Happy 3rd Birthday Garden Gallivanter!!!

Three years ago tomorrow, I wrote my first blog entry and Garden Gallivanter was born. I wanted to post this today, since I’ve woken before the break of daylight to drive down the bumpy mountain road (yes, all by myself!) and catch the only bus from our darling mountain village to Nice to practice some yoga at a local studio; and now at a wine bar for un petit verre du vin rouge and fast Internet connection. Tomorrow we’ll be in Grasse at another marché, so I didn’t want to miss the chance to wish Garden Gallivanter a Happy 3^rd Birthday!

I remember having had this idea I’d been itching to scratch, to create a space where I could reflect on my then new gardening adventures. I wanted to create a portfolio of my work, to map out all the places I was going to make better, more beautiful, and maybe even inspire others out there along the way, to garden, cook, travel, to try something new. I didn’t know where it would take me or where I would take it, but after 3 years, I’d say we’ve covered some good ground.

This Garden Gallivanter has enriched the soil and unearthed a passion for teaching kids how to grow food and community in the inner city, seeing another side of Los Angeles she had never known. This was where it all started.

Meanwhile, she created a garden in the backyard of a new house for the one closest to her heart, her mom. Through that project, she found peace with a new meaning of home, understanding that now it just meant two houses to call home instead of one.

Then she followed her heart to Montana and saw for herself what “amber waves of grain” meant, those words she had sung so many times during Elementary school. And there she learned what hard work really was and how a family farm looked like. There she dodged mosquitoes in the torrid heat of July while harvesting peppers and tomatoes. There she harvested, packaged and delivered organic produce to people and markets, driving through Big Sky country. There she saw how magnificent heritage turkeys look like with their red and blue colors. There she felt what tired really felt like and raced against unexpected rain showers, harvesting as many onions as possible into a rusty wheel barrow before the first drops hit her forehead, and when they did, running full speed to the barn, the wheel barrow bumping along, where she braided the onions to hang and dry.

It was a glorious summer, but LA called her home. So she returned and landed an unimaginable gig as the Edible School Yard GardenTeacher at Larchmont Charter School. She felt like she’d been working to get someplace like this. There she cultivated many hearts and taught some incredibly phenomenal kids and their families how to love and respect the garden and all the food it gives us. And they taught her more about all of the above and more, yes more. There she revitalized a Garden Program and discovered pure joy.  There she dug for rollie pollies and watched the metamorphosis of Monarch butterflies with her gardeners. There she felt valued and loved for not only her work, but her essence of being. There she found her calling and discovered that doing what you love and paying the bills with it is actually possible.

All the while teaching the importance of composting, lady bugs and selling Meyer lemons at the Garden Stand with her kiddos, this Garden Gallivanter discovered an amazing group of other gardeners and studied alongside her fellow comrades to become an LA Master Gardener.  Over summer, she got to go up to Berkeley to the Edible Schoolyard Academy, see the first Edible Schoolyard, say hi to Alice Waters again and meet some even more awesome Gardeners and Educators from all over the world.

After two amazing years of being Ms. Tiffanie Tangerine, a new wind swept up this Garden Gallivanter and took her to France. There she wwoofed, tasted raw lavender honey straight from the hive, under her bee suit, amongst a sea of lavender in Provence. Oh all the things she tasted: raw sheep's milk while herding sheep with Marie and Samuel, Nicolas' cheese on the daily, wild mushrooms sautéed with Sarriette, discomfort, yes, even the bitter taste of discomfort. In the French Alps she learned how to drive a manual 4X4 truck up the mountain and down the mountain; how to catch the bus; how to sleep in cars, on floors, under trees, in J9s, along the coast, the highway, on a mountain top. There she discovered a different kind of love, of struggle, of missing home, of the tears you can only cry when lifting a really heavy bee hive, wet, cold, your fingers almost breaking off, your feet slipping on the gravel, under the pouring rain and thunder…of the gratitude you can only feel when taking a hot shower after 10 days on the road, of learning how to wait, of erasing old boundaries, drawing new ones, re-drawing erased ones, of learning to be without so much and still being….

Santé to all the adventures had, all of them, the ugly and beautiful, to all the wonderful people along the way, who have shaped this blog and my soon to be 27 years of life right on Thanksgiving next Thursday, by the way ;) and to those of you on the other side of this computer screen, reading and ready to catch the next wind with me. Thank you for being there.

