Recorded Books Inc. - Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together With Children

Sharon Lovejoy

Workman Publishing New York

Copyright 1999 by Sharon Lovejoy

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproducedmechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopyingwithout written permission of the publisher. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
eISBN: 978-0-7611-8931-2

Cover design by Lisa Hollander

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Dedicated to my husband Jeff and my son Noahthe two who taught me to reach for the stars.

W ithout the tireless work of my husband and partner, Jeffrey Prostovich, this book would never have been possible.

S pecial thanks to Ruth Sullivan, my intuitive editor who made this book what it is; my fondest thanks to Peter Workman for believing in me; Lisa Hollander for her creative design concepts; Jamie Kennard for care with typesetting; copy editor Lori Eisenkraft; and production manager Elizabeth Gaynor; John Arnold and Patricia Berry for their inspiring Waffle Garden; Jim Reynolds; Virginia and Max Holihan for providing us a warm Maine home; Marta and Norman Morse for filling my reference shelves; Kate Stearns; Kris, Peter, Lily, and Cole Christine; Sharon Christian Aderman; Agatha Youngblood; Ellen Sheehy; Lea Yu; Skippy Shoemaker and Ginny Kirchenman; entomologists Brian Harris and Louis Sorkin; Dr. Steve Buzz Man Buchmann, author and scientist; Judith A. LHeureux; Vernon A. Quam; Rita Ebaakie, Zuni elder; Holly, Alexa, and Bevan Shimizu and Jane Taylor for their Pizza Garden input; Jeff and Liz Kellett of Windsong Herbs; and the Old Maine Art Shop.

A heartfelt thanks to Linda Ligon and my friends Fred Babb, Lance Evans, and Janet Brownell; Pat Reppert for her pizza sauce recipe and friendship; Susan Pendergast, Lynn Karlin, Marilyn Brewer, and Kary Gonyer; all my friends and colleagues in the Cambria Writers Workshop; the fabulous editors at Country Living Gardener magazine; and finally, to my dear friend Carol Stephens Yeates who handed me my first Workman book in 1981 and said, You should do a book for them. It was worth the wait!

M y lifes work is deeply rooted in the soil of two sunny California gardens. The first, the garden of my childhood, is where I shared the world of nature with my grandmother. She knew that the surest way to destroy the enthusiasm of a young gardener was to dictate a steady regimen of rules and routine. Instead, we greeted each day as an adventure and learned to look for and expect miracles. The second, Hearts Ease, my community garden of the last decade, is a small, thriving plot of ground that attracts thousands of visitors annually. Both gardens, though separated by years and miles, nurture the same underlying theme: All knowledge is rooted in wonder, and what better place to cultivate wonder than in our own gardens?

When my son, Noah, was born, I started viewing the world of the garden through his thoughtful, cinnamon-brown eyes. He saw, sniffed, and heard things that had been lost to me somewhere between my childhood and growing up. As we gardened together I taught him how to separate crowded root balls and plant cuttings of scented geraniums. He taught me to listen to the crackling, firelike voices of the cottonwoods, to look at the kitty faces in Johnny-jump-ups, and to smell the faint scent of vanilla in the white heliotrope.

We both learned that the only rule we could count on in our daily garden experiences was that there are no rules; the only thing we could predict about Mother Nature is that she is unpredictable. So, every adventurous, unpredictable day in the garden was exciting and crowded with a kaleidoscope of sensory pleasures and the forgotten childhood miracles we found in unexpected places.

A decade ago my familys herb business moved into a tiny, tumbledown cottage and barn on a quarter of an acre of land in the heart of the village of Cambria-Pines-By-The-Sea. My dream for our new land was to recreate the old-fashioned gardens of my childhood and share the magic with townsfolk, tourists, and the myriad critters flying or ambling over our scrap of earth: I saw the promise of the soil and envisioned a tapestry of leaves and flowers; my husband and son had visions of wheelbarrow loads of soil and manure and the backbreaking relocation of tons of rocks.

I knew from experience the frustration of visiting perfect gardens of grandiose proportions and design. I wanted a garden composed of lots of ideas that would easily translate to small garden spaces, balconies, window boxes, or cramped, suburban yards. I wanted do-able, earth-friendly habitats that would inspire visitors to try it for themselves at home, wherever they might live. What I wanted most was a garden where grown-ups would include their children, because gardening together is one way to get back in touch with the earth and one another.

The Hearts Ease garden is now nearly fourteen years old. Through the years it has grown to cover every inch of available land, wall, and trellis with its unexpected beauty. It has spilled over the fences with an exuberance of greenery that has spurred us to develop two new. idea areasa garden totally devoted to projects for children and a native habitat garden that effectively demonstrates our earth-friendly practices.

Our gardens have become inextricably bound to the lives of thousands of visitors and a loyal group of locals who use them as both a picnic area and a learning center. School groups meet for art classes and nature classes, the 4-H girls learn about beneficial insects and propagation, and geriatric groups gather for garden walks. Every November we host a Rosemary Festival and in April we have a Faerie. Festival replete with singing trees and scarecrows dressed like faeries. The gardens have sheltered families holding memorial services for loved ones and young couples sealing their marriage vows. A recent letter of appreciation said, I wanted to thank you for the respite and peace absorbed from just sitting in your gardens many, many times during several years of stress. Ive used the bench at the rear as a place to regain some stability in the midst of beauty. Without knowing it, you have given me an important gift.