All Things Grow

So sorry for the delay, but I just had to double-check with Burkett and Holder before I shared the details with you. And they said "Yes!"

I’ve been teaching all my life, why would I want to do anything else at this stage of the game? Teaching, teaching, teaching has been my joy, other than my involvement with Toastmaster’s and my semi-annual weeklong jaunts. I’ve made the Winter Break International Garden Tour and my Little Christmas (week of June 25th) North American Garden Tour a top priority during my time off since I began teaching 27 years ago. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s been oh-so fulfilling!

So when my inheritance from Aunt Sophie came with a stipulation that I use it for business, I had to come up with a scheme. And my lawyers just approved it . . . approved my plan conditionally, that is. I have to come up with matching funds within a year, I have to agree that as director that I can take salary only equal to what I’m making now and I have to commit to a five-year plan. Little do they know that I’m willing to commit to a lifelong plan. In fact, if all goes well, my plan will involve many and should easily survive me! You see, I’m planning to start a non-profit organization and I’m just finding out what all that entails. The first thing I did was register the domain name AllThingsGrow.org. As I’m seeking donations from grant-making foundations and some fine philanthropist friends I’ve made through Toastmaster’s, I’ll be writing the curriculum. K-3 for starters, but that will expand to include the upper grades as well.

My passion for gardening often spilled over into the classroom where I was always surprised when so many of the students did not know where their food came from or how to plant a flower. Even I, who have so much gardening experience have recently discovered that the fragrant lily-of-the-valley is not a bulb, as I had thought – but a rhizome! So definitely The Lily Project will top the list. And it will be an ever-expanding list of Projects. Flowers, herbs, trees, and many-a-variety of healthful food. I’ll involve teaching arts from across the spectrum – science and art classes, music classes, writing classes, and math classes to help with garden design and layout. We’ll take field trips near and far, emulating the trips I’ve taken over the years. We’ll organize plant exchanges. And we’ll have visitors come to our schools to see what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and why! I’ll write a Homeschool curriculum as well.

What has inspired me so is the fantastic new children’s book - The Boy and the Worm -which will be the very basis for the entire All Things Grow program. No more just sending the students home at the end of the school year with a "Fare-thee-well!" and a packet of sunflower seeds. Our students will be involved with the planning and care of living, vital, growing plants every day, starting with the soil.

It was e. e. cummings who said “The Earth Laughs in Flowers.” If he was right, with the world as my classroom, the Earth will be laughing heartily, indeed!