*Photo by Tiffanie Ma

My First House

Summer has begun and it feels soooooo good. Sipping coffee in the morning from a porcelain cup with no traffic to sit in, reading, day dreaming, going to Master Gardener monthly meetings and garden parties, hiking, playing with Jet and Lee, my two adoring little doggie brothers I like to call them, and most especially, writing on my blog.

I know it's been a while since my last post; I'm sorry. Your Garden Gallivanter spends more time gallivanting than writing and that I will work on. I promise. Because a lot has happened since May. A lot of beautiful things have grown in the garden and should be noted. Remembered. 

This is how Spring 2015 looked like in our Garden.

The "Big Veggie Bed," a forest of sunflowers and veggies.

With over 300 hundred kids coming through the garden each week, and the new commute since moving back home to Temple City from Silverlake ( to save up for something big!), I was beginning to feel worn out and burnt out towards the last two months of school. Every day was going too fast and there were no breaks to the cycle to getting to work, gardening, teaching, getting back home, sleeping, rising to the sun to get back to work...I found myself taking long naps after getting home from work and waking myself up in that surprised-I-missed-my-alarm state thinking I was late for work but it was really only 7pm...ever experience that?

And, the greatest change was that going to the school garden began to feel like work, the "job" kind of work, and that's when I had to step back and recalibrate. But, every day, when I saw my students, it felt so worth it. And I feel the support from my parent volunteers, like they are a part of this something greater that is a garden space. They are making it their own, and I am so happy for this evolution. 

WE did it! 3rd graders met our goal to raise $$ for our toolshed this year. 

I mean, really, if it wasn't for their love of the garden, we would not have accomplished the greatest feat of this year: building our toolshed! Or, for me, it felt like building a new house, and I was building it with my garden family. It has that feel of a house, I can fit inside of it and it took planning and collaboration and a bit of tug-of-war to get. And it smells lovely, like cedar. The books are happy with custom-shelving designed by Victoria. Seeds have their place in seed binders, organized by Cassey; the shovels and gloves are happy. No more playing Tetris as I did with the former termite-dilapidated toolshed, where everything was make-shift inside and there was no space. The only thing I regret is not having taken a picture of the eyesore!

But what's gone is gone, in this case happily so, and here, in my overdue post, I'll tell you the story of how my first house was built.

So back in March, our toolshed which we ordered from Osh, was delivered to our school. But actually, the story really begins last year in May, when my 2nd grade gardeners decided to set a goal and raise $1,000 for a new toolshed. We were going to raise this money via our beloved Garden Stand. And in March, even before the end of the school year, we reached that goal! So, I put in the order, which Victoria, our personal interior designer and mother of my two sweet garden students in Kinder and 2nd Grade, recommended. She also helped me take measurements of our entire garden and we brainstormed together how to enliven the space and what size toolshed would be possible.

Months later, after getting approved by school admin, the toolshed came in about 7 different parts and we had our handy dads and moms come one weekend, my Garden Groupies, to help build and paint. And we finished it in 2 days!! We had this baby built and painted before Spring Break! I was just hoping to get it here by Spring Break. But, these Garden Groupies mean business, and when they set their hearts to something, they get it done.

Day 1: Saturday

John was the first to arrive and with 2 swings demolished old shed.

Bye Bye old shed that I bummed my head on every day!

Kinder-recruited Dad Eric: professional builder. Enough said.

Soo helped sharpen and clean tools with sand and boiled linseed oil & got paint!

Andrew and JP arrived to put the other sides up and started working on doors.

Jiselle collected succulents from around school for succulent roof, phase II.

Day 2: Sunday

Painting Day; Eric's color combo; Loeb reinforcement arrives. 

Victoria and JP work on hanger for the gloves and shelving inside. 

Happy gloves! Dry and paired! Victoria's ingenious and practical idea!!

Julie, Gabi and Jolie painting all sides of toolshed. 

Victoria, our designer, adds finishing touches. So Adorable!

Happy kiddos, my garden students hanging out with us too. 

Victoria,  JP and Eric measured and purchased for custom shelving. 

Actual floor space to step onto!

JP: last man standing. 

Welcome Home

Home, Sweet Home. 

Cheers to my Garden Groupies (some were not able to make it): Afroza, Andrew, Bea, Cassey, Cindy, Eric, Jiselle, John, Jolie, Julie (also my co-cooking teacher), Robertino, Soo, Tai, and Victoria. Without whom, the garden wouldn't feel like home. 

*photos by Tiffanie Ma

Happy 1-Year Anniversary, Garden Stand!!!

