Memorial/Healing/Love Garden at school?

[kirsten...@gmail.com]

Hello! Happy Inauguration Day! 

I'm looking for advice or examples on having a memorial or healing garden at a school.  A way or place for youth, staff and families to acknowledge pain and loss. We are dealing with big issues -- race, climate, covid, poverty, and personal trauma as well.  

Is there a process for establishing one?  What makes it successful?  What elements would it have?  What partners should I find to help with this?  How to talk about it?  

This is really new territory for me.  Your insight or resources are appreciated! 

Kirsten Saylor

School Garden Consultant

Minneapolis-Saint Paul, MN

[Hannah Traggis]

Hi Kirsten,

I ran a high school gardening and farming program for several years in central Massachusetts. One year, a student was killed in a car accident and my students and I were already in the process of exploring spirituality through connectedness to the earth through gardening. We were preparing to design a meditative garden retreat for the school to provide a space on campus where students could go to find some peace and solitude. Already exploring the meaning of various herbs and flowers (eg rosemary for remembrance, etc.), the young woman passed while we were still just beginning to design the garden. When that happened, the students decided to dedicate the garden to her and began selecting plants to honor her memory and to communicate strength, love, and support to their fellow students. Along one edge, was a sunflower wall because that was the girl's favorite flower. It was a transformative project and I would be more than happy to share any additional thoughts and resources that I have. My students and I went on to present about this project at the Farm Based Education Network conference a few years ago, and I would freely share that presentation and any notes I have, including the labyrinth design layout. 

One of the key elements was that the students chose the plants from a place of wanting to convey a message without words and they also came up with the concept of using a labyrinth to foster internal meditation - we had visited the Harvard Divinity School for a conference and they encountered the labyrinth there. Initially, they had been thinking about a much smaller herb spiral - when they found the labyrinth and we discussed what it meant and how they are used, the students had the eureka moment to hybridize their idea of an herb spiral with the much larger and interactive labyrinth... The finished labyrinth led into a circular bench that surrounded a young fruit tree. Their idea was that you would pause when you reached the middle and sit and be mesmerized by the all the blooming herbs and the pollinators and other wildlife buzzing around...

anyway, I could go on - it was a beautiful project and I felt like I was just along for the ride as I let the students really take ownership of the whole thing... I think the process of designing and installing it was deeply therapeutic for them

Kind Regards,

Hannah Traggis

my pronouns: she, her, hers, ki/kin 

If we depend on someone else to feed us, we will always be at the mercy of them - Kwame Mboya

Aurelia's Garden | LinkedIn | Terrascapes

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[Shital Parikh]

Do share your notes. Thx so much
I had a teacher request two weeks ago wanting to plant a butterfly garden in memory of a student in Del mar school district in San Diego county. I can share deeper ideas with her to enrich that garden.
Shital parikh
Master garden school garden consultant.


Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 20, 2021, at 3:59 PM, Hannah Traggis <htra...@gmail.com> wrote:
>