By Paula Joyner

“You ARE the garden” rings in my ears these days as we rebound from the Ice Storm. The Dick Hillenius poem I recently read bears sharing:

A garden is more than meets the eye

growth from the past

growth still to come

strolling through a garden

is like wandering through a vast memory

everything has an origin

faraway places always remembered

bonds with friends

some dead but immortal here

growth rings

you are the garden.

Our gardens are reflections of our lives – the plants we have because dear friends and cherished Grandmothers and Aunts “shared”, the plants we nurtured from seed into their steady place in the garden, the flamboyant plant or statement tree that everything else revolves around, and the places and plants of healing planted to help us restore after upheavals in our life cycles. A palette of Growth Circles.

In this 40th year of celebration of Master Gardeners, we are looking for five volunteers to “talk story” as they say in Hawaii, with some of our long-term Master Gardeners and let them share the stories of their garden life. Collect their thoughts on certain plants and the meaning within their Gardens, their Growth Circles – with maybe a few photos. Would you be willing to spend an afternoon on a shaded porch listening?… and then writing that story, then sharing the story with the Master Gardeners at our 40th anniversary celebration and in the 40th Anniversary Cookbook “Seasons in Our Gardens: 40 Years of MGofDC Recipes, Education, & Stories”? If you are interested in assisting with this fun project, please email Susanna Hadley at susanna.hutton1@gmail.com or, Education Chair, Paula Joyner, at education@mgofdc.org.

Then there is one other level of Growth Circles that we are living through / with – our city of Nashville has grown over 81% since FY1990. The MG Member Education workgroup is trying to find a couple of local leaders to speak to our membership sometime this year about the effect of growth on our waterways, our tree canopy and even landscape designers in public spaces or …. developers successfully accentuating sustainable, residential site development. If any of you have relationships we can build from to secure a speaker for our membership, we would appreciate the help!?! Our circle is widening and growing, so we want to offer fresh content. We all care deeply. We ARE the Garden and we are growing together. Thank you for sharing the wandering.