"Hi Ho, Hi Ho! It's Off to Work We Go"

The 2014-15 school year has begun and we enthusiastically welcome our students, faculty, family and friends to our LS outdoor classroom and learning lab.  Here's some garden news that sprouted late last spring and over the summer break!

Ms. Streck was honored with the 2014 Robertson F. Hershey Distinguished Faculty Award at the Lower School's closing exercises in June.  This is the most prestigious award given to Durham Academy teachers.  In conferring the award, our Head of School, Mr. Ulku-Steiner noted Ms. Streck's boundless energy for teaching and her dedication to building and cultivating our Giving Garden.  Congratulations!

To read more about this honor, visit http://issuu.com/durhamacademy/docs/record_july_1__2014_final/37?e=3538329/8559370

In the fall of 2013, DA's Parents' Association granted our wish for a new, automated garden watering system.  Installed in July, this system allows us to vary the frequency and length of watering times in accordance with the needs of the garden.  Already we see the system's benefits in the healthy growth of new plants Ms. Streck and Mrs. Sherrill added to the garden in late summer.  Also, we extend our sincere appreciation to the special friends of the garden whose generous donation made the new plant additions possible.

Lastly, it was splendid to spend the first two days of school this year with our 2nd and 4th graders in the garden.  We spruced up the area for the new year, and the 2nd grade took some quiet time to reflect and draw their favorite item in the garden.

A stunning drawing of one of our new plant additions, Red Wing, Heteropterys glabra.

Carla Hand will once again coordinate our garden parent volunteers, and we will announce those garden work dates very soon so keep on the lookout for an update.

In the meantime, don't forget to check the weather forecast delivered via our Weather Station.
Visit:  https://rainwise.net/weather/dalowerschool

As always, if you wish to contact Ms. Streck or Mrs. Kontos, just send us an email at lyn.streck@da.org or demetra.kontos@da.org, call, or drop by the labs or garden.  Visitors and volunteers are always welcome!

Ready for Winter in the Giving Garden

Last Friday, after enthusiastically singing our Happy Birthday wishes to Ms. Streck, a hearty crew of parents, students and faculty set to work winterizing our Giving Garden.  Daffodil bulbs were planted with the promise of spring blooms.  Fertile soil replenished beds, and fall's leaves were raked into the woods.  Winter pansies add color to the garden, and brighten the paths visited with our students during our winter leaf hunts.  One of our winter projects will be creating and installing garden markers to identify our Giving Garden plants and trees.

Thanks to all our volunteers, especially a few future Durham Academy students!!

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a...Digital Weather Station!

Over the last few weeks we've been preparing for an exciting announcement to our entire Durham Academy Community. We're pleased to share the news that DA has it's own Digital Weather Station.  Here's a short movie of the station in action (Watch the anemometer blade spin):

The digital weather station was made possible through the efforts of Lower School Science Teacher Lyn Streck and DA Grandparent Dr. Peter Travers (Beata '23), who submitted a Wish List request for the station that was granted by the 2013-2013 Parents Association.   This fall, the outdoor digital monitor complete with anemometer, barometer, thermometer and rain gauge was mounted by Chad MacKenzie DA's Head Groundsman at the rear of the Lower School near the LS Giving Garden.  Now operational, the real time data collected at the station displays at the following URL: http://rainwise.net/weather/dalowerschool  thanks to Forrest Beck, DA's Network Manager.

Since the data collected at the station is viewable on the web, all of our divisions can use this teaching tool no matter what subject is taught.

So check the weather station for THE FORCAST at DA anytime you wish from any browser!  There's even a weekly forcast and radar image!  Eat your heart out *Greg Fishel!!

* (WRAL's Chief Meterologist)

Wishing you fair weather always,

Mrs. Kontos & Mrs. Streck

Lunchtime for a Praying Mantis

Today while watering the garden with their classmates,  two observant second graders from Mr. Bacsik's class ran upstairs and excitedly led me outside to videotape a Praying Mantis enjoying his lunch in our colorful butterfly bush.  At first our insect friend was too shy to continue eating in front of an audience, so he engaged us in a stare down.  But after walking away for a moment, he returned to task, and below is the video I captured.

Join us on Friday for another Garden Work day to see if you can spy another creature enjoying our beautiful garden!

Mrs. Kontos

The Monarchs are coming!! Swallowtails too!

As we begin our second rotation in Science for the 2013-2014 school year with our second and fourth graders, I'm proud to announce the appearance of both monarch and swallowtail caterpillars in our LS Giving Garden.  We'll be observing their transformation to glorious butterflies.

Thanks to our Garden Volunteers led by Carla Hand who last Friday planted colorful pansies in the garden.  The veggies are growing and our students have loved pinching a lettuce sample or two or three while weeding, watering, and pruning.

Our next workday is Friday, October 4.

Introducing: The Durham Academy Grower's Bulletin

The Durham Academy Grower's News Bulletin!!!

Morning has Broken

Vegetable Garden Beds 2013

This Friday morning I enjoyed the peacefulness of our Giving Garden while I watered the vegetables planted during last Friday’s Garden workday.  Attached is diagram of the wide variety of vegetables that were planted.  I’m happy to report that there are many shoots sprouting from the beds!!  

I also took a moment to reflect upon the morning of what would have been my father’s 88th birthday.  Papou (Grandpa in Greek) Mike was an avid gardener having come from a family of farmers that grew luscious grapes, juicy oranges and tangy lemons in groves surrounding his home on the tiny Mediterranean island of Cyprus.  Daddy brought his love of gardening to the United States and I fortunately grew up in coastal Virginia with an enormous, bountiful garden each summer.  

