Time to Reflect...

July brings heat, humidity and a great desire to sit back and enjoy the mid-summer beauty the garden offers us. This got me to thinking about adding a link to the website Debbie Suggs and I created two years ago when we published our book, A Giving Garden.  http://www.agivinggarden.com/   If you look at the pictures on that site, you will see the garden in its earlier stages when it was quite new. You can also read "our story" about how our own giving garden came to be.  Here is a small section:

"We feel that the garden reflects how well Durham Academy works together as a community. This garden has at times been planted by second graders, watered by first graders, tended carefully by third and fourth graders, and has had middle and upper school advisories help out. Teachers now comprise the Garden Committee, and it isn’t unusual to see them work in the garden after school, on a Saturday morning, or during the summer. Many hands work together to make our garden grow. At any given moment, you might find someone gently rubbing lavender or rosemary to smell the fragrant herbs or (with permission) pulling out a fresh radish or cherry tomato to eat.  Butterflies flutter from flower to flower. Children come to talk to one another or play games during recess. Even in the dead of winter, it is the symbol of what a school is all about—nurturing growth and helping to put everything in balance. We give to our garden, but it gives back even more."

[Mary Kendall and Debbie Suggs. A Giving Garden ©2009.] 

A quiet place in the garden

Both photographs are by Debbie N. Suggs ©2009

Welcome Earth Partnership for School Visitors to our Giving Garden

On Wednesday, July 13th, Lyn Colleen Streck, our science teacher and garden founder, will join middle school science teacher, Barb Kanoy (who is a new NCBG group Facilitator) in touring our Lower School garden.

This is part of a wonderful project that includes Barb, Lyn and Katherine Sherrill (all from DA), and others who are part of the Earth Partnership for Schools. Last year they were part of the week-long institute and this year they are part of the group of schools being visited.  Here is a summary of the 35-hour course being taught this week:

"The North Carolina Botanical Garden and City of Durham Stormwater Services invite teams of teachers to join the Earth Partnership for Schools.  This week-long institute will train teams of teachers to create rain gardens, native plant gardens, or restored natural habitats on school grounds. During the institute, teachers will learn about North Carolina's local flora, native plant gardening, and using the outdoors as a place for learning. Participants will also have the opportunity to visit some unique natural areas in the Triangle as well as some area schools that have schoolyard native plant gardens."

I know that all the Garden Committee will be looking forward to hearing what the group has to say--what they enjoy about our garden, suggestions they might make, etc.  All gardeners love to talk gardening--it's a passion we share--and getting new ideas, hearing impressions from new visitors is all part of what makes it all worthwhile.

We wish you a great visit, new friends from the Earth Partnership for Schools. A big thank you to Lyn, Katherine and Barb for bringing us new visitors. 

"Many hands make light work."

Summer officially began this week, and our school garden is looking good right now. Katherine and I were the only two gardeners this morning since so many people were away. That is the way it will be from now until we return to school in mid-August. We decided that what the garden mainly needed today was a good watering since rain has been scarce. A bit of light weeding, pulling out a few spent cabbages, checking for hornworms (again, we think someone else removed them), trimming here and there. One of the school maintenance crew, Joe, stopped by and mentioned that he had pulled out some pokeweed. This was good because that was on our "to do" list. It's nice to know that others love this garden and stop by now and then to enjoy it or help it along. I wish I knew all the stories this garden could tell.

Katherine and I made an executive decision that our group won't work weekly--we don't need that much done as the summer gets hotter. Watering weekly is a must but different ones of us can pop out and water now and then. We will schedule the next "Gardening & Iced-Tea" morning for two weeks from now: July 8 (Friday) at 8:30 a.m.

Can you help out this Friday, June 24th?

We've changed our plan. It was so much more fun to work together that we will keep Friday mornings for anyone who can make it to help in the garden. 8:30 a.m. was a great start time because of the North Carolina heat. We can garden while it's still bearable out and sip iced-tea when it's not. ;)


{REPLY BELOW UNDER COMMENTS IF YOU PLAN ON HELPING THIS WEEK}


Things to do this week: 
1. Watering (especially if it doesn't rain before then)
2. Weeding (never ending, especially nutsedge)
3. Labeling things we need to work on over the summer (as per Katherine's idea)
4. Trimming back some overgrown herbs and plants
5. Putting in a few plants in the empty beds (let us know your suggestions)
6. Anything else?