Fred Phillips' children's gardens.
This weekend we had the pleasure of meeting Fred Phillips (in the straw hat), who started an organization that builds Children's gardens in Charleston, South Carolina. His son Dylan lives here in Jacksonville, and is a new friend of the Springfield Garden.

Fred worked with us on Saturday, and when we were finished he sat down and explained some of the ways he works with the children in his gardens. They have only a few rules, that he insists they follow. Things like, no hitting, no throwing things, and listen to instructions. He spoke of how we must keep the promises we make to children, because adults don't always do this. I think the gardens are his promise.

He told us of a garden in a public housing project, which was vandalized repeatedly. After each incident they replaced the cinder blocks and the bulletin board, eventually using concrete to secure them. And after the third or fourth repair the vandalism stopped. They had succeeded in making it clear that this space would not be destroyed. He described it almost like a conversation, in which one party spoke the language of destruction, and the other spoke the language of repair. In the end, repair was convincing enough to win the day.

One thing we wanted to do with our exchange student visitors, Fred's organization seems to do very well. They use the garden itself as a tool for teaching about a vast range of topics. He explained how signs and labels in the garden can be tools for talking about the development of language and communication. He made maps showing where the various plants originated in the world, with stickers for the children to match the country with the vegetable. He gave us a long and detailed list of conversation topics, paced throughout a season, for teaching in the garden. They use the growth of seedlings to discuss various ways of measuring time. They use the need for laying out beds to discuss different methods of measuring space and distance. It's a 20 week list of activities that tie in all kinds of knowledge, and weave them into the space itself, with hands-on activities. If anyone wants a copy of these lists please ask. They're so incredibly rich.

Fred also showed us a few toys, made of wood, that came from the Appalachian tradition. "These moms and dads didn't have any money for toys. All they had were pieces of wood, and a knife to whittle, and they loved their kids. So that's what you get." He demonstrated a "sky hook", and showed us this completely mind-blowing carved toy: a complete set of doll furniture made from a small cube of wood. That probably sounds dull, but the fact that this toy was originally made with hand tools and no calculators, from a single block of wood, is impressive. All the pieces interlock to compose the cube. If you ever get the chance to see one you'll understand.

We fell in love with Fred. He gave us such a lovely vision of the potential our project has.

Also this Saturday we were helped by some industrious neighbors with tools. They built one of the last few beds in the front of the site! We are getting close to finishing this phase of the project. Now we just need dirt. Truckloads and truckloads of it.

If anyone has either clean fill dirt or a pickup truck they'd like to give us, please do not hesitate to let us know.  ¶ 1:41 PM