Variations on a Theme: Two Gardens

Located in adjoining towns, within a few minutes driving distance of each other, Hovey Pond Park and the Rite Aid Community Garden share elements of the type of enchantment that Buffy Hamilton so eloquently describes in her presentations.

As I did in my Open Studios Tour posting, I'll try to analyze where the keys to an enchanting experience lie.

Trustworthiness
Hovey Pond Park is maintained by the Town of Queensbury and a squad of volunteer gardeners. Interpretive signs explain both the history and the environmental importance of this area. The land on which the Rite Aid Community Garden rests, formerly an empty lot, is made available to local residents by the adjacent Rite Aid store, as a public service.

Likability
The botanical gardens at Hovey Pond Park are complemented by an assortment of wildflowers which populate the pond and marsh areas (and sometimes "invade" the garden proper). Pathways, benches, a handicapped-accessible fishing platform, playground, and picnic areas invite exploration or quiet contemplation.

Individual plots at the Rite Aid Community Garden reflect the personalities of those who tend them. Whimsical bits of found art, hand-lettered signs, the choice of plants - tomatoes and cabbages cheerfully share their space with sunflowers and marigolds - are reminders that this garden is cultivated by people, not high-powered machinery. Even the tools in evidence reflect a very human, slightly nostalgic, influence.

Fantastic Product or Service
Each garden provides a green oasis; the Community Garden is particularly refreshing to the eyes, being situated close to the heart of the business district in Glens Falls, NY. Both sites are free to use (although you must sign up for a garden plot), environmentally friendly, and invite collaboration from the public. There are opportunities for exercise and multi-generational interaction: older adults and young children can often be seen fishing together at Hovey Pond; Brownie troops, church groups, and local residents of all ages garden side-by-side in the Rite Aid Community Garden.

Applications
There are certainly common elements found in these two gardens which might be applied to a school or library experience. These spaces invite purposeful play. Any rules are clearly written, publicly posted, and designed for the benefit of users. Information is acquired via text, in some instances, but also through human interaction with the environment and with with other people.

The school in which I taught had an open space, visible from my library windows. After being ignored for years, this little courtyard was prettied up with a trellis and some beautiful flowers. But a few years ago, something else was added: a vegetable garden, maintained by student volunteers. It would be wonderful if every school could have an actual, physical garden. But even lacking that, it's possible to add some garden-like elements, both literally and figuratively, to a classroom or library.

Gardens lend enchantment, and enchantment can lead to engagement, passion, and learning.

"Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there." -Thomas Fuller

From Flickr:
Hovey Pond Park Collection
Rite Aid Community Garden


Postscript:
Check out (!) this information from our local public library:

"One Community One Book is back, from its May 19th kickoff through the October 6th finale, featuring Kristin Kimball’s The Dirty Life. In conjunction with our Folklife Center’s “Foodways: Documenting the Local", enjoy the story of a city gal who meets and marries a farmer and moves from metropolitan NYC to upstate Essex. A little bit love story, a lot of dirt. Join the Reference Department for book discussions, alternative farming talks, and movies culminating with a meet the author night on October 6th in the Community Room.

The Children’s Department will present programming using the following: Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath.

Our teens will be reading and discussing Seedfolks by Paul Fleishman and visiting a local farmer’s market. They will also be enjoying Cooking Outside the Pizza Box by Jean Patterson and sharing in a pot luck dinner. Yum- this should prove to be a fun and delicious endeavor and a great way to congregate with our neighbors." -Crandall Public Library

What a perfect example of how to secure engagement by tapping into an area of interest and providing a diverse menu of related activities.

Visit to Yaddo: A Different Perspective

Today, I'm concluding my mini-series on the Gardens of Yaddo, that I began here, and continued here. My daughter, who accompanies me on many of my local Journeys, has agreed to let me include some of the commentary and photos from her private Flickr set.

Where I tend to focus on "pretty" pictures, she looks for the odd angle or the imperfect but interesting detail. Her narrative contains many imaginative elements:

"One purple flower made me think of Queen Elizabeth I; the blossom grew out from its leaf in a way that reminded me of Gloriana's crowned head framed by a ruff."

"There's lots in literature about magic doors and gardens- in Alice, in the Secret Garden- so we took our time admiring the Gate and ironwork before passing through to the Garden."

