December Landscape Department Blog: Holiday Plants

By Thom Morgan, Springmoor landscape manager

Thom Morgan

Are you scratching your head, trying to figure out what gifts to give your friends and family for the holidays? You want to give them something that will brighten their spirits, and that might brighten their home—right? Carefully-selected plants can do wonders for the spirit and the landscape (inside and out). Consider shopping at your local nursery this holiday season. You just might end up walking out with a few festive treasures for yourself.

Before you get started, here’s the rundown on the most popular holiday selections:

Springmoor Resident and Retired Magazine Editor Publishes First Crime Novel

Anyone who thinks life starts to decline once you move into a retirement community has obviously never met Don McKinney, a Springmoor resident who has recently published his first crime novel. His book, “Murder of a Modern Woman,” is a 26-year project that he was able to complete after moving into Springmoor in 2009.

Don McKinney 

McKinney has a background in writing. He worked in magazine editing for 21 years, and was an editor of a men’s magazine before moving on to work for the prestigious McCall’s Magazine for 17 years. He also taught at the University of South Carolina and has written pieces for Reader’s Digest. During the early stages of his career he started work on this novel, but work and life forced it to take a back seat. It was only after he retired and moved to Springmoor that he was able to continue his work on it.

October Springmoor Blog from the Landscape Department

Thom Morgan

Going Gray

As we get older, some of us consider the color gray a bad thing, but in the landscape Gray is Great!

Gray goes well with any color, so you can’t go wrong using it in any color scheme. If used with the warm colored plants, gray plants seem to make the red, orange, and yellow plants really pop. If used with cool colors such as green, blue, and purple gray adds to the softer, more relaxing color scheme.

Springmoor Management Profile: Executive Director, Fred Conner

"Leaders lead from the front."


Here at Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community, our management take that quote to heart and strive to do anything they can to make our residents feel happy in their new homes and community.

One of these leaders is Fred Conner, the Executive Director of Springmoor. A native of Rockingham, North Carolina, Fred has worked at our community for seven and a half years and loves being able to help seniors transition into their new homes.

September Springmoor Blog from the Landscape Department

Thom Morgan

Storing Seeds for Future Use

September is unkind to vegetables. By now, your 90-day tomatoes are a withered mess, and the 120-day tomatoes have a few green tomatoes that are struggling to turn red. Eggplants are producing fruit which is one tenth the size of fruit a month ago. Face it, it’s fall, and if you haven’t switched over to fall crops by now, your garden is a pitiful mess.

One thing you can do before you pull up all the stakes and dead vines is collect the seeds.

How to Successfully Move into a Retirement Community

Are you or your loved ones planning to move into a retirement community? If so, it is important to be as organized as possible to make the move go smoothly!

Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community created this list to help you make sure the move to your new home goes off without a hitch.

Before Your Move

When you decide to move to a retirement community, you are faced with an important decision: what to keep and what to give away. It is important to note that usually your move will be to a smaller home or apartment, so not all of your possessions will fit.

Many retirement communities have furnished homes and apartments for residents, so if you are moving, you may not need to worry about a lot of your bigger furniture. Try to measure your furniture to see what will fit within the floor plan.

How to Harvest Rainwater

Thom Morgan

By Thom Morgan, Springmoor Landscape Manager

Although the North Carolina Piedmont is not currently in a drought, many of us remember 2007, when large portions of Falls Lake, our primary water source, dried up and the City of Raleigh issued mandatory watering restrictions.

Things to Consider

Cost will be a big consideration when building a rainwater storage system. Summer is mainly when we need to water our vegetables and ornamental plants. Gardens in the Raleigh area should receive about 60 gallons of water a week per 100 square feet.

Health Success Stories

Kari Richie

By Kari Richie, Springmoor Health and Fitness Director

What does it mean to have a health success story? The health and fitness industry often relates success to weight loss. One of my objectives as the Health & Fitness Director is to help the residents and staff members at Springmoor understand they can have health successes no matter their age or what physical obstacle may be in their way. One definition of success is “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.” Nowhere in the definition of success does it mention perfection or accomplishing everything at once. Someone can be living with a chronic disease such as diabetes or heart disease and celebrate health success stories when they accomplish a goal like managing blood sugar or cholesterol.

Summer Activities in the Triangle

Summertime in Raleigh is a great time to get out and explore all that this area has to offer. With a variety of activities to choose from, there’s certainly something to please anyone’s interests. Here at Springmoor, we encourage residents to go out and enjoy the beautiful weather. Not sure what to do? No problem! We’ve highlighted things to do in the Raleigh area.

Springmoor Is Taking a Sweet Bite out of the Summer Heat

S'mores are not the only reason to visit Springmoor.

Starting this past Tuesday and running for the following two, Springmoor is hosting an event purely for your favorite summer treat….S’mores!

           

During these events, prospective residents get a feel for all that Springmoor has to offer at our event by seeing our new Pathways Wellness Center. This includes our salt-water lap pool, movie theater, exercise room, bistro, sauna, hospitality bar, and more. They will also see our Valley Dining Room, where the delicious treats will be served.

H2O is the Way to Go!

Kari Richie

By Kari Richie, Springmoor Health and Fitness Director

This summer the Springmoor Health and Fitness department is teaming up with the dietitians from Sodexo, Springmoor’s food service provider, to encourage exercise and hydration! We will kick off our first Springmoor Triathlon Challenge and encourage healthy hydration at the Pathways Pool Party on Friday, July 11. Residents can enjoy a dip in the pool, a friendly game of water volleyball, and refreshments, delivered poolside!

