Walk inside the Bayberry Skilled Nursing and Healthcare Center in Concord and it looks and feels like any other nursing home.

There’s a temperature check, a sign-in desk, a corkboard with activities and a handful of residents hanging out in the nearby dining room. It’s mostly quiet, aside from the television and some murmured conversations.

But walk through the dining room, push open the exit door and there’s a whole new world outside.

In a small courtyard, covered in warm sunlight, a handful of residents are laughing, talking and focused on their very important job: maintaining a vibrant garden full of flowers and strawberries, cherry tomatoes and bell peppers, and an array of other potted plants.

Lynn Jaeger, 64, walked over to one of the plants, plucked off a fresh basil leaf and handed it to a visitor.

“This is our creation,” she said with a smile.

Victoria Ryan, the executive director of a nonprofit called LITA of Contra Costa, reached out to Bayberry activities director Isaac Silva with the idea for the garden last year.

Ryan, once a musician who said she toured with Cat Stevens and James Taylor, now spends much of her time providing activities to nursing homes like the one at Bayberry, where her father lived 20 years ago. LITA’s volunteers improve the quality of life for seniors and people with disabilities who live full time in skilled nursing homes or memory care facilities through art, gardening, music and more.

“When people have a reason to get up and get out of bed, they will,” she said.

In January, Ryan showed up to Bayberry with huge pots, bags upon bags of soil and gardening supplies for the residents to begin planting. Jaeger couldn’t wait.

“On gardening days, I know we’re anxiously looking at the front door waiting for Victoria because we know something great is going to happen again,” Jaeger said.