While I spent a considerable amount of time trying to capture the beauty of the roses, my daughter turned her artist's sensibilities towards the sculptures:

"I was more excited to visit the statuary than the roses. Brookgreen Gardens...and the Nina Winkel Gallery, hidden away in the Arts building at Plattsburgh, are two of my favorite places in the world. At Brookgreen, especially, my eyes refocused permanently, and now, when I see a figurative sculpture, especially one that has been placed outside, I like to look at it till it's alive. For me, Outside is the only gallery that can truly complement sculpture, or at least in the way I appreciate it."

And when I was patiently waiting for the "perfect shot" of the marble figures, she happily incorporated nature into her compositions:

"Autumn had a bug on her foot and a spider nestled into her sheaves of wheat. Winter, who carried pinecones, had a complex look on her face- hidden thoughts, sleeping dreams. Spring was my favorite, with cheeks that looked rosy despite being marble, and flowers spilling all around. Summer had a mischievous grin and carried grapes."

We did agree in our preference for the informal,
less constrained aspects of the gardens:

"I'm not one much for roses, or formal gardens in general. The arranged flowers were pretty, but I found myself more interested in the beetles and bugs and koi fish then the roses. Those poor koi fish- they live in a fountain in the center of the garden, and got so excited when they saw my shadow that I apologized for not having any food. At one point the biggest milky fish and the biggest red fish hopped up at the same time and kissed on the lips. My first ever pets were two goldfish; they were named Diana and Charles, because they looked like they were kissing sometimes, and the big fairytale royal wedding of their namesakes had just taken place, in 1981."

Her description of "nature's barflies" make me laugh, though I don't
share her enthusiasm for photographing tiny "beasties":

"I spent a lot of time looking at the rugarosa roses- they were crawling with beetles and bees, inchworms and other beasties. The roses almost seemed treacherous, as though the insects couldn't unstick themselves- or maybe they didn't want to. Nature's barflies, closing time at dusk instead of dawn. One big bumblebee in a rose was buzzing loud and frantic; I couldn't figure if it was anger or pollen euphoria."

In the end, we both agreed that the Rock Garden was our favorite:

"Of course I liked this sort of garden more, less obvious artifice to the art. Me and Diane looked at the fountain shooting from a dome of rocks in a pool. She saw a stump that could serve as a fairy house, which made me think of the terrain in little-folk terms: valleys and desserts and forests, the fountain an impossible mountain in a lake. I liked the fuzzy purple flowers that grew with the ferns around the pool."

I've enjoyed reading her commentary, seeing the gardens with other
eyes.

Her vision in not my vision, but that's why our shared expeditions are
so special.


Visit to Yaddo: A Different Perspective

view presentation (tags: saratoga yaddo)

A Visit to Yaddo - Part 2

In addition to the formal Rose Garden, Yaddo has an informal Rock Garden. Mossy rocks, tumbling streams, and a fanciful geyser-like fountain create a mini-Eden.

Here a visitor can wander and dream and forget, for a time, the frantic world that exists beyond the garden gates.


You can also view these photos as a Flickr slideshow here

A Visit to Yaddo - Part 1

Today my daughter and I visited the Gardens at Yaddo, a grand home that has been preserved as a working artists' community.

Yaddo was owned by Spencer Trask, a New York City financier and Katrina Nichols Trask, his wife, a published poet. Legend has it that the name "Yaddo" was suggested by four-year-old Christina Trask's charming mis-pronunciation of the work "shadow."

When all four of the Trask children died within a one-year span, possibly during a diphtheria epidemic, the heartbroken parents decided to form what became the Corporation of Yaddo, endowed in perpetuity to serve as a creative retreat for artists.

The buildings and cottages on the estate are only rarely opened to the public, in order to maintain "uninterrupted time to work, good working conditions, and a supportive community" for the residents.

Visitors are welcome to stroll the gardens, however, and enjoy the serene beauty of its flowers and fountains.

The Rose Garden is based on Italian classical gardens that the Trasks had seen in their travels abroad. There are four statues representing the Four Seasons, and a statue of a youth, "Christalan" which serves as a "memorial to the children of this house." Christalan represents youth, chivalry, and victory over mortality.


On the marble balcony, there is a sundial inscribed with a poem composed by Henry VanDyke, a friend of the Trasks:

"Hours fly, flowers die, New days, New ways pass by, Love stays."


To see some of the roses in the garden, please click below and visit my Flickr set The Rose Garden at Yaddo