One Lake Venoah resident is healing through gardening

On the serene lake shore of Lake Venoah tucked away in Carlton Minnesota. One man is growing and healing his wellbeing.

Kelvin Covington is a resident at Lake Venoah but now is the gardening extraordinaire after completing a magazine worthy garden on the property. Kelvin suffers from mental health conditions and says that his garden has helped him with that tremendously.

The rest of the Lake Venoah was shocked by how amazing the garden looked! Manager Brian Selen says, "I’m amazed by how it looks. Especially the roses. When they first come in they come with a plastic bag and a ball of dirt and then a stem sticking out of the bag"

The plants were payed for by Lake Venoah, but the execution was all Kelvin’s. “No, no help I did this myself… it started from just weeds, it took me just 4 days to weed. Then I had a layout of what my plan was and surely stuff started to grow”, says Kelvin.

With no Professional experience he said all it took were YouTube videos and lessons from his mother he learned as a child to make the perfect garden.

Brian is excited about the change he’s seen in Kelvin saying, “He’s out more! He’s not hanging out inside the building. He’s out tending to the garden, he’s waiting, he’s watering. He’s more social."

The work that has been done in the property is just another instance of how Lake Venoah is proud of Kelvin’s journey.