One year ago today, my heart lit on fire. It was our first Garden Stand, ever. The first in history for our little school. We showcased some veggies from our garden on a table and the whole world blew up, well, at least our world at LCS. Yesterday, we celebrated this beginning during Morning Sing.

Ms. Katy's 3rd graders made the sign to mark an exciting 1 Year Anniversary!

The Garden Stand has brought families together, brought students from different grades together, and brought life to our Edible Schoolyard Program here in Los Angeles. We've been making ourselves known and heard. These students have a platform to showcase what they are passionate about, and perhaps while practicing math and customer-service skills.

One year later and we have raised enough money to build a toolshed (detailed post to come soon!), and funded countless numbers of garden class projects and maintenance, which we would not have the budget for otherwise. More importantly, we have created a space for students to feel connected to, a place where a student is encouraged to be curious about nature, to smell, taste, see and touch the wonders of the world around him/her and ask questions about those wonders. 

Parent volunteers keep our program strong. 

Our newest parent advocate for the garden, though parent school volunteer for long, Kari, volunteered to teach our kids about local birds through a fun activity. Students had a chance to make bird feeders with bird seeds, pine cones and honey. Kari is a woman of her word, come what may. Her pine cones were supposed to have arrived Friday night, too late for the Garden Stand in the morning, so the night before, she went to Griffith Park to gather pine cones in nature. Talk about dedication. And, she was so happy to do it. So were our students. Thank you, Kari!!

We learned food plants for birds are affected by drought. 

Of course, Kari is just one of a number of Garden parent volunteers whom I adoringly call my "Garden Groupies": JP, Cassey, Victoria, Afroza, Robertino, Julie, Andrew, John, Soo, Bea, Jolie, Eric, Giselle and Cindy. Without these people, the Garden wouldn't be how beautiful and productive it is, and I would not have the moral support or resources to teach the 308 students who come through our Garden each week.

Cassey and Soo surprised me with this banner!!!

Two of our Garden Groupies Cassey and Soo surprised our Garden Stand with this beautiful banner!!! Now, we will always have a sign. It says "LCS Garden Stand, EST. May 2nd, 2014". This banner officiates our Garden Stand into the books, marking a milestone for our little Garden, and for my own personal quest. I feel like we have created a real legacy and when my time comes to an end here at LCS and I pursue other quests, and our students have moved onto high school and college, a part of us will always be left here. 

Our most dedicated parents and customers: Jolie and Afroza!

But until that day comes when I pass on the torch, may we keep striving to push ourselves to really make a difference in our community, to spark inspirations which resonate somewhere farther and somewhere deeper. Viva La Garden Stand!!!

*photos by Tiffanie Ma

Smell-Potion Tea

You all know by now how irresistibly inspiring my Garden students are to me. This particular short anecdote is about some 3rd Grade garden girls' simple play which inspired me to make some garden tea.

Meet the infamous Smell Potion. You'll have to imagine this one because they usually disintegrate into "stink" potions before I make it over for a picture. The garden girls love prancing around the garden, picking flowers and herbs, and collecting them into empty glass jars I had collected for projects and have around the garden, not necessarily these projects, but this is what they collect them in.

Rosemary, Lavender flowers, Lavender foliage, Mint, Orange blossoms, Lemon blossoms, Nasturtiums, and Borage, all mixed and proportioned based on the creator's smell preference of creation, in a glass jar with a stick found on the garden ground. With each sniff they decide, a little more mint there, less rosemary here and voila! They share their smells with each other and I. Then they run off to recess and the potions are left in the jars, forgotten and left to decompose (it happens).

We made some for the Garden Stand like a potpourri mixture with cute mesh on top last year. But, move over Potpourri Smell Potion, because I think I have just discovered something better. Smell-Potion Tea. I figured all these flowers and herbs they were harvesting are edible. Some even have health benefits, such as the calming effects of citrus blossoms and lavender, so I decided to dump out the mixtures to dry in the sun on a plate and bundle together in cheesecloth as tea bags. It worked and tasted like the sweet garden in my mouth.  Cheers to my garden girls for the inspiration!

Here's how you can make Smell-Potion Tea yourself:

1. Harvest a variety of edible herbs and flowers such as: Calendulas, Citrus Blossoms (we used orange and lemon), Mint, Lavender (flowers and foliage), Rosemary, Borage, Nasturtiums. Let dry under the sun for at least a day on a plate or any dry surface. If the temperature is warm, one day is all you'll need. You will see everything dry and shrivel up. Don't worry, this is good!

