Orchard Garden Day 5: Meditative Wanderings and Pollinator Blooms

A lovely, sunny conclusion to our first week at the garden.

We started the day with a meditative wandering led by Nicolas. He explained it as a form of active meditation, allowing us to take in the space around us with no particular purpose, but also connect with ourselves as part of nature: observing, not controlling; watching, not judging.

I strolled around the whole garden area, pausing to watch things more closely, like the cotton coming off the trees in the sunshine, looking like snow. Several of us noticed the beauty of the new growth on the trees and bushes: soft, light green spruce needles, red and shiny leaves on some of the deciduous trees representing all the new life springing up at this time of year.

Coming back together after a very grounding fifteen minutes, we discussed our experiences and reflected on how humans fit into nature: we are just another part of the natural world, but it can be difficult to really feel that way when we see the impact we are having on the world.

During our wanders, some of us felt that all our thoughts melted away as we focused on the nature around us, while others were reminded of their experiences and emotions from the past. It felt really profound to begin the day in this way, and it was a really special way to connect with the world around us and share with each other.

We continued our day making plans for our morning at Norma Rose Point School next week. We will be leading grade 3 students through activities connected to the rain garden on their school property. Anticipating a rainy, cool morning, we discussed our plans for Tuesday and coordinated the supplies we would need.

I really enjoyed the process of our discussion today, brainstorming collectively and co-creating our activities. Something that really stuck with me during practicum is how isolated we can all become as teachers, teaching our separate classes in our separate classrooms: the opportunities for collaboration are more limited than I would like, and it’s really those moments that I feel most creative and effective with my planning. Just being in the garden feels like it opens up those opportunities, taking down those walls of separation. I’m looking forward to our activities on Tuesday and seeing how I can take that same idea of truly collaborative teaching into my future practice.

Our afternoon involved more of our favourite: weeding the buttercups! This time, they were vacated to make room for some pollinator-friendly wild flowers. This will hopefully produce blooms for nearly 8 months of the year, providing important food sources for all our little friends in the garden. We have become a truly efficient team this week, surprising ourselves with how much ground we can cover in an afternoon.

All in all, this was a wonderful first week in the garden. I feel very lucky to be here and am appreciating every moment outdoors, hands in the dirt and sun on my face - even if it means a LOT of sunscreen. This week has reminded me just how important it is to slow down - and I hope to bring more of those slow, reflective moments into my classroom and the rest of my life.