Summer School

 

There's a lot to learn. I think that's the good news. But this past week I got a glimpse of just how much fun those lessons can be. My hard working assistant Adam and I got up very early last Friday to drive to up to Gainesville, GA to see some garden projects done by the Fockele Garden Company. Mark Fockele had graciously offered to show us some of the gardens that plants from Specialty Ornamentals have populated. I was eager to see my "babies" in use, and also eager to give Adam the opportunity to see first class garden design first hand. Besides, this was also an opportunity to NOT sweat for a few hours while still technically working.

We started in the Fockele garden, and were amazed by the wide cultural niches available- sun, shade, flat, hilly, wet, dry, containers, beds, masses, specimens. A vast array of plants have been woven throughout the property, but at every turn there were brilliant "garden moments".  Small items together, big broad brushes of texture and color all combine to create mood and magic.  

We moved on up the street to the Enota School, one of the Gainesville City Public Schools. Blah......that is a horrible name for what this place is. The address on Enota Dr is the home of SMARTVILLE, and that name is apt. A modest brick building just off the road is now tucked in behind a perennial border,

above a cistern system, 

attached to huge water storage tanks and just off a fully planted swale and water runoff abatement system. “The goal is to never use city water on the garden,” said Fockele Garden Company owner Mark Fockele. “When you see all of the environmental problems that we are having, we all could do better to conserve resources, and it’s important to teach children these skills early on.” 

 

"The project also includes a demonstration garden that will exhibit representatives of all nine phyla in the plant kingdom, and which provides important teaching tools on plant taxonomy and related topics.  This garden, called the ‘Smartville Plant Kingdom,’ so far includes representatives from five of the extant nine plant phyla: ferns, gnetophyta, ginkgos, conifers, and flowering plants.  Subsequent phases will introduce  representatives of the remaining phyla: mosses, lycopods, cycads, and psilophyta."

After a tour of this incredible project, both Adam and I went home inspired, curious, and energized to get back to work. On the way home, the question was asked and answered....

"Are you smarter than a fifth grader?"

Not a fifth grader from SMARTVILLE!!