inspiring the young gardener artist: one family's adventure | shauna ...

Saturdays after soccer are a challenging time for our household. ?We?re all beat from the morning rush, the physical exertion, and dealing with the fallout of whatever crisis may have occurred out on the field. ?So our Saturday afternoons are usually spent doing something quiet and low-key that does NOT involve a certain sponge on TV. ?Each month, my son?s school sends home an art project and this month he?s working on an umbrella (April Showers) which he can decorate however he chooses. ?As he was painting away, I was reflecting on the similarities between art and gardening and nature?s rain and its importance to the growing seeds.

I was also thinking about the color variations of the gardens we?ll be growing this year. ?We?ll have three: ?a vegetable, a flower, and herb and I?ve been scouring about trying to figure out exactly what?s best to plant near what and when and why. ?I was trying in this, my second year of backyard gardening in Southwest Florida, to figure out how I could get the prettiest layout especially after last year?s fiasco with the overbearing squash elephant ear leaves that soon became the focal point of the entire enterprise and banquet for every insect in town.

I?m trying something new this year too, and that?s planning for adequate walking space between my planted rows. ?Last year I didn?t do that and I felt like a very clumsy large ballerina trying to navigate walking around my seed growth and starter plants from the weeds that invariably crept in. ?(Cured that problem this year too by purchasing a better grade garden bed cloth liner system ? I hope!) ?Much like the importance of keeping your paint brushes flat after washing and then neatly aligned for proper shaping and care, the garden rows this year are much improved.

Especially with a young child, it?s important while you have all those school art supplies out to try to show how in a teachable moment, what you?re working on (such as color) is applicable or transferable to other areas of that child?s life. ?With a coloring system of proper care and alignment of paints, we worked similarly on our garden row markers. Last year I made the mistake of Sharpie marking plastic plant tags which blew away. ?Then I tried spearing the seed packets with skewers like a pirate ship flag, only to have the paper packet destroyed by Southwest Florida June winds and rain.

On a recent trip to the hardware store (the one that gives away FREE paint sticks) I asked for and picked up a handful of new wood place markers and then had my son handwrite and copy the letters from the packet onto the sticks. ?By planting these at the edge of the garden rows, we?ll all be able to identify what?s what. ?Now we have a reason to use new words and themes like what exactly IS cilantro, how is it used, what does it look like, and why is it in the herb family?

You should have seen me trying to purchase these seed packets during my nearly crazed non-Monsanto no-GMO frenzy shortly after I was diagnosed with diabetes and was working toward a whole food dietary intake (side note, next year I will also try harvesting my own seeds directly from the fruits and plants we eat.) ?I was so irritated that it is nearly impossible to understand what kind of seeds you are buying and where they come from and how it?s processed and whether or not the genetic makeup includes plants that have been doused with Round Up. ?What might take the average shopper a few minutes was an EXTENDED adventure for me and I?m not sure I came away any smarter, but I did end up purchasing a few different brands of seeds (I had neglected to invest in seed catalogues in advance which will NOT happen next year ? I mean you just have to see how artistically gorgeous some of these options are ? another marriage of art and garden!).

I even broke down and purchased some Martha Stewart seeds ? try not to hold it against me. ?I know, I know, I DESERVE to be taken in by the food politics police. ?The seed packets were an opportunity to inspire my son about supply and demand, and pretty shortly here I?m going to be taking him to the orange grove processing plants nearby on Florida?s US17 because believe me you, you don?t know oranges until you?ve seen them piled up in a carrier and you don?t know migrant farm workers until you see them barreling down LaBelle & Clewiston in old jalopy pickups pressed down to the ground with gorgeous watermelons. ?We have to teach our children where food comes from, how it?s transported, how it?s shipped, and where it winds up when it goes bad.

