gardening + art = gARTening!
We've been doing more gardening this year than ever-- at home and at school. I planted an eggplant, cucumber, sunflower, and watermelon plants yesterday afternoon and spent some time weeding the herb bed. We planted a thriving bean plant that my daughter had started from seed for a classroom science lesson during the last weeks of school. I also started a few more seeds in soil where the previous seeds did not germinate. Tomorrow, we meet to kick-off the summer school garden at Casey Elementary. On this rainy and overcast day, the children painted two clay pots for planting a seed in to bring home to raise.
GARTening is my new word to describe the intersections of gardening and art. I thought I might have made up something clever, but a search on Google revealed that the Art Museum at the University of Kentucky and Arboretum in Lexington, Kentucky, is already using this term. Garden in German is also spelled "garten."
Gardening is both a domestic art and a scientific art. Around here, it is providing inspiration for knitting and sewing projects, painted flower pots, journals, drawings, and photographs. Hopefully, these projects will also lead to writing (another art). It also helps with the physical arts of keeping our bodies healthy through exercise, hard work, and delicious, nutritious things to eat.
"The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses."
~Hanna Rion
~Hanna Rion
"In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful."
~Abram L. Urban
~Abram L. Urban
2 comments:
I am absolutely loving our garden this year. We have eaten lettuce and spinach and are eagerly awaiting snap beans, sugar snaps, zucchini... Even the older two boys (who have generally sworn off of any vegetable) were heard to proclaim the garden "quite a success" and "impressive." I was a little reluctant to garden in such a big way because I remember the drudgery of it when we gardened at my house when I was a teenager. But I planted a manageable garden and it is very nice. I'm glad you are doing this with your family this year -- and at school.
I have a painted flowerpot created by a friend... She spent a summer decorating them and filling them with growing things and giving them away...
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