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PCMH Memorial Garden planned
For all the things Pecos County Memorial Hospital has, one thing it lacks is an area to get away from the hospital.
By the close of 2009, the Pecos County Memorial Hospital Auxiliary hopes to provide that place. It's the Memorial Garden Project and it's envisioned to be a garden, a sanctuary, a place to walk and even an educational experience.
The building of the garden is part of a process that began with discussions that took place among auxiliary members in 2004, PCMH Auxiliary second vice president Carol Adams said.
"Originally, the auxiliary members were discussing having a memorial garden for those members who had passed away," Adams said. "We fell in love with it. We liked the idea of the memorial bricks."
Auxiliary members loved the idea so much they decided to share the garden with the community. The Memorial Garden Project will be available to all members of the community, former residents, as well as local businesses, Adams said.
The intent of the garden is no longer to just memorialize deceased family members. It's for every person and the auxiliary hopes to have every family in the Fort Stockton area represented in the garden.
The cost of the garden is expected to top $200,000 and no hospital funds will be used. Adams and fellow auxiliary member Diane Indorf, who is assisting Adams in moving the project forward, said the project will be funded by selling sponsorships to various features of the garden.
"We really felt that this was such an intimate garden that it's a memorial for all of Fort Stockton," Indorf said. "We want all local people and businesses to be involved."
Added Adams: "This has been a dream of mine since its conception. I can visualize how this garden can be used and enjoyed."
Adams and Indorf said they hope the fundraising phase will be wrapped up in the next 90 days so that construction can go forward.
Adams said that all members of the auxiliary members are involved in the fundraising process.
"Sometimes I get the idea that people feel this is my project," Adams said. "This is not my project. All the auxiliary members are participating in the sale of bricks and so forth."The garden, designed by Tom Greenwood out of Alpine, is expected to be nearly an acre in size. It's planned to be adjacent to the hospital, near the auxiliary's gift shop, and within easy walking distance of the assisted living facility to the south.
The garden is slated to be a year-round blooming garden of native flowers, shrubs and trees. Indorf said the auxiliary plans to have desert willows and bird of paradise trees.
The auxiliary is scheduled to meet with the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute of Fort Davis, which will make recommendations on the flora to be used in the garden.
"It's going to be a nice addition to this facility," PCMH chief executive officer Russell Tippin said. "We have a hospital that's landscape-challenged. This'll be a great addition, very pretty, very quiet, a place for people to go gather their thoughts."
The garden is designed in a circle. The walls will be Papercrete, with adobe columns, and rustic Mexican gates and Southwest detailing to compliment the hospital's stucco exterior.
The garden is also slated to have brick and decomposed granite pathways to give patients an outdoor venue for exercise. A gazebo and trellis are part of the design and the garden will also feature benches.
The irrigation for the native flora included in the garden will be by drip irrigation, with water collected from the hospital roof via several cisterns. The system will also allow for the artificial introduction of water to the cisterns during dry years.
"It's going to be a neat place to walk out there and enjoy," said Rev. Dr. James R. Miles, the Pecos County Hospital Board of Managers president. "It's going to be a very therapeutic thing and it'll add value to the healing process. People won't feel that they're trapped between those four walls."
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