Gardener's Christmas event set for March 31

For area gardening enthusiasts, March 31 may seem like another holiday.

That's what Tri-Valley Developmental Services officials are hoping for as they plan for the Gardener's Christmas from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 31, at the TVDS Service Center, 4305 Campbell Dr. The focus of the event is a huge silent auction featuring a variety of gardening and interior design accessories, books on related topics, as well as deck and patio items.

The local service center is located inside the Fort Scott Industrial Park just south of Fort Scott and then east of U.S. Highway 69.

The Gardener's Christmas fund raiser is one event TVDS officials have planned to raise money for a proposed $150,000, 2,160-square foot greenhouse near the southeast corner of the Fort Scott facility that would house the center's horticulture therapy program. Company officials have until April 12 to raise the rest of the matching grant funds that would allow construction on the greenhouse to begin.

They are close to reaching their goal, and they are still working to bring in donations from the community and local businesses, TVDS Horticultural Therapist Barbara McCord said.

"We're about $22,000 away on the greenhouse project," McCord said. "There are still a few irons in the fire. People are still sending in donations."

The Gardener's Christmas event will feature drawings and prize give-aways, as well as a silent auction featuring more than 100 gardening tools and related products, including garden art, designer floral bouquets, home decor, plants and plant materials, heirloom and vegetable seeds, bird feeders, birdhouses, gardening tools, garden sculptures, artistic pieces such as paintings and drawings, photographs, books and permanent botanicals, McCord said.

All of the proceeds from the auction will go toward construction of the new greenhouse, she said.

During the event, a free seminar will take place at 10:30 a.m. featuring guest speaker Richard Mattson, a professor of horticulture at Kansas State University. Mattson, who was one of McCord's professors at KSU when she graduated in 1975, will speak to attendees about the benefits of gardening, McCord said.

"He's been my mentor and supporter through the years, definitely one of the national experts on horticultural therapy," she said.

The new greenhouse would provide a year-round horticultural therapy program for therapists and clients at the center, who work together with plants and other gardening activities. Many of the center's clients enjoy the program, which provides them with outdoor therapy and experience for possible job options in the horticulture field. Clients are also able to get exercise, learn about teamwork, patience, and the satisfaction that comes with nurturing.

The greenhouse would not only benefit clients, but the community as well, as local residents would be able to purchase wholesale plants, vegetables and flowers there, officials said.

Therapists and clients can only use the current 1,000-square foot facility a few months out of the year, so company officials want a larger facility that can be used all year due to the growth and popularity of the program.

The Gardener's Christmas is just one fund raiser company officials have planned in the coming weeks.

TVDS employees and clients are also celebrating National Horticultural Therapy Week, which continues through Saturday. As part of this special week, clients will be out in the community completing various outdoor tasks, such as planting trees, and enjoying the warmer weather, McCord said.

"We generally do some community type things -- we'll do it in the next week or so," she said. "We'll clean out the downtown planters as one of our good deeds."