2. If you use a mini-ball and chain tea holder to hold your tea leaves when you steep in water, then you can just put this mixture of dried goodies into a clean, airtight jar. Anytime you want tea, you can add a tablespoon or two into the mini-ball. If you don't have one, but have cheesecloth lying around like I did, you can cut up the cheesecloth and bundle up a few tablespoons of herbs onto piece you cut and tie together. There's really no specific method of tying, just as long as everything stays together. Or, you can buy specific tea bags at the store for this. 




3. Lastly, store your tea bags into a pretty jar. I saved this one for the right occasion. A parent had donated this to the garden when I was looking for jars. I knew I had to save it for something special. It was worth the wait. Coincidentally, her daughter is one of the Smell Potion Makers! 

Now when you are looking for a taste of the garden or just something soothing to curl up and read a book with before bed, take one of these Smell-Potion tea bags and steep in a warm cup of water for at least 3 minutes, or longer if you prefer a stronger cup. 

This is caffeine free and herbal. Always consult with a doctor if you are pregnant or have medical concerns. I didn't add anything extra. I love honey, but this tea had such a soft, subtle sweetness to it, it didn't need anything extra. Try out different combinations of herbs and flowers. 
It's a surprise every time. 






*photos by Tiffanie Ma

the Garden Stand that Could...

A calm garden morning stirs BIG Garden ideas...

It all started with Ms. Jessica's 2nd Graders one morning during garden class. I forget exactly what project we were working on, but I remember it being a calm morning of work and chat. While I love all my students, I am deeply fond of and irresistibly inspired by these particular students. I'm not sure if it was my connection with Ms. Jessica, their homeroom teacher, when I first began LCS last year; we were both on the same page about Edible Education and had similar dreams to fiercely begin something breathtaking and real. Or, maybe I was so touched by the unbounded support and encouragement I received from their parents.

Maybe it was all of that. Maybe it was because they felt the same way about the garden as I did. Or, maybe it was the Garden who chose this class to leap with.

However we got there, it was during this fateful Garden class last May that it had crossed my mind to discuss with my students very casually somehow showcasing all our hard work to our school community. Ok, that's a lie. I actually had been thinking for a while before that day in Garden about how to present the work we do in Garden to our community in an interactive and meaningful way. I remember having a few meetings with our Dean at the time where we discussed possibly throwing a big celebration in honor of the Garden. Perhaps a Spring Festival, with crafts and food and planting? But then, our Dean suggested tying this idea into so many other ideas: Grandparents Day, Science Fair with 4th Grade...that the essence of what I had envisioned disintegrated into the ethers of space, along with any further meetings with our Dean who probably was overwhelmed at the time, as most Deans are. I began to feel unimportant, but I did not lose hope.

So, I had been pondering in my mind for a few months on how we could present our work, but more than just present, how to really share it with our school. During Garden that day when we had time to chat, and I brought up the idea of sharing our Garden, maybe having a little Stand with some veggies to show what we are growing? They took it further.

This picture was just once upon a dream...

No, Ms. Tiffanie, let's have a Garden Stand, like a Farm Stand, where we sell what we grow and educate people with what we are currently learning in the Garden. Let's have it on Fridays during Morning Sing when our whole community gets together to sing songs and parents stay to watch their kids sing. We can teach what we know, offer fresh, local, organic veggies and herbs while at the same time raising money for our Edible Schoolyard Program. 

Sharing what we have from our garden and raising $$ for it.

In a nutshell. That was what we came up with as a class, a real brainstorm of ideas, a real collaboration, a real discussion, definitely constructivist learning in the flesh.

With our hearts full of excitement, we were pumped, ready to make this happen. Now, I had to carve a path to make it a reality. I had the buy in from students, the motivation, the momentum, and luckily my garden partner-in-crime, Ms. Jessica. So I caught up with her and discussed what we sketched during Garden; her eyes lit up, she was in. Now, time to strategize.

Without Ms. Jessica, Garden Stand would still be just a dream.

Having been at school for a solid 9 months, I began to quickly learn the culture of getting things done. The Me, being a stickler for rules and not wanting to get in "trouble," had to go. So I dropped that part of me like a bad habit. Cold Turkey.

Jessica and I adopted the model "Ask for Forgiveness, not Permission".  Having worked at LCS for a year before I had, I believe she had adopted this model a while ago. And now, so had I. I never got a chance to put together a Spring Festival with admin support, but we started something way better.

Students made tags labeling bundles of kale we sold for $1.

