dear ms b-phe garden 2

DEAR MISS B-PHE GARDEN

miss b
now this story is not sad like the one last week

im telling you this story because i want you to
develop a love for the outdoors
for nature
for organic green living
getting those little hands grubby from digging in the dirt
like ive said before maybe eating a little of it
especially my garden soil

oh ms b if you look under your bed there is a ziplock
plastic bag that has some of my garden soil in it
if you eat it dont tell mom and dad
but
be sure and tell me ok

heres the story
its fate that all this happened

so last spring im standing in line at meals on wheels
ms b
when you get older you can go with me
those old folks will love you
i started talking to another volunteer
she said something about having a car load of peppers
and tomatoes in her car
that they were planting at her girls school
my ears perked up
so i started talking about gardening with her

she said something like we could use some help
i said
ill be there

so ms b
heres is the garden this fall
ill call it phe 1 garden
thats the name of the school the e is for elementary
the 1 ill explain in a second

oh ms b
 that scarecrow thats fred that was in the barn
the one i backed into in the dark
the one that scared the beejeevies out of me
he looks changed
those crows are scared of him or should i say her now

so ive been helping with phe 1 since then
helping plant stuff finding supplies for them
giving advise when needed and asked

well ms b this weekend
fate struck again

after our walk to end alzheimers walk in little rock
i took a short nap
then
when i woke up our friend and your gma they said
lets go to the harvestfest
now i was sort of not awake but not wanting to be
a spoil sport i said ok

as we were walking down looking at the long long row
of booths on the street
my wife she thats your gma she
said ogd look at this come here you wont believe this

i walked over and looked at the exhibit
here ms b was a sign that said phe garden
fate struck again

i spent a long time talking to the teacher who directs the
phe 2 project
and
the parent that does the parent side of things

miss b
they gave us one of those yellow bell peppers
which we ate in our salad last night
it was so sweet and flavorful

miss b
heres the story
heres their website www.phegarden.wordpress.com/
we toured the place

this is the nice sign between the long row of carrots

the garden is run by the students under the direction of the
teacher
they got several grants to finance all this
including one from the game and fish commission to
develop a habitat on the school grounds for birds and animals

now miss b
this school is only a few blocks from where we spent 7 years of
our lives while i did medical school and training
yes your dad lived there
this school has over half their students from poverty level families

all kids rich and poor are involved here

here is an outdoor classroom
they do math class here science class art class music class
english class well most of the classes use this area
since gardening uses all these different curriculum
heck here at the country n i use all them frequently

here is the long rows of carrots and beets

here is a garden of peppers egg plants flowers beds being
put to rest like when you go night night

so what do they do with all that produce
well some of it is used for cooking class demonstrations
by different cooks in the area

much of it miss b
guess what they do
they take it to the local farmers market on saturday
and
sell it
can you imagine being in the fourth grade and getting to
do all this
digging in the dirt
playing with worms
planting seeds and veggies plants
harvesting all that produce
doing the math to figure out how much to plant
what sizes the beds need to be
how much profit is made
writing about all this like im doing now
maybe a poem or maybe a crayon drawing of a pepper plant
like the yellow one we ate

miss b
the use of this little garden is endless
i bet if you were involved in this in your future school
you would have memories of it that will last forever
hopefully instilling in you
a love of all things
outside
organic
sustainable
a life time of remembering

yes miss b
it was all fate

do you believe in fate
i do miss b

the organicgreen doctor