SANDPOINT — Volunteers are needed to get the Healing Garden ready for winter.

A fall cleanup of the garden, located near Bonner General Health on the banks of Sand Creek, is planned for Saturday, Nov. 1. The annual event helps ready the garden for winter and helps keep it a special place for the community, hospital officials said.

"We feel great about our accomplishments this year," Heidi Rickert, lead gardener at the Healing Garden.

Much has been done in the garden over the summer — repairs to the hippos, benches have been stained and mushrooms have been painted. Also taking place is the refurbishing of the entrance sign by Beth Pederson and the first layer of paint added to the fountain bench. 

"Along with the other volunteer efforts, the garden has never looked better," Rickert said.

While the garden is blooming, a little tender, loving care is needed to put the garden to bed for the winter. Hence, the Nov. 1 garden "party," hospital officials said.

The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Volunteers are asked to bring a rake, shears and a tarp, if they have one. 

"Coffee will be provided," Bonner General Health volunteer coordinator Kate McAlister said. "Come join the fun."

Built on the hospital grounds in 2003, the Healing Garden borders Sand Creek with plants of every variety tucked into corners and bordering pathways. Garden paths winnow around this flower or that plant, under a trellis or past a waterfall. Benches are tucked along the strolling paths where the noise of downtown Sandpoint falls away, giving way to the sounds of the creek or birds chirping nearby.

Public art is scattered around the site: a metal-art tree where leaves immortalize the names of children; a large hand where the young or young-at-heart can perch for a moment.

The garden is a place of spiritual solace, designed as a retreat for both those visiting the hospital and those who work there. It serves, Bonner General Health officials said, to give the living a place to reflect and a place to remember those who have passed.

With the garden tucked away along Sand Creek by the hospital, many people often don't realize that the Healing Garden exists. From meandering pathways to hidden alcoves, from a children's garden with fun and quirky sculptures designed to ignite the imagination, the Healing Garden offers peace and tranquility, a spot to heal both the mind and soul.

A private park that is open to the community, the Healing Garden is dependent on volunteers and donations, McAlister said. The garden is in need of additional volunteers and donations to fund new plants, mulch and dirt to remain self-sustaining.

It's that volunteer aspect of the garden that makes it extra special: groups like the BCGA have adopted sections of the garden to maintain, and residents donate to help purchase needed supplies such as mulch, dirt or plants.

Without those volunteers and donated funds, the garden may not exist.

"It's 100% driven by donations, so if there's no money, we can't continue to do this," McAlister said. "It's also a 100% volunteer effort."

To learn more about volunteering in the Healing Garden or to donate to keep the garden growing, go to bonnergeneral.org/the-healing-garden. If you would like to be part of the gardening team of volunteers, please contact Kate McAlister at 208-265-1159 or via email at [email protected].