Norfolk Botanical Gardens

Recently we took a trip to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. By ‘trip’, I mean a fifteen minute drive. We are so lucky to be back in Tidewater with so many great educational resources close at hand. The NBG has beautiful gardens, yes, but what we really went for was to check out the Enchanted Forest and to spend a short time in the WOW section–two areas made especially for children.

gnome home

Martina and I pretending to be statues

Even though it’s high summer, the garden in general and even the children’s areas were remarkably uncrowded. I don’t think the tourists know what they’re missing! Of course, most of the tourism is in Virginia Beach and maybe it just doesn’t occur to folks to head into Norfolk when the ocean is right there. Apparently, it is a haven for locals. We bought a family membership so that we can go back whenever we want.

NBG offers programs throughout the year. Some of them sound like a lot of fun. There are Mommy and Me teas, which I’m not sure cater to the age group we’re looking for but we might give it a try just to wear our fancy hats. Local astronomical societies have star gazing nights at the NBG and we’re definitely going to attend one or more of those.  There are programs for learning about botany on Lake Whitehurst as well as night time garden activities and summer day camps.

NBG is also a good location for waving off loved ones who are flying away. It’s simple to leave the airport as your flier goes through security, head to the gardens and climb up on the berm that separates the gardens from the runway. Even if you just want to watch the airplanes take off, it’s the best place to do it.

We are looking forward to exploring the garden by tram and bicycle on a bike night M/W/F from 4-7 pm as well as spending time ambling through the butterfly house and picnicking under the trees. The Norfolk Botanical Garden is a local treasure for homeschoolers with it’s open spaces, educational bent and it’s programming. See you there!

World of Wonder ... er ... Water

 

Homeschool Community Garden 2

This is where we are now in our joint gardening project: Starting seeds. Each family took 5 seed packets and did their own thing with them. Jennifer sprouted hers and then planted in homemade, newspaper cups. Sara planted hers in dirt, no idea what sort of containers. I put mine in saved containers: clamshell; yogurt; toilet paper tubes; and styrofoam mushroom boxes. The tp was ingenious, I though, but dries out very quickly since they are under lights.

The pic is of my started seedlings under the fluorescent bulbs. We use a timer that I bought at a hardware store. Setting it was like an IQ test which I struggled to pass but eventually I aced it and so, the seeds are doing well.

In the garden things are springing up all over the place. The clover in the walking paths is dense, arugula, carrots, peas and all sorts of other goodies are peeking their tiny little heads out of the dirt.

Jennifer’s boys planted their own plots last week but Sara and I have to get on the ball with our kids and get their seeds in the dirt. I *live* here, right beside the garden, and still haven’t gotten Martina out there to plant! This week, no more excuses.

We are all getting to know each other still and the expected early wrinkles in communication are smoother now. Having the energy of more than one family group in the garden is great. In my own family dynamic, I am The Source, the one who is responsible for drawing and focusing the energy of the entire group and it wears me out sometimes. With the other families sharing the garden, the responsibility for providing impetus is shared among the adults and I am really enjoying the novelty of being able to back up and shut up and ride.

 

Homeschool Community Garden

My husband is a hermit and I am a nurturer. I can be crotchety, yes, but if you can see through all of that to the bubblegum core, you’ve got a true friend. for years now, I have had a vision of creating a community garden for homeschoolers but we were living in a location far too remote to make that a possibility. Now we are back in a more densely populated area and I decided to go ahead with the plan but to do it in a small way to start, something that wouldn’t overwhelm either of us with too many responsibilities or new people (or people all over the place at all hours of the day and night! =D)

At first I thought we would have 7 families sharing this garden, working, tending, sharing the labor, building community. I had high hopes but then? Reality set in. I realized that having 7 families with their attendant children so close to our pool and horses was probably a very bad idea, especially if these families were unknown to Mark and I. We invited 5 other families to join us, most of whom we already knew and felt comfortable with. Of those, 4 dropped off and so we invited 1 family who had shown a real interest, even though we had never met them, and that left 3 families working the garden. Including us.

I’m proud of the steps we’ve made thus far.

>We had an organizational meeting where we all agreed to garden cooperatively rather than each taking a few beds for our own use. We all wholeheartedly agreed on the use of chemical-free methods and that we would explore square foot gardening methods.

>We have had email dialogue to discuss things like what we want to plant now, some of what we’d like to plant later and need to start as seed now as well as agreeing that each child should have a 4′x4′ bed of their own to plant and tend.

>Yesterday we met to discuss our lay out plans and wound up also putting in a seed order from Southern Exposure. We love that Southern Exposure is a Virginia business and that their seeds are grown and saved in our home climate. Their community building efforts are legendary and we honor that as well. SE sells OP, Og and Heirloom seeds, many of which are recommended for our Mid Atlantic climate. We are hoping to save seed from our garden this year and tried to choose varieties that will make this possible.

>Next weekend we hope to get some seed into the ground.

We have big plans for our garden and I am thrilled to have the energy of two more, motivated, homeschool moms and the potential of harnessing the energy of our offspring!

*The garden really looks much better than the pictures show. Somehow the setting on my camera was changed to one that let in far too much light. Will post more accurate photos with the next installment.