Green Thumbs In Their Glory at Ferris Hills

When considering a move to an independent living apartment, some green thumbs wonder if they will have to give up gardening.  At Ferris Hills at West Lake, that couldn’t be further from the truth, and they couldn’t be happier.

In addition using to the senior community’s raised flower and herb beds, many residents fill their patios and balconies with an array of verdant plans, moving them in the winter to an on-site greenhouse.

Mary Bausch is among Ferris Hills’ green thumbs.  While her husband Bob maintains a vegetable garden and a strawberry patch, Mary winters geraniums in the greenhouse and in the past has used the raised beds that Bob and another resident built in Ferris Hills’ woodworking shop. She has also tried growing dahlias, with a little help from a fellow resident.

“I’ve never grown them before, but they’re beautiful, and they’re so abundant,” she says.

Sharing the bounty from his gardens is something Bill McGeary enjoys doing, too. McGeary, a retired Rochester Telephone accountant, moved to Ferris Hills from Honeoye.

A longtime gardener, he decided to try something a little different and planted Yukon Gold potatoes, along with tomatoes and gladiolus.

Sharing his fondness for gardening with other green thumbs is just one reason McGeary is enjoying living at Ferris Hills, where he has found new friends to play golf, poker and euchre with, not to mention the freedom to live life on his terms. “I love it,” he says.