People who visit Wesley Willows often admire the many amenities at the senior living community, but one attraction especially stands out: a vibrant Community Garden. Located to the west of the towering Castle Town Center on Embury Road, this resident-run garden teems with tomatoes, squash, and other delicious fruits and veggies throughout the summer months.

Best of all, the residents use the plump produce for noble purposes once harvest time comes.

From 2020 through 2023, the resident gardeners at Wesley Willows donated 3,684 pounds of produce to the Rock River Valley Pantry for dispersion to those in need in the Rockford community. Residents also host a biweekly Gardeners Market every year and donate the proceeds from it to the Wesley Willows Good Samaritan Endowment Fund. This money supports Wesley Willows residents who outlive their financial resources and need help paying their monthly fees.

All of this begs the question: What makes these residents so committed to gardening for these good causes? We sat down with Ken Lemmel, Wesley Willows resident and Chair of the Community Garden, to learn about the heart behind this generous gardening. 

A Brief History of the Community Garden

Ken Lemmel had been a gardener all his life when he moved to Wesley Willows 17 years ago, but he hadn’t planned to start a gardening community. The opportunity presented itself when he learned many of his neighbors were also gardeners and noticed plenty of space for a garden plot in the farmland behind his Willow Ridge Home. He and a group of residents began gardening there for a couple years until they relocated to the Community Garden’s current location in 2009.

The new, more spacious location gave room for more residents to join in the fun. Before too long, they were averaging around 70 people per year in their gardening community.

Ken considers the growth of the Community Garden a good thing for the residents involved because of gardening’s therapeutic effects. He firmly believes gardening helps one’s mental health and cites studies about gardening helping war veterans with PTSD to back up his belief. “I feel like we have an awfully healthy bunch of people who are doing the gardening,” he says with a smile.

Giving Back to the Wesley Willows Community

Not only is this group of gardeners happy and healthy, but it is also quite generous. While the Community Garden began as a way for residents to enjoy themselves and grow their own food, it quickly became a vehicle for giving back to the community as well.

Ken and his fellow gardeners held their first Gardeners Market in 2011 as a way to recoup the costs of setting up the Community Garden. In 2012, they began donating all proceeds from the Market to the Wesley Willows Good Samaritan Endowment Fund. They have donated the income from the Market to this fund in every subsequent year except 2020, when the pandemic prevented them from having the Market.

Through 2023, the Gardeners Market has generated $19,431 to support residents who outlive their financial resources. Ken expects the profits from this year’s Market to put them over the $20,000 threshold. These contributions have not gone unnoticed by the Wesley Willows community.

“The Community Garden is one of the truly inspiring resident-led initiatives here at Wesley Willows,” says Frances Salinas, Wesley Willows President and CEO. “Ken and his committee do a wonderful job of keeping the garden lush and beautiful. The fruits of their efforts make a tremendous difference for Wesley Willows residents and the broader Rockford community.”

Planting a Row for the Needy

Ken says the decision to use the Community Garden to help the needy in Rockford came from a lesson he learned while training to be a Master Gardener. One of the principles his instructors taught him was to plant a row for the needy. Ken’s Community Garden Committee liked the idea of giving their produce to the less fortunate, so they sought out ways to do it.

Initially, the Committee would offer the produce that didn’t sell at the Market to the Dining Services Team at Wesley Willows. They would then donate anything that the Dining Staff didn’t need. But this routine changed in 2020.

The pandemic forced the Committee to cancel the Gardeners Market and shift their attention entirely to donating the produce. They decided to donate all of it to the Rock River Valley Pantry that year for two reasons:

First, the Committee determined that the Dining Services Team did not need their donations. Instead, they wanted to give the produce to people who truly needed it, especially during such a difficult year.

Second, a few members of the Community Garden Committee had volunteered with the Rock River Valley Pantry. As a result, they knew that the Pantry was well equipped to handle produce donations and distribute them to people in need.

The Committee so enjoyed donating to the Pantry in 2020 that they made it a regular part of the Community Garden schedule when things returned to normal in 2021. They decided to split their time in half, alternating between the regular Gardeners Market and donating to the Pantry each week. Everything that didn’t sell at the Gardeners Market also was donated to the Pantry. In this way, they supported both their neighbors at Wesley Willows and the Rockford community throughout the gardening season. 

A Joyful Senior Gardening Community

The Wesley Willows Community Garden is as vibrant and productive as ever in 2024. The Gardeners Market takes place every other Wednesday from 9:30 am – 11:00 am in the North Parking Lot at Wesley Willows. There you can purchase a wide range of Community Garden produce, from tomatoes to squash to cucumbers. They also occasionally sell sweet corn from the Glenny Family Farm, which is located just north of Wesley Willows on North Rockton Road.

On alternate Wednesdays, you will find members of the Community Garden Committee collecting produce donations at the Garden from 9:00 am – 10:00 am. They then drive the produce down to the Rock River Valley Pantry, where it is made available to those in need at 11:00 am. Workers at the Pantry have told Ken that the Community Garden’s produce flies off the shelves because it is so plump and fresh.

Visit the Gardeners Market this Summer!

You still have a couple more weeks to purchase fresh produce at the Gardeners Market. The last two Markets of the season will take place on September 4 and September 18 from 9:30 am – 11:00 am at Wesley Willows. Be sure to get there early because the produce goes quick!

Are you interested in living at Wesley Willows and gardening at our Community Garden? Our Continuing Care Retirement Community offers spacious, modern independent living and assisted living options as well as on-campus Medicare rehab and memory care. We welcome interested seniors and their loved ones to schedule a tour. Please call 815-316-6001 or click below to make your appointment today.