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Garden of the Week: Therapeutic greenery
Nancie Greene
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The Rockdale House for Women, located off of Milstead Avenue, is having their annual 50-percent-off plant sale. Director Renee Kalb said that she and the women clean out the greenhouse each year to make room for fall plants.

"We have vinca, lantana, colias, impatients, and we do have some perennials and all proceeds go back into the greenhouse." Kalb said that the biggest sellers so far are the lantanas. She also pointed out that they are competitive with their prices.

The Rockdale House for Women is a rehabilitation home in which women seeking help recover from drug and alcohol abuse. The house was founded by Sue and Brad Butler in 1974 and will be celebrating its 35th anniversary this fall. This home offers a very structured program and the women live in the home from four months to a year. This program teaches the women order and self-discipline and it teaches them to take responsibility for their actions, which helps the women make their life choices. How does the greenhouse and the plants tie into their recovery? Well, the ladies are the gardeners; they plant the seeds, germinate, and transplant. They watch the plant grow from a seedling.

Kalb said, "Its really good therapy for the women to plant a seed, nurture it, watch it grow; it's spiritual. Recovery is like gardening. You have to continue to pull the weeds out; you have to continue to ‘clean house' when you are in recovery. Just like plants, if you don't water it, it dies; the women have to nurture their recovery just as the plants are nurtured."

The House is also holding its Fall Yard Sale on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 3 - 5.