New Garden Brings Therapy to Bel Air Guest Home

Surrounded by million-dollar homes and pricey apartments sits Bel Air Guest Home – a two-story assisted living apartment complex which houses more than 60 residents living with mental illness and substance abuse issues.

In an effort to bring life and color a barren plot land adjacent to the facility’s walkway, the board of Bel Air Guest Home had an idea of turning it into a community garden for residents. However, a major obstacle stood in their way – specifically several large tree stumps.

They had the plan, they had two master gardeners, and they had residents ready to assist, but they couldn’t get started until the numerous stumps were out of the way. In stepped BrightVIew to assist with the stump removal.

While doing work for the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame Association, the BrightView Tree Care team was approached by its client, who informed them of the Bel Air Guest Home project and the need for assistance. Always looking for ways to help the community, the Tree Care team, led by Brad Bishoff, quickly responded and came in to remove the stumps, both in the garden area and at the entrance to the home.

With the stumps removed, the residents got to work and built their garden haven.

“We could not have done this project without BrightView coming in and stump-grinding, and they ended up doing it twice for us,” said Kerry Morrison, founder and project director of Heart Forward LA, who also helped to find donors and volunteers to assist with the creation of the garden.

The hope is for the garden to become a place where residents can come to help deal with stress and depression.

Read more about the project here.