So, one Friday morning, we executed "Operation: Pop-Up Garden Stand". Before any students or many staff arrived, we moved a table we found in the hallway which was used for lunch to the front entrance of school, put a table cloth on it and harvested some kale and made some herb bundles in the garden with students who started to trickle into school. They made cute tags.

And of course we can't forget our sign we made during the week with our students. Students decorated a hinged-sign board which was painted with black chalk paint for our students to decorate with chalk. This was a donation from awesome parents in our class, now a handmade relic we still use every Garden Stand. Jessica and I moved it near our Stand table, which staked like a flag.

Our "Flag," parent donated board sign. 

Students from all grade levels unite to harvest and bundle. 

It was a HIT. It felt like an outdoor market in some foreign land. There was no line, a little chaos in the air, just dollar bills and hands pointing to various veggies on the table. Our Dean came over to see what the excitement was about and looked a bit stunned, maybe nervous. We raised about $60 or so. I turned it into school the proper way and it never got into our budget....another lesson learned. So we had to take care of the funds ourselves and with each Garden Stand we provided for our classes: potting soil, bird feeder project kits, compost, wind chime project kits, seeds, supplement veggies for cooking lessons, food for our citrus trees, paint, and for our ULTIMATE wish, a new toolshed.

Busy, busy morning rush...

Figs, homemade fig preserves and Pomegranates from our trees Fall 2014.

We've had to add on another table.

Our old toolshed is being eaten away by termites. It had been deteriorating since last year, probably even before my time began at LCS; the left door hangs on by one hinge, and I hit my head everyday on the low frame. So, before last Summer began, our students set a goal to raise $1,000 through Garden Stand for the new toolshed.

10 Garden Stands and dozens of projects later, we have reached our goal and our new toolshed is on its way as I write these words. This is a real experience. These are our school ESLRs (Expected School-wide Learning Results): Demonstrating Respect, Taking Responsibility, Persevering, Seeking to Understand and Communicating Effectively, all coming to life. This is the epitome of constructivist learning.

How is it the epitome of constructivist learning? Well, the picture above says it all. Students took ownership of a project, something they wanted to be a part of and dedicate themselves to. Not only do we harvest what we have from our garden and sometimes glean from neighborhood trees to sell, we also have an Educational Table where we teach. That's right, students teaching grown-ups. They collaborated with one another to educate our community of parents and students about: Monarch butterflies, germination, not wasting utensils for school hot lunch, to name a few. They even collaborated with the Kindergarteners in October who presented their studies of pumpkins, one example of cross-grade-level collaboration. Not only were they educating our community with the Kindergarteners about the stages of life, shape and properties of pumpkins; on a deeper level, our 2nd/3rd graders were being role models and leading them. It was an exciting Halloween Garden Stand, as you can imagine.

Fall 2014 @ the Ed. Table we were all about pumpkins. 

Ms. Sarah's kinders made predictions about pumpkins.

Handmade paper flowers by parent. 

Persimmons and Kale @ the Garden Stand.

The Garden Stand has become everything I hoped it would be and so much more I could never have imagined. It has brought so many students from different classes together and also so many people of our rich community together. Parents are reconnecting after a busy week over some garden tea at the Garden Stand, or buying Rosemary herb bundles and using it for their roasted parsnips for dinner (true story). It has inspired so many students and families; I could probably write many more postings about how, but I'll just save that for a future book, perhaps?

It's an endless circle of inspiration. The garden inspires what we showcase at the Garden Stand and the Garden Stand inspires what we learn in garden. The momentum is high and our customers love our displays and products. This year we have made: fig preserves, lemon preserves (from our trees in the garden and made by amazing parent-volunteer-extraordinare Cassey J.), homemade laundry soap with 3rd graders, compost from our composting lunch and snack waste, persimmon cookies (made by yours truly from my Grandma's Hachiya Persimmons), paper which we turned into bookmarks and seed paper with 2nd graders, flower presses, succulents in a shell (when we studied propagating succulents), granola bars and fidgets (made by amazing Cassey J. and which sell out every time), snack sacks (made by amazing Victoria A.), utensil sets wrapped with cloth napkins made by our 3rd graders for their B.Y.O.U (Bring Your Own Utensil campaign for hot lunch).

Paper we made and turned into bookmarks.

Fig preserves made from our figs.

Laundry Soap by our 3rd Graders. 

Flower Presses, made last May; one of our first novelty items.

Succulents in a Shell by our 3rd Graders.

