The focus of our team lay under the primary philosophy of aesthetics in our garden. However, our philosophy in aesthetics was primarily used because it is an vehicle for deeper learning. According to McConnell in Lesson Planning with a Purpose, "Teacher and student growth, joy in learning, creativity, memory retention, engagement with subject matter, and meaning-making can all be accessed through aesthetic experiences, or, as we call them, “wow” experiences. These experiences are characterized by individuals being focused, being present, encountering a feeling of being lost in time, and experiencing full engagement." (McConnell et al., 2020, p. 2). So although we made this an entry point to learning, but our philosophy didn't stop there.
Our garden started with a universal interest in flowers for all our team members. Flowers are inherently aesthetic. We wanted colour, explosive colour so we chose from a wide palette of colour and we tried to choose plants that would bloom over longer periods of time. Naturally, this benefits pollinators of various kinds including hummingbirds, bats, butterflies, bees and other insects. Our interest in most other gardening philosophies led us to include aspects of others, though we won't deep dive into the other aspects due to time constraints of this class.
Within our group we all had varying levels of connection to gardening, but we all had a connection to nature and appreciation for ecology as a concept. Memories of childhood connections to gardens and gardeners set much of the stage for a learning and interest in life, but not all children get exposure to this and all of us intend to give that exposure to our students. All of us had interest in other philosophies as well like food, medicinal, indigenous, xeriscape and pollinator gardening so, when we were able to, we included others as well.
We were lucky to have members of our group that were able to pull memories of gardens and plants from other countries and continents. This helped out climate barriers to put into perspective and highlights that this is a prime limiter to what we can grow. One of our members experiences of their home in Malaysia of having bananas they could pick just growing on the side of the road. however, in our 6b climate, we are very lucky to be able to grow a huge variety of beautiful and purposeful plants that are limited by cold temperatures. In this ecological niche we found further limitations from our limited amounts of rainfall.
This helped us include many concepts of xeriscaping including living mulches, height of plants to shade our garden from midday sun, while still maintaining 6+ hours of sun during mid summer and using a variety of succulents or plants with thick rhizomes or deep tap roots. Our loamy silt loam soil, plus knowing that added mulch would help keep the moisture from our irrigation system in the garden. Plants that really fell into this xeriscaping concept were sedums, irises, nodding onions, sulphur buckwheat, showy milkweed, wild strawberries, brown eyed susan, prairie smoke, silky lupin, wild bergamot,
We included some food producing plants as well: strawberries, wild strawberries, showy milkweed (young shoots and leaves can be cooked and eaten like asparagus, flower buds can be cooked or eaten raw and taste like peas), nodding onions, orange honeysuckle (flowers can be eaten and berries, in moderation, can be eaten if this truly is Lonicera ciliosa, other varieities are toxic) and flavorings like wild bergamot, prairie sagewort and creeping thyme. Most sedums are edible as well, but bland and some varieties need to be cooked - they should be individually researched before eating them. Many of these plants along with sulphur buckwheat, nodding onions, wild bergamot, prairie sagewort and creeping thyme have some medicinal qualities, some are traditional medicines, but some have also been researched.
We included many native plants in our design as they belong with this land and feed our local ecology, however, when respectfully included, non-native plants add interest, variety and often help the local ecology as well. This parallels a belief that people from all over the world belong here so we included plants from many continents as well: Iris Siberica which is native to central and eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Iran, and Russia; Sedums were used heavily in our garden because they are found naturally in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and North Africa; Creeping Thyme is native to parts of Europe, Asia and North Africa. This needs to be done intentionally and with care so as to be sure none of the species are invasive here. We would have included a couple more here, but our supplier was primarily focusing on native plants. This respect for native species as the rightful species that should be encouraged to flourish, while recognizing benefits of a respectful and thoughtful inclusion of species from other continents and countries.
The style of aesthetic is understandably wild, full of texture, colour and height. Many gardeners focus on clumping plants together to create large swaths of colour, however, plants will do this naturally over time if they are in the right setting. Some plants will take over larger spaces and some will shrink a bit in size, but this is the natural way for a garden with minimal upkeep. I am excited to come back and watch which plants push beyond their natural maximum sizes as noted in plant references and also to see which ones get crowded into smaller spaces. Survival of the fittest is alive and well in dense planting and it tells us a lot about the plants over time.
Citations:
McConnell, C., Uhrmacher, P. B., & Moroye, C. M. (2020). Lesson planning with purpose: Five approaches to curriculum design (p. 2). Teachers College Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ubc/detail.action?docID=6227354