 11. Encourage participation by having names of jobs like planter, gentle rain maker, garden scouts to look for the sprouts or fruit, insect spy, weather watcher, etc. That way everyone has a job whether than can be hands on or not. 12. Make highly visible secure labels (also make a garden map to keep track & redirect if gardeners get off track) 13. Take photos of seedlings when sprouted for future label to include seedling & mature crop photo on tag. 14. Expect labels to move around & replace as needed. 15. Use harvest baskets (check for 2nd hand or dollar store plastic coated wire baskets) & scissors vs knives for harvesting. Rinse harvest in the basket while outside or plunge into a clean bucket of water. Swirl in a circle overhead by handle or shake to reduce water. Put in shade or cold water as soon as possible. Wash again inside according to food service procedures. 16. Make gentle rain makers: Use smallest bit to drill holes in lids of plastic water bottles up to a liter. Squeeze to make rain & won't wash away seedlings. Store in laundry baskets or milk crates out to the garden & so water warms up in the sun. 17. Create a watering schedule or system to help make sure it gets covered regularly from edge to edge. The SFG soil less mix prevents overwatering, but does need more watering in hot weather especially if a raised to wheelchair height container with less than 12" depth of soil. 18. Provide for seating, sun protection, have alternative activities for those that don't want to touch dirt (just want to watch or tell others what to do). 19. Gather community partners to help directly or with money or in-kind donations for: seating, water features to attract birds (pondless fountain, concrete not slippery ceramic or plastic birdbath). 20. Encourage youth organizations to get involved such as Campfire, 4-H, Scouting, Awana, local horticulture FFA or college programs. 21. Start small & build on this 1st year experience to make improvements for next year.

What a lovely tribute! I understand how you feel. A tree would be lovely, if the nursing home wants it. What about a bench? That's awfully useful. You might sit down with the administrator or the social worker and ask what they could use, and see what fits into your budget. But if you really want to give back to the nursing home, think about becoming a Friendly Visitor or a volunteer at the nursing home. Your uncle had you to come visit, but many people have no one, or at least no one who comes to visit very often. You might also find a Senior Center near you that would like a volunteer to help with activities. After my mother died at age 95 a year ago, I signed up at our local Alliance on Aging to be a peer counselor, and I visit someone every week, and have been trained to listen and to offer what help I can to seniors dealing with depression or loneliness and other issues. There are so many other people who need your care, and I think your Uncle would like to know that you continue his legacy and treat others With Tender Loving Care. Hugs to you and your family on the loss of your beloved Uncle. There is obviously a lot of love in your family!

Give it a little time for things to work themselves out; might be a little hard to believe now, but they generally do. One thing that might be beneficial to you is to get to know the home routine - they usually publish a little calendar of daily events and activities planned for residents. Get familiar with meal times, bath/shower/hairdresser days, art and craft sessions, music programs... sometimes planning visits around times when there is interaction with other residents takes the burden off you in carrying the ball. Also, get to know the staff, make sure they see you. It helps them to know you're your mother's best advocate. Let them know little things about her, what she liked and didn't like, hobbies and pasttimes, etc. If they have a little personal information, they have something to distract her with when she's feeling angry and alone. If your mother likes music, make sure she has a radio. A few well chosen family pictures in her room, a favorite quilt or throw. I have to admit, as gut wrenching a decision as it was to have our mother placed in long term care (I was her live in caregiver from mid 2001 until late 2006 and watched her slide from moderate to severe Alzheimer's), we were spared any real drama. But over the 11 months she was in LTC, I witnessed plenty of drama with other residents and their families. And I participated in (still do keep up with those) a couple of different care givers support groups - really good for information gathering/sharing, moral support, etc. It was all a real learning experience - and now looking back on the whole thing - one I wouldn't trade. It was a priviledge and there's a kind of sweetness about it.

Karen..I like Sal's idea. Here's what my sister did. Her runner had pointed ends. She folded one point over onto the front, the amount she folded over was eyeballed until it looked right.this let the back fabric show on the front. She then sewed by hand through the back, catching the back of the folded down are with stitches, but did not let the stitches show onto the front of the folded down part. She stitched about 1 1/2 to 2 inches down...this made a casing. She then sewed a tassel onto the turned down part's point and pinned on a beautiful brooch she had that co ordinated with the fabric. (could use a fancy button too.) She then slipped in a piece of dowel rod painted to match the tassel color and about 6 inches longer than the runner's width. She placed cup hooks in the wall so that the runner hung just inside them. She put the dowell on the cup hooks, and then she hung satin cording with tassels off the ends of the dowells that stuck out. It looks like a beautiful bell pull..and hangs between her dining room and living room. I think these would make a stunning display grouped together...or on either side of a window or doorway. Let us know what you decide to do. Good idea!!