This project and what it has sparked within other people continues to inspire and rekindle my joy and pure passion for gardening and teaching. Every day I get to work with our Earth and some truly wonderful kids. It has reaffirmed so many of my life choices, especially when times were turbulent and confusing trying to find my way here. With every Garden Stand, my soul ignites and anything is possible.





*Photos by Tiffanie Ma

Happy 2nd Year Anniversary!

A Monarch Butterfly on my hand!

Two years ago, on November 21st, 2012, Garden Gallivanter was born. I started this blog as a space to dream and create, while documenting my Gardening Adventures; what a miraculous metamorphosis it has been. The word metamorphosis, means: "changing" its "form". While my physical form remains the same, my spiritual heart has changed so much over these past two years.

I liken my blog adventures over the years to metamorphosis because with the Monarch Caterpillars chomping away at Milkweed in our school garden, and teachers adopting fallen chrysalises to release as Monarch Butterflies, the process of transformation has been on my mind. And, the more I learn about these magnificent creatures, the more I am astonished and grateful to be doing what I love to do.

I feel grateful to just be doing work which still astonishes me and which I am still a student every day. Just this evening, in fact, just before I began writing this entry while sipping my petite shiraz, on this quiet Friday night, I experienced a moment of ah-HA!

Here's the story which built up to this moment of "ah-Ha". So this past Thursday, before afternoon Garden Class with Ms. Bethany's kindergarteners, some students informed me sadly that someone had broken a Monarch chrysalis. I was sad and upset in the moment myself when I heard. We had been re-iterating the concept of respecting nature in light of all the chrysalises forming around the grapevine in the play structure and garden, so naturally, I was irked to learn that one student did not receive the message.

A broken chrysalis in my hand. 

A teacher brought me the broken chrysalis with solemnity. I had to continue teaching, so decided to just take it in and process it later. As I held the half-cracked pupa in my hand, I was perplexed to find nothing inside. Only a clear slime oozed from the green gem. But there was no time to dwell, so I buried it in our Fairy Forest to rest in peace.

In the same class, just after I buried the chrysalis and just after I had confronted the kinder who was accused of breaking the chrysalis, another student in class shared a miraculous fact I did not know about. This student who shared his fact is usually quiet in class, but on this particular day, he raised his hand to share his fact. He explained to our class, after I paused from reading about the Monarchs and their transformation, that while in the chrysalis, the Caterpillar actually disappears and there is only liquid in the pupa for a while, until the Butterfly forms. I was surprised, and in the flurry of squirrely kinder kids ready to get up and move, just said thank you to him for sharing and put the fact in my back pocket to research later.

The pupas are everywhere and bring our lesson of Monarchs to life!

Well, tonight was that later, and all the dots connected themselves! After researching, I discovered that my student was indeed correct! After the pupa forms, enzymes in the pupa actually break down the tissue of the caterpillar, so the caterpillar essentially disappears and becomes this rich liquid medium of embryonic cells for 3-4 days. These cells form "imaginal disks" of cells,  which will transform into the wings, legs, antennae and other parts of the new Butterfly.

Found right on the tee-pee in our garden!

About a week later...you can see wings!!

On the same day, she emerged during class!

This caterpillar goes through complete transformation. It's muscles, nervous system and even heart completely change in over 10 to 14 days or so. This is truly magical to me, demonstrating nature's remarkable power. And I, because of my wonderful place in the world, calling myself a "Garden Teacher," got to touch this perplexing, miraculous liquid of transformation, this elixir of life.

Despite me feeling upset at one of my kinder student's curiosity of this green jewel and breaking it, if it weren't for the broken chrysalis brought to me which I could see for myself nothing was inside, learning this fact to be true would have not been the same. If it also were not for my other kinder student during the same class who shared his fact about what happens in the chrysalis, I would not have done the research and made the connection to what I saw in the palm of my hand, and what I had read.

Curious sister gardeners hold a Monarch!

My heart has changed because of what my students have taught and inspired me to do, see, feel, smell, discover, and touch, in the garden, about the garden, and for the garden.

Because of them, despite some seemingly sad situations such as a chrysalis breaking, I got to see the inside of a chrysalis, which I may have never been able to see. Everything in life happens for a reason. I am sure of it now. The garden and my role as a garden teacher has allowed me to touch so many hearts, reached so many dreams, that I hope the metamorphosis never stops.

As I celebrate the 2nd Anniversary of Garden Gallivanter and my own Golden Birthday on November 26th when I turn 26, I am grateful for all my garden adventures and toast the beginning of many more.




*Photos by Tiffanie Ma