Giving Life a Chance to Bloom

While Summer is my favorite time of the year, since I am a teacher and that means beach bumming, road tripping, time to sip coffee regularly, and write leisurely, I'll have to say that as a horticulturalist, Spring is in competition for first place.

Apple Blossom in LCS Edible Garden Spring 2014

I have always been amazed at how even the most simplest of garden spaces can transform with just the passing of time. When I first began cultivating the garden at Larchmont Charter Elementary, there was much to organize. It's an interesting experience to inhabit and tend to a space that was once the space of another's. I have never met the previous garden teacher, but from the remnants of beautifully painted wooden garden signs, erudite etchings in student composition books,  poster papers with lessons on soil, organically made sprays in the tool shed, and inspiring garden books and games for kids, I sense that the garden was in safe and protective hands. No one led me to any of these gems really, I found my way to the big toolshed in what is known as the "Tee Pee" garden (the other large garden where 4th and 5th grade classes took place before this year) with the guidance of my cooking co-teaching partner Julie Johnson.

Since my discovery of the toolshed last Fall, I have been excavating like an archaeologist through the boxes of treasures, piecing together garden resources, maneuvering through nebulous nooks and uncovering mysterious seeds (which rudely rained onto the ground through a punctured hole in the bag as I lifted it up, making my way towards the back of the shed). While I have unearthed much, there is still much to organize and utilize. Obvious useful tools and knickknacks have make themselves useful, and even the less obvious, odd, out-of-place things, which I have always wanted to get rid of or rip out, are finally revealing their beauties and purposes.

The big flower pot blooms to life with volunteer flowers as Spring begins.

Take this large flower pot for example. Last Fall, it was sort of just sitting in front, but not up against, the green fence as it is now. It had some green foliage in it, but I could not identify what the plants were. I itched to pull stuff out of there and just re-pot with things I knew and understood. I used to be (and still am to an extent), that person who needed a reason, function and purpose for everything in front of me and around me. If I couldn't define it or its purpose, I would get rid of it or not deal with it. If I was just basking in the sun, there needed to be a reason why. Was I doing something practical? Was I getting something accomplished? The reason of just enjoying warm rays would not have been good enough to the old me. Looking back, I think it was the unknown that scared me, that still scares me from time to time. I wanted life outlined, definable and was incredibly uncomfortable with not knowing. Old me would have felt that letting something sit in a pot that didn't serve a purpose, was a reflection of me not being effective or creative.

Now, the me today feels like actually just allowing time to take its course, without doing anything, can be the most creative thing "to do".  In the present, gardening has taught me that there is a season for everything, and just because something isn't serving a "function" or isn't beautiful at the moment, doesn't mean it is useless or never will be beautiful. In nature, lines intersect and flowers bloom in their own perfect forms and ways. As soon as I was able to identify that there were sweet pea vines in the pot, I knew it would become beautiful. I'm still waiting for the flowers, but it's just a matter of time and patience. I also knew I had to move the pot right against the fence so that the sweet peas would have something to grow on. By moving the pot against the fence, it allowed me to move the smaller pots of pansies (which my students transplanted in Fall) closer around the large pot and in some order along the curve of the big pot. This gave the small pots some aesthetic order, which had been randomly floating. With the Geranium and Nasturtiums self-seeding and blooming around the base of the pots, life is filling in what used to be barren space!

Larchmont Charter School Edible Garden Spring 2014

This is happening around the whole garden, apple blossoms, lemon blossoms, Fava Beans, Borage, and Nasturtiums, thriving loudly and proudly. Our garden canvas is dappled with these beautiful flowers of red, orange, yellow and pink, which attract our Bee and Hummingbird friends. Like the pot of unknown flowers revealing its beauty to us as Spring nears, to the endless opportunities to be found in the toolshed, life just needs a chance, and some time to bloom. As gardeners we have to allow our garden a full season, to really see and understand or even begin to understand, what we really have. As people, we need to allow ourselves and the world around us the same patience.






*photos by Tiffanie Ma