Touch-me-nots, black-eyed susans, chives and pearly everlasting are just some of the native Nova Scotian plants gardener Helen Morrison has used in the Bella Rose Arts Centre courtyard at Halifax West High School.
Gary O’Hara, manager of the centre, is amazed at the lush grounds Morrison was able to create out of the weeds and rocks she started with.
“She’s created an amazing garden here in the courtyard and outside the grounds as well,” says O’Hara. “Visitors to the theatre are always impressed.”
Morrison’s gardening talent is remarkable because the 32-year-old Williams Lake resident is autistic.
Morrison says she’s always gardened at home and has read a lot about it. She has no formal training apart from attending a few gardening seminars.
She grew many of the plants from seed in the school’s laboratory and has prepared an elaborate dossier with research and history on the native plants she chose for the garden.
O’Hara says Morrison doesn’t communicate verbally as well as most of us do, but says she’s very creative and articulate with a keyboard.
O’Hara and others at the Bella Rose Arts Centre are concerned because after three years of working on the garden, Morrison’s part-time position has run out of funding.
The Bella Rose Arts Centre was built in 2003 with funding from different levels of government, private donations and fundraising as an independent, non-profit society. It’s still paying off its debt. Up until now, they’ve had help from Team Work Cooperative, a specialized employment service for people with disabilities, with funding to pay Morrison.
“We’re out of funding and, consequently, she’s out of work,” says O’Hara.
He hopes more funding will become available to help Morrison keep her job.
“Helen has come a long way since she got here in terms of communicating,” he says. “She certainly is very at home here and confident. She takes a personal, keen interest in the garden. It shows if you were to look at it.”
Morrison’s parents have also helped by supplying the garden with a timed water-soaker system.
If funding is continued for Morrison’s job, O’Hara would like to integrate her into doing some other things at the theatre, such as promotional poster design, and have her do more work around the Centre’s pond-side amphitheatre.
Until then, Morrison is planning to volunteer at the courtyard garden to prevent her hard work from going to seed.
melanie.furlong@ns.sympatico.ca