Outside we went with our stakes and our seeds and our newly turned garden bed and my lion-hearted child who took the whole enterprise very, very seriously. ?I?m always amazed when we uncover examples of how his thinking is so spatially different from mine and how he organizes things in a completely unique way. ?It goes beyond age, it speaks to approach and this insight has helped me understand and relate to issues about how fast and quickly things may be happening in certain situations for someone who processes in a different way. ?For example even as a child, I would have placed the seed packets down on the ground in a pile where I would know where they were (I?m a visual learner), but he likes to spread out, to own the land (spatial learner).

Counting as we go, he?s placing one, two, three bags down where he wants to lay the herbs in this case. We then built our organized, neatly aligned rows and planted the following. ?I just now realized the names on the packets are also in Spanish in very small fine print, so next year we can work on both naming conventions as we plant. ?My son put the stake in the ground and then went treasuring hunting around the garden bed to find the seed packet that matched in spelling:

Burpee Signature Sweet Marjoram (Origanum Marjorana); Burpee Signature Chives, Garlic (Allium Tuberosum); Burpee Signature Oregano Mediterranean; Burpee Signature Spearmint (Mentha Spicata); Burpee Signature Parsley Extra Curled Dwarf; Burpee Signature Cilantro (Coriandrum Sativum); Burpee Signature Rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis); Burpee Signature Chamomile, German (Matricaria Recutita); Burpee Signature Dill, Mammoth (Anethum Graveolens); Ferry-Morse Summer Sun [Ox-Eye] Sunflower; Ferry-Morse American Giant Hybrid Sunflower; and Ferry-Morse Teddy Bear Sunflower.

And then it happened. ?Our first garden miracle. ?Out of nowhere my son started excitedly with ?Ladybug! ?Ladybug!? ?She was yellow-orange in color and originally on his shirt. ?Another teachable moment for care for the small things and wonders of the garden in a very unexpected way. ?We tried to get Ms. Ladybug to walk on one of the paint sticks, but she dropped to the top of one of the rows and then suddenly flew away. ?About this time, my son started to get a bit impatient about the dirtiness of gardening as top soil went into his shoes. ?In spite of the chance to teach about counting and space of planting in the rows, this was perhaps a greater opportunity to teach hard work gets dirty and dirt doesn?t hurt. ?Small lessons, but lifelong ones.

In the end, everything worked out just beautifully. ?Our new neighbor even came by to chat across yards for a bit, but you all know art and gardening?s like that. ?People want to know what you?re doing. ?People want their own food and they want food security. ?They also want to be reminded that there are choices other than depending on local supermarkets. ?And they want to be convinced that healthy, natural food doesn?t have to cost egads. ?A light sprinkle of water with the garden hose and a wish or two for some rain within the next few days, and all that?s left is to wait and to hope that our efforts to inspire our little young gardener-artist will reap some harvest later in his life, if not sooner. ?With camera in hand, we also took a fresh look at what our landscape garden is holding up for us to admire, here?s a gorgeous Pink Hibiscus and a White Bird of Paradise. ?Just another way to inspire the young gardener artist in your life, too.

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Shauna Lee Lange: The Agrarian?Artist?is a professional artist, thought leader, and analyst advisor based in Southwest Florida. ?She is working in the fields of public installation art in organic sustainability, natural forms & terrain, and conscious green social change ? otherwise known as Art?Agrarianism. Lange?is the Founder and Director of?Creative Art Consultants International Network, an integrated social media think-tank with over 4,500 professional members. ?A U.S. Navy Veteran, Ms. Lange exhibits her self-taught art?journals, visual diaries, and sketchbooks nationally. Lange is the 2013 awardee of eight solo shows with Charlotte County, FL?s?Art in Public Places?Program, and is currently exhibiting her organic Microcircles?series depicting cellular intersections and interdependencies. The Agrarian Artist recently participated in Florida?s Creative Capital Professional Development Program ? designed to further advance Florida?s culture economy. Always open to your ideas and input, images are the copyrighted artist?s own.

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Source: http://shaunaleelange.com/2013/04/06/inspiring-the-young-gardener-artist-one-familys-adventure/

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