2007

Figs were also a favorite summertime treat.  So it was without question that the best way to honor his passing seven years ago was to plant a fig tree in the Giving Garden.   Like our love for him, the fig tree has grown exponentially.  He would smile, knowing the tending by his grandson, Alexi, and other LS students in our Giving Garden nurtured the tree to grow tall, broad and strong.  That’s what he wished for his grandsons.  I’d say we’ve done him proud.  Eonia e mnimi (Eternal is your memory) Papou Mike.

Our next Garden Workday is Monday September 9th.  Mark your calendars and join us.

Fig Tree 2013

Fall Garden Workdays!

How fortunate we were that the weather cooperated on the first day of school!  Four classes visited the LS Giving Garden where they did a little drawing and weeding.  This was my favorite photo of the day.

Our wonderful LS Garden Volunteers have planned seven Garden Workdays for the fall.  Mark your calendars and come and join us.  Our first workday is Friday, August 23rd.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate so we can begin to cultivate our fall garden.

Here are the other days:  Monday, September 9; Friday, September 20; Friday, October 4; Friday, October 18; Friday, November 1; and Friday, November 15.

See you on Friday!  

Demetra

Gardens of Change

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

In late July, our friend, gardener and teacher emerita Mrs. Kendall posted this heartfelt entry reminding us of the history of our beautiful LS Giving Garden, where she also graciously announced the blog's revival.  I'm honored to follow in Mrs. Kendall's keystrokes in keeping the A Giving Garden blog in spectacular shape.  Please take the time to read her entry.

Joining Mrs. Streck in her classroom this fall marks a significant change in my teaching path that very soon will bring me and our students to the Giving Garden's gate almost daily.  With great enthusiasm and anticipation, I'm looking forward to tending the garden, teaching our children and watching them both grow exponentially.  Join us.

All the best,

Mrs. Kontos

A poem by Beatrix Potter

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Farewell Dear Blog...A Giving Garden Changes Hands

No, I'm not wrapping up this blog. I've decided to keep on blogging even though I am back home and not traveling in all those delightful places in Europe. What I am saying goodbye to is my previous blog at my old school, Durham Academy, in Durham, North Carolina. It was my first attempt at blogging, and the audience was initially meant to be for the teachers and staff who all agreed to volunteer to tend our school garden over the hot summer so it would survive. A blog seemed a great way to stay in communication and to share what each of us did and what we observed happening in the garden.


Here is a link to the garden blog:  http://agivinggarden.blogspot.com     

We called our garden A Giving Garden. Initially the name came from the wonderful Shel Silverstein book, A Giving Tree. The lesson in that beautiful book speaks to most of us so clearly--love is given selflessly and always with grace. We built that garden with much work, many hands and always with love. The goal was to offer the children a hands-on experience working in a garden, seeing how things grow, and learning the basics of how much work it takes to tend a garden. The results were excellent. Over several years the garden grew. Children loved their time with Mrs. Streck, the science teacher, in the garden. Some even volunteered to help weed and tend things during recess. The last year before I retired, much of the garden management had moved to the very capable hands of parents who spent after-school time tending the garden with their children. Volunteers from both DA Middle School and Upper School also came over periodically to do some of the more laborious garden work. It was so wonderful seeing how many people were involved in this garden.

A regular group tended the garden all summer long.

Early on, Debbie Suggs and I wrote and published a book, A Giving Garden, that was partly about our school garden and partly about all gardens since all gardens do give and give. 

For this book I wrote a longish poem that told the story of the garden's life cycle. Debbie took the photographs for every season of life in the garden. It took us a long time to put a small book together, but working on that book remains one of the finest times in my life. I shall always treasure it. Children were in the book, and even now if I look back at the book, it's so sweet seeing them as first and second graders when in reality they are now in Middle School.

Teachers sometimes brought children to the garden to read and later to write. I remember the joy of writing poems with some of the second graders in Karen Lovelace's class. Everyone strolled around silently and just observed, felt the breeze, listened to the birds, smelled the fresh herbs and then we all found a spot to plant ourselves and write. Later, back in class, there would be more writing time and time for a writer's conference. By the time the children shared their poems, I was absolutely dazzled by their poems. It confirms what I've always felt--children are natural poets. Somehow it gets lost along the way for most people, but it is there at the beginning. The garden as muse never grows old.

Always handy to have something to write in just in case the muse appeared.

Gardening in June, July and August in North Carolina is at times almost painful. The heat and humidity take their toll on even the most fervent gardener. But still we labored on each Friday morning. Sometimes the reward was a delicious iced-tea at Guglhupf. 

There we could sit (inside!!) and cool off, sip iced-tea and nibble on their glorious scones or croissants as we caught up on each other's news and gossip. It was always a lovely reward. Some of my fondest moments go back to the summer of 2011 when we began our summer tending.

Many hands make work go faster and easier.

Fellow teacher, Katherine Sherrill wrote a blog entry about her own home garden. It was always a delight when teachers made the blog their own with their personal stories.

A group of science teachers visited our garden one afternoon and were given a wonderful tour by science teacher, Lynn Colleen Streck (in green on far right).

Beautiful family stories became part of our garden one by one.

The garden always provided a quiet place.

Helping and enjoying the garden was just part of the fun.

The garden in all its stillness at dusk was a lovely place to visit.

So now, two years later, this blog will be given a new life and new direction as the garden continues to grow, as the children continue to learn, and as everyone continues to share the richness of our very own Giving Garden. Demetra Kontos (one of the blog founders) will take over the responsibility of writing and posting the blog. In her new position as the Assistant Science Teacher, Demetra will join Science Teacher, Lynn Colleen Streck and all the Garden Committee in making everything flourish. They will give to the garden, and the garden will give in return. That, my friends, is the eternal truth.