Community Gardening 101 Workshop - Feb. 28th

What: Community Gardening 101 Workshop for Community Groups When: Tuesday February 28th, 8:30 am– 12:00 noon Where: Fairlington Community Center 3308 S. Stafford St. Arlington VA. 22206 Cost: Free

CONTACT: Kirsten Conrad Buhls, Agriculture Natural Resources AgentVirginia Cooperative Extension Arlington County VA703-228-6423 mailto:VA703-228-6423kbuhls@vt.edu

Representatives of non-profit organizations, neighborhood associations, and community and volunteer groups are invited to attend this seminar on Community Garden Development. Sponsored by Virginia Cooperative Extension and Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia, the workshop will cover Checklists for Successful Garden Startups, local resources for community garden leaders, an overview of local, regional, and internet resources for community garden leaders, and materials from the American Community Garden Association.

The day will also give participants a chance to hear from established community garden leaders about the trials, successes and planning that goes into a successful garden and will allow attendees to network with other garden leaders.

To Register: Call 703-228-6414 or email mgarlalex@vt.edu

Why We Plant – A great post on one of the blogs I love

I know that I probably bandy the word “love” around a bit too much. I have the habit of emailing people like Richard Louv and telling them how much I love them, and I think they might fear I am some sort of obsessed fan. In the future, perhaps I’ll work on finding a more appropriate word to use -- “admire”, perhaps. But for now, with Valentine’s Day on the way, I’m going to just keep dropping the “L” bombs.

With that being said, I just LOVE Thomas Rainer’s blog, Grounded Design. It’s not that he just writes great things about gardening. It is HOW he writes that really has me hooked. There is nothing boring or superficial about this blog. Rainer digs deep into the human aspects of gardening. Here are some excerpts from his recent post “Why We Plant”.

We can survive without gardens, yes, but the question is, can we live without them? What I love about plants, in particular, is their ability to reveal the invisible world. The way a grass moves in the wind, or the way a seedhead glows when backlit by the setting sun. The goal of great planting design is not simply to arrange pretty plants in pretty patterns. When garden design becomes another form of interior decorating, it loses its soul. No, what interests me is creating landscapes that are more alive than we are, but in a completely different way. When we enter into a landscape brimming with life and let that life enter into us, let it move through us, then we get a glimpse of the horizon we were created for.

…..Designers don’t create beauty. To believe otherwise makes us guilty of forgery and blasphemy. But what we can do is create the conditions where people can have an experience of beauty.

…..This is why the goal of planting design is to make people see again, to make them remember. We arrange plants in ways that will enable people to have an experience of the ephemeral. It is not the plants themselves as objects that have power. But it is their patterns—particularly archetypal patterns—and that can become animated as light and life pass through it.

We do not create beauty. But we can create thresholds through which people enter and have an experience of beauty.

It’s a fantastic post from a fantastic blog and I encourage you to read the whole thing. My guess is that you’ll LOVE it as much as I do.