CFE Day 4

  This is Caelan and Lexie here, sharing a bit about our action packed day at the Orchard Garden CFE. We were lucky to have such beautiful weather while we were busy exploring Nitobe Garden, planting tomatoes and painting signs for the Orchard Garden. 

A picture of Nitobe Garden that Lexi captured on this beautiful morning.

We started our day at Nitobe Garden, where PhD candidate Tsubasa guided us through a tour of the garden. Following the week of perceiving gardens as a place to cultivate plants with a purpose, we were impressed with the Japanese gardening philosophy that a garden is a work of art that reflects one’s walk through life. 

Lexi standing in front of the “Father Lantern” in Nitobe Garden.

The first portion of the garden we walked through was an impression of childhood. The plants and fixtures in this section are very tall, meant to make the people walking through feel small by comparison. Following a very large stone lantern built to memorialize Dr. Inazō Nitobe, who the garden commemorates, is a fork in the path. Walking straight one traverses a flat bridge surrounded by greenery, but taking the “harder path” leads the onlooker over stone steps next to a scenic waterfall. The garden tells us that taking the riskier or more complicated path can have a beautiful reward. 

When the paths converged we came across what was Lexie’s favourite view in the garden…

The trees get shorter as we enter the “teenage” part of the garden where soon we come to another diverted path. On the left is the “bridge of early marriage” and next to it is a bridge representing getting married later in life. These bridges follow a Japanese belief that demons can only walk in straight lines. The bridge of early marriage is straight meaning that if one isn’t prepared for this decision, you may be bringing demons along with you. The second marriage bridge is structured diagonally so the demons cannot follow into that relationship. We were all impressed by how much symbolism the garden contains! We found ourselves in conversations about philosophy and life as we continued through the garden.

The rightmost tine of the fork goes to a dead end, representing the errors that we make when we are young, but that it is possible to turn around and choose a better path. 

The last part of the garden is where we find a nice resting place, representing older age. It was also interesting to learn that as Dr. Nitobe himself got older he became more interested in combining the eastern and western worlds and this is represented in the garden. At the beginning, the plants are more native to the Japanese climate and as we walk through the garden there is more plant life local to the west coast. 

We were both very inspired by this presentation of a garden. It specifically does not have any fruiting or herbaceous plants that are designed to consume. It is a work of art, and a story. It is natural but also highly curated. 

As English teachers we considered the possibilities of touring this, or other Japanese gardens and learning the stories that they tell, and then asking students to reflect on what their life would look like as a garden. What plants would be there? What stories would it tell? Upon doing some reading I learned that Japanese gardens are supposed to separate you from the chaos outside its walls, and this can also be a useful idea for students who can have a hard time finding peaceful moments in their tumultuous lives. 

After lunch we reconvened at the UBC Greenhouse. Although I (Caelan) have been a UBC student for 6 years, I have never had the opportunity to go inside the greenhouse. It is warm and filled with so many beautiful plants! After the Orchard Garden Guardian, Chris, gave us instructions on tomato up-potting we got to work. Up-potting is the process of moving plants into bigger pots to accommodate their growing roots. Throughout this process we learned about soil moisture, maintaining root integrity, and how to avoid some potential plant diseases. 

Leo in the greenhouse ready to up-pot some tomatoes. 

As social studies teachers, we see value in involving students in the process of growing and caring for plants that produce the food we eat. For many people, their connection with food starts at the grocery store. When students are able to see the effort and care that goes into food production, students gain insight into the lives of agricultural workers and the supply chain process that affects the food we eat.

Tomatoes that we planted today at the Orchard Garden. 

Later in the day our group split up to either paint signs for the garden (pictures to come in future blog posts), or plant tomatoes in the garden beds. While planting tomatoes, we learned a new piece of vocabulary from Chris. This new term is adventitious roots and it refers to plant roots that form from non-root tissue. In the case of the tomatoes, it was referring to roots that may grow from the part of the stem that was buried under soil. Despite being in a diverse group of Teacher Candidates, this term was new to most of us! This demonstrates the endless learning opportunities that life in the garden presents.