Gardener's legacy keeps growing

David Pellerin/Caller-Times

Diana Rodriguez, activity director at Homewood Residence, started a project to renew the garden beds planted there by Bob Kearns.

Bob Kearns may have died of a stroke in 1999, but the Texas master gardener's legend lives on at Homewood Residence.
   At this retired and assisted living community, four raised flower and vegetable garden beds that Kearns once lovingly gave his expert care are still regarded as his garden beds. He coaxed from the soil a bounty of peppers, tomatoes, green onions, lettuce and broccoli.
   Today, the hands that turn the soil, weed the gardens, water, prune and fertilize the plants belong to residents who never met the gardening wizard. Still, this spring, they resurrected the abandoned plots in his memory.
   "And the dirt lives on," said Kearns' wife, Jo, delighted that other Homewood residents have taken over what her late husband started.
   A different view
   Today, the beds offer residents a slightly different vista. Blooming in the soil this year are bluebonnets, gladiolas, petunias and zinnias as well as tomatoes and cucumbers.
   "After Bob passed away nobody worked on the gardens," said Diana Rodriguez, Homewood's activity director. Rodriguez came to Homewood after Kearns' death, but "I heard a lot about him and what a fantastic job he'd done with our garden beds," she said.
   It was Rodriguez's idea to get the garden beds bearing veggies once again and blooming with an array of colors.
   Rodriguez started out with two residents signing up for the outdoor job. Now, there is a team of eight who work 30 to 40 minutes daily on the gardens.
   Work pays off
   Their hard work already has paid off, said Homewood resident Ruth Kane, one of the team gardeners.
   "I so enjoy looking out of my apartment in the morning and seeing those gardens," said the 86-year-old. "It makes a world of difference being able to step out into all that greenery and seeing the things you've helped grow.
   "It makes Homewood feel a little bit more like home. Having a little pretty backyard helps make giving up your home not such a drastic change."
   Next year, residents plan to expand the gardens by growing onions and lettuce.
   In an interview a year before his death, Kearns, mastermind of the Children's Garden at the Corpus Christi Botanical Gardens and the Growing Room project at CCISD schools, said that he had no difficulty entrusting his pet projects to another generation.
   "All things must pass," he said. "You have to pass what you know and what you do. At some point you have to turn 'em loose so that they can do it on their own. They're smart enough to do it too."