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.