Welcome to the March 2005 Seniors Digest

by Timmie Faghin

We have certainly had an early spring this year! People are already out in their gardens, getting a head start on mulching and pruning. This month, Seniors Digest focuses on gardening, with a brief history of the P-Patch program (see below) and some great ideas for container gardening, as well as handy resources in "Links You Can Use."

Also in this issue:

"Caregiver Corner" offers suggestions for families who might be having difficulty communicating when it comes to the loved one they are caring for.

Try your hand at the "Test Your Medication Safety IQ Quiz" and "Garden Flowers Wordfind."

And any time of the year, check out SeniorsDigest.org, our national companion website. The Seniors Digest Resource Center includes a "library" of quality links, and is a great place to begin your search for information about issues of interest to seniors and their families.

For more information....

"Links You Can Use" will lead you to further information about the topics of the month, as well as to contact information for accessing resources in the area, and a few fun links, as well.

We hope you will refer to our electronic pages often to obtain advice, to learn of new and exciting services, and to offer us your constructive feedback.

Read Seniors Digest and tell us what you think. We are here to help.

Timmie Faghin, Chair
Seattle-King County Advisory Council
on Aging and Disability Services

* More About Marlene Falkenbury

Marlene has been tilling the soil at the Picardo P-Patch for over 30 years. A pioneer in the City of Seattle's popular community garden program, Marlene worked with her Wedgwood neighbors to turn a vacant patch of land into a bountiful garden growing fresh produce for local food banks. The main plot was dedicated to cultivating vegetables for food bank distribution, with the periphery available for individual families to grow flowers and vegetables for their own enjoyment. The city eventually acquired the land, and Seattle's first official P-Patch community garden was born! (The program, which now includes over 50 community gardens, was named after the Picardo family, who had farmed the land until the mid-1960s.)

Marlene earned the title of Master Gardener in 1976 through WSU's King County extension program.  Although she has long since met the minimum requirement of providing 90 volunteer hours in exchange for the horticulture training that she received, Marlene continues to provide advice and assistance to home gardeners as part of the Master Gardeners program. She helps maintain the King County Demonstration Garden in Wedgwood  and is the "vegetable expert" for the Master Gardener's Speakers program. 

In addition to her active gardening schedule, Marlene works for the Seattle Milk Fund, a local non-profit organization that provides emergency assistance for families in need. The families Marlene helps are often facing very difficult situations, and the work is fulfilling but not always easy. Getting back into the garden helps Marlene put things in perspective. "Gardening levels the playing field," says Marlene. "No one talks about what they do, or how much money they make. They just want to work with the earth and relax. We are all just gardeners out there."