There’s nothing like coming home or waking up to a beautiful garden.

A carefully planned and cultivated garden is not only visually pleasing, but can be therapeutic.

Many active adults over 55, have loved the experience of working in their gardens throughout their lives. When they start looking at a 55+ community though, many might worry that they’d need to give this up completely.

Granted, you may not want a garden that can feed a large family anymore, but you might still prefer to work some soil that can produce some vegetables or flowers.

So what can be done…

Room For A Garden In A Senior Community

First, the existing plants

When you move to a senior community by Leisure Villas, there are a few things you’ll get. First off, we make sure to plant an attractive array of trees and shrubs.

While we’re there, we also keep the main beds packed with an array of colorful flowers. Combined with the stylish shrubs, our landscaping is among the best installed in any community.

I remember working in one such subdivision and watching the preschoolers take field trips every few months to get their class pictures taken in front of our main flower gardens.

In short, our communities look wonderful. You’ll be impressed by their colorful beauty.

Second, your plants

Sometimes though, the plants that are maintained by the HOA aren’t enough for you. Maybe you want more flowers around your specific home. Maybe you even want to grow something edible. Is their anyplace for you to plant your own garden?

Actually, yes, there is. Around each home is a planter strip. While the HOA maintains the shrubs that are planted in there for you, many people have also taken it upon themselves to add a personal touch. From Asters to Zinnias and anything in between, I’ve seen it all.

The only thing to keep in mind, is that the watering schedules are regulated by the property manager to maintain the shrubs. If your plants need more or less water than that, it is your responsibility to figure out how to maintain those best.

The property manager may also remove some of your plants around your home if they decide that you are not maintaining them well. This is just to promote an aesthetically pleasing neighborhood.

You’re not limited to just flowers either. Plenty of our community members have also enjoyed harvesting tomatoes, and other vegetables.

Third, the space to plant them

Where can you plant your vegetables?

Before we had secluded patios, some of our community members were cultivating edible plants in the planter strips around their home. This presented some problems. Mostly, the landscape management crews mistook a lot of vegetable plants for weeds and took it upon themselves to remove these plants.

Also, the plants weren’t always as visually pleasing as an ornamental styled plant.

Now that all of our floorplans have a secluded patio, you can have a more private vegetable garden, without worrying that it’s going to get uprooted by someone who can’t tell a tomato from a tumble weed. This can also keep the exterior planter strips looking their best.

Each patio comes with a planter strip of two. You can also add raised beds or pots on the patio area if you need more vegetable or flower growing space.

Since the land around your home is maintained by the HOA, you are not allowed to dig up any grass to plant a larger garden. Given how much area you really do have to plant though, most active gardeners will find that this is plenty for their needs.