Lakewood Elementary Service Day!

http://www.volunteermatch.org/search/opp1843936.jsp

Join us in spending the morning in our Lakewood Elementary schoolyard garden. The Junior League of St. Pete will be lending a big helping hand for this Service Day!

Saturday November 15th 2014 9AM-1PM

We take this time to catch up on garden maintenance and to finish larger projects so that our gardens are ready for the students who come out weekly to learn and explore.

Morning refreshments are provided.

Bring along your family, friends, and your gardening tools!

p.s. Bring along your compost-ables to donate to our compost bins(veggie and fruit scraps, oak leaves, coffee grounds, tea bags, BUT NO MEAT or DAIRY, please)!

Visit peacepatch.org for more info about our project.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Keep an eye out for the addition of November and December service days!

Meditations on Weeding

It was a beautiful day out in the Lakewood garden, but sadly our class was unable to attend. So, the five of us took advantage of the peace and decided to focus our energies on weeding the beds. Honestly, it is a shame I did not think to take before and after photos, because the transformation was impressive. I also get a little ping in my heart when I acknowledge the fact that by next week at least half our tenacious efforts will have disappeared under those even more tenacious weeds.

I have always found the action of weeding to be quite meditative, and I'm finding more and more how symbolically significant the action can be as well. We spend our time pulling out those seemingly endless seas of sedge and torpedo grass only to find the next week that they have returned in full force. A garden is ever in transition, constantly growing both the desirable and undesirable (although at times it feels like those tiny tomatoes will never be able to overcome those weeds). However, as gardeners, it is our duty to get out there every day and care for the plants and the space we have designated for them, no matter how daunting those weeds may appear. It is difficult to then not make the mental jump and see this ongoing process as a metaphor for our day-in, day-out battles we each face throughout life. We just have to keep chugging along, pulling away at those stubborn weeds, and hope we remember to look up and appreciate the flowers.

Get out there and start your weeding!
Cleo

First Time For Everything

Thursday October 9, 2014

As a social worker and mental health counselor my mind is usually focused on the human condition, not the world of plants. There is something perhaps metaphorical or analogous about seemingly endless life lessons that a garden provides or makes explicit for us. A garden strikes me as a potent ground zero for new beginnings or 'firsts.' For example today marked the first time for me as an official Edible Peace Patch volunteer. Additionally it was also my first time being in a position of teaching children. And ironically, the children I was teaching were first graders! It was also my first time teaching anyone about gardens, seeds, nature, much less teaching outdoors.

The children were excited, eager, and yes, energetic!! As I taught them the lesson plan    "The Magic of Seeds" and what seeds need ( water, sunlight, nutrients, soil) and "The Potential of Seeds" (my own spin on this lesson)  I could not help but notice the sparking energy of the many 'firsts' crackling around me. In simultaneous fashion there was the budding 'first' of a new fall season at Lakewood Elementary School Garden, the buzzing 'first' of intrepid schoolchildren embarking on the first year of what I hope will be a rich and rewarding relationship with learning and the bemusing 'first' cropping up in my own life as well. I can still experience new firsts in my life, even at age 50. How rejuvenating! We are never to old to learn and grow.

May the newness and regenerative powers of first times and new beginnings stay with us always. The garden shows us the way.

Laura Clarke