The rest of the story
As Paul Harvey use to say, “and now for the rest of the story.”
I am definitely showing my age by quoting Paul Harvey, but his voice and mannerisms are hard to forget. He led you through an interesting tale only to pause for a while, then, closing, would give his amazing twist to the tale.
I feel the same about my revelation this week. I told of the formation of the Trafalgar Middle School garden, how middle school children need to be taught and work alongside others to keep them going. Their Builder’s Club decided and executed this garden to supplement their food kitchen visits with fresh food. Their officers recorded and kept records of all things pertinent to their dream. They submitted what to my Federated Garden Club members would be called a “Book of Evidence,” to their sponsors, the Kiwanis. The teachers, teachers’ spouses, friends, relatives, neighbors, Master Gardeners and the Extension were recognized as helpers. Kiwanis evaluates all these entries and awards winners for their projects.
Al Piotter drove the garden bus and we climbed aboard to help our youth become “stewards of the land.” This busload (figuratively) of Trafalgar garden workers were rewarded with learning their project won No. 1 in the attar of Florida and third internationally. As a result, Al, his assistant advisor Bob Feiler, last year’s Builder’s Club President Haley Gamez and her mother, Gayle Gomez, were all invited to come to Washington, D.C., to receive their award at a Kiwanis community leader briefing, and attend the Kiwanis Community Impact Recognition Luncheon and a Kiwanis Congressional Reception Wednesday, April 29. They just need to get there, so if anyone is interested in feeling a part of this amazing encounter, please help defray their travel costs of about $1,000 total. Send donations to Trafalgar Middle School, 2120 Trafalgar Parkway. Cape Coral, FL 33991, or call Al Piotter at 239-851-7268. Their thanks and gratitude are extended to you.
There are many ideas for helping to organize a garden. Al went for tonnage, they have given over 8,000 pounds (4 tons) of fresh vegetables to the CCMI’s food kitchen. This year he wanted to add cut flowers and start taking bouquets to nursing homes. We are still working on this one. It will involve perennials. There are three others areas at the school we can and do use.
When my daughter was teaching at Cypress Lake Middle School, we did a sensory garden. Middle school children are a great age for capturing and directing their thoughts and dreams. Working in the garden become a reward for them. Teaching about the five senses was a fun way to create an awareness of what possibilities life holds. Wind chimes were placed in the garden for sound – hearing. Asking them to identify which senses are encompassed in each plant made some go home and grow their own, especially the herbs. My daughter started out teaching emotionally challenged students and this helped bring some closer to their parents. Some held back, not wanting to work, but eventually they came out to join their classmates in the fresh air.
Gardening is therapeutic. Working in the soil has been proven beneficial to one’s health. Nurturing growing seedlings helps develop patience and caring. Hospitals and clinics are places where restoring spirits, developing hope and a feeling of worth. Many medical facilities are planning, planting and tending gardens for their patients. I read of one such garden – a Ronald McDonald House’s “Secret Garden” in eastern Wisconsin, where they offer long- and short-term residence to children and their families. Started in 2002, their half-acre organic garden has sensory stimulating plants. They have an Alphabet Garden, a pagoda, and a miniature Fairy Garden. These are places parents can go to reflect, re-energize and meditate; an outlet place for children’s energy where they can smile, laugh and their place of normalcy. The garden is a certified National Wildlife Federation Backyard habitat emphasizing native plants and attracts birds and butterflies.
Retirement homes and facilities that care for Alzheimer’s are doing therapy gardens. Memory enhancing, and it encourages visits from family and friends. With wind chimes and birdbaths, familiar and fragrant plants help trigger memories for those in the middle stages of dementia. Often they are enclosed to provide security.
An article I read stated, “Healing gardens prove that one should never underestimate the restorative power of nature. It connects us, it heals us and it awakens memories or provides new and happier ones in times of trouble.”
Seattle, Wash., has established the nation’s first food forest. Their 7-acre plot in the Beacon Hill neighborhood is in the drawing up and permit stage for Margarett Harrison, leading landscape architect for the Beacon Food Forest project that will break ground this summer. What started out as a group project for a permaculture design course has ended up as an example of community outreach gone right. They are planting fruit trees, walnut and chestnut trees, berry bushes, herbs and more. When you go into a public park or woods, there are always signs – “Do not pick or remove the vegetation.” They are proposing something different. This urban food oasis is making all their produce available to the public. How envelope-pushing and innovative. Urban agriculture that is perennial and self-sustaining, similar to a forest in the wild.
“This concept means we consider the soils, companion plants, insects, bugs – everything will be mutually beneficial to each other,” says Margarett.
“People worried about someone coming and taking all the blueberries, and that could very well happen,” says Margarett,” but if we have none at the end of blueberry season, then it means we are successful.”
I do wish them success and happy growing.
Preparing young “stewards of the land,” cheering sick folks and providing a garden for all to nibble are commendable ideas. Thank a tree for oxygen and for removing the carbon dioxide.
Joyce Comingore is a Master Gardener, hibiscus enthusiast and member of the Garden Club of Cape Coral.