One Square Foot at a Time

I closed out Eat Local Week yesterday at the Farm-to-School Workshop at E. Rivers Elementary in Buckhead, where I was even asked to speak for a few minutes as part of the agenda, as a mom who asked questions about school lunches and found hope. I said I found it heartwarming to see so many dedicated people who are actually making progress, that before I wrote my article I was ready to give up on trying to change anything, but now I knew I couldn't. Because I'm a mom.

As we went around to wonderful lesson plan stations and then watched top chefs prepare quick and healthy snacks (such as really-wow edamame dip, fruit kabobs with a yogurt/honey dip, and lettuce wraps with a Thai sauce), I thought about my garden and what I could do to make it even more of a participatory garden for my kids and their friends in the neighborhood. Maybe I didn't have to do something so big as a school garden. Maybe I could just make my little world as good as I could and let the lessons spread from there. Who knows what ignites the fire of change? Beating my head against a wall doesn't do it for me.

So, here are four ideas I'm all over:

1. Square-foot gardening. Each kid gets a square foot of paper on which they design their garden with the available seeds, transplants, etc. Then, you mark sqares off wherever you can (with stakes and string) in your existing beds and each child makes their plan come to life. They can even add a trellis or teepee to grow crops up and surround that with lettuces and other smaller plants that like a little shade. I am going to do this today. Is there a child in your neighborhood who could use a place of his or her own? Add a square foot garden and give that child a little bit of purpose.

2. Worm composting. You drill holes in a plastic container with a lid, you add a pound of red wrigglers and newspaper and start composting food scraps. You keep this under your sink, so this idea involves cleaning out down there first. May not be a "today" suggestion, but it's coming. A couple teachers talked about their kindergarten worm composting system--it is build out of wood and has five sections, one for each day of the week. The kids compost their snacks. The kids who used to bring Fritos for snack changed to apples and other perishables of their own free will so that they could "feed the worms."

3. Limited mobility gardening. I'd like to build an elevated cedar box that I can turn into a universal-access raised bed for those with limited mobility, such as those in wheelchairs or the elderly. I'd even like to brainstorm with the neighborhood kids about what to include for folks with other disabilities--blindness, hearing impairment, whatever we can think of. I think this could be a real eye-opener about the power of inclusive design.

4. Recycled art. The E. Rivers garden has a great large bug made out of plastic lids. Love it, love it, love it. I also love bottle trees made out of recycled plastic bottles and chimes made out of old spoons. None of these are in my garden yet. This may be a great fall/winter project for those who have tucked their gardens to bed already.

Oh, and I wanted to pass along a simple idea for those of you starting school gardens. The E. Rivers garden team launched their garden by giving every teacher in the school his or her own cloth garden bag (see photo above), with a Georgia Organics newsletter and other reading materials, tools, and a key to the garden shed. I thought this was a great way to give everyone ownership right away.

And so, my drive home yesterday involved a stop at Hastings Garden Center, where I bought yet more seeds so I could put the seeds of ideas from the workshop to work. And today, I change the world (or at least, the little slice of it I steward), one square foot at a time.

One Square Foot at a Time