Pathways Wellness focuses on prevention, which is why we are focusing on preventing dehydration this summer. Dehydration can be a serious problem for older adults and leads to confusion and illness. 

Springmoor Welcomes Stop Hunger Now Back to Campus to Package an Additional 40,000 Meals

Springmoor residents, staff, and Stop Hunger Now
representatives package meals.

Springmoor residents and staff have come together to reach their goal of providing more than 40,000 additional meals to children around the world in under developed counties. Volunteers came out Friday, June 6 to help bag, measure, weigh, and box meals for Stop Hunger Now.  

Stop Hunger Now is an international hunger relief agency that strives to provide meals to children in orphanages, schools, and crisis-burdened areas around the world. Founded in 1998, it has mobilized more than 450,000 volunteers to send more than 145,000,000 meals to 65 countries. Working with these programs helps enhance lives by giving beneficiaries the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty through education, skills, development, and health care while also receiving much needed nutrition. Stop Hunger Now started their meal-packaging events in 2005.

Father’s Day at Springmoor!

This Sunday is Father’s Day! Before you pick out a card, buy another tie, and head out to eat the exact same brunch as last year with your family, be sure to check out all of the great local events happening for Father’s Day weekend.

Local Eats: Springmoor Residents Can Feast Mediterranean-style at Nearby Neomonde Baking Company

In the 1970s, the Saleh family (mother, Cecelia, and sons Sam, Joe, Mounir and DeGaulle) left war-torn Lebanon for a better life and the opportunities that the United States could provide. They searched around the Raleigh, N.C., area, but could find nothing resembling the bread they gathered around the table to eat at home. So, with a converted pizza oven, a rental space in a strip mall, help from an uncle, and a pita recipe that had been passed down through generations, Neomonde Baking Company was born.   

The Saleh family founded the Neomonde Baking Company

Family Matters: Springmoor Treats Residents Like Family

David Ammons

By David Ammons, chief executive officer of Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community

When I was a boy, “Mr. Smith” was already using a cane. He was funny and odd—a popular guy at church—and we admired him for his devotion to his faith, and to his wife and family. When I was a teenager, he remained a fixture of our community, staying involved in Boy Scouts, and attending every North Carolina State University football game. When I was a young man—and the executive director of Springmoor Life Care RetirementCommunity—“Mr. Smith” walked determinedly through my office door. The usually chipper man looked determined, took a seat and demanded my attention.

South Village Wellness Center Construction Underway!

Construction underway!

Construction on Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community’s new Wellness Center has begun, and residents and staff couldn’t be more excited to see all of the activity! Many in South Village—where the new center is being built—are glued to their windows, watching as cranes lift beams, and workers scurry to move pieces into place. Some residents have even been spotted snapping pictures of the construction as it progresses.

The Wellness Center—which will feature a 25-meter, salt water, lap pool, hot tub, sauna, movie theater, beauty salon, café/bistro, massage therapy rooms, billiard and bridge tables (to name a few)—was a needed enhancement to help residents get excited about fitness, and also to help them enjoy their lives at Springmoor even more, said Springmoor Executive Director Fred Conner. Residents will be able to bring guests to enjoy the amenities of the new center.

Putting on the Grits!

Springmoor is getting geared up for our series of “Putting on the Grits!” events, and the culinary staff couldn’t be more excited! We’ll be welcoming 100 visitors to our community, and treating them to our Southern hospitality—and Southern cooking, of course!

Ground-corn grits are a Southern specialty, and a personal favorite. They are so simple, and can be made in so many ways—literally hundreds. To find inspiration for our four-course, all-grits event menu, we scoured cookbooks, websites and even TV cooking shows. We tasted scores of recipes, and—while some didn’t cut the corn—a gritty, pretty few will proudly plump our plates, including grits pie, shrimp-and-grits tarts and pepper jack grits poppers.

Since all five of our “Putting on the Grits!” events are full, we thought we’d share the "Southern Living" showstopper that most inspired us, and that might inspire you to throw your own grits party (you could even throw grits like confetti if you want)!

Springmoor Walks its Way to Fitness—and Paris!

Springmoor Walks its Way to Fitness—and Paris!

By Kari Richie, Springmoor Health and Fitness director

We just finished walking from Raleigh, N.C., to Paris, France, and, boy, are our bodies feeling the benefits.

Ninety Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community residents and staff just completed a 10-week walking challenge, S.A.M.E. (Springmoor Actively Making Efforts) Goal, and recorded walking the equivalent of 13,172 miles—or a little more than the distance from Raleigh, N.C., to Hawaii (about 5,000 miles), followed by a stroll from Hawaii to Paris, France (about 7,500 miles).

Springmoor's Floral Focal Points: Hydrangeas and Roses Burst in July

By Thom Morgan, Springmoor landscape manager

Thom Morgan

Many of my Landscape Architecture courses in college stressed that every good design should have a focal point. A focal point in a landscape setting is something you are drawn to—a primary area of interest, something that brings focus to itself.

Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community’s 43 acres in northwest Raleigh, N.C.—connected by 2.5 miles of walkways—present many opportunities for residents to walk ahead, see what is just around the corner, and be surprised by a burst of color.

Each month, Floral Focal Points will point out highlights around Springmoor’s colorful campus, and discuss the preparation and maintenance that help bring out the best in Springmoor’s blooms. As Springmoor’s landscape manager, I get asked a lot of questions and receive a lot of compliments from residents and visitors alike, so I hope this blog helps answer any questions you may have about plants that best withstand and thrive in North Carolina’s hot, July weather.

By July, azaleas and dogwoods have lost their color, which is why Springmoor placed the following colorful, hearty trees and shrubs around our campus to shine through summer: