Boston or BUST!

I recently returned from a whirlwind weekend in Boston to gather plants for the garden. I am so grateful to the Vonnegut family and to the folks at The Old Manse for their generosity and kindness!

I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it was to visit the site of Edie Vonnegut's famous photo of her father.

Dr. Melissa Talhelm and I worked hard to wrest some of these beautiful plants out of the ground.

They were deeply rooted with a gorgeous array of colors!

We are hopeful that the plants do not suffer terribly from root shock and are transplanted successfully to the garden this fall! You can read about Vonnegut's love for hydrangeas here.

We are so grateful to Edie Vonnegut for her support of our project!

After a tasty lunch, Melissa and I headed to Concord, MA, to visit The Old Manse. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne called The Old Manse home, and Henry David Thoreau planted a garden there for the newlywed Hawthornes. 

It was so exciting to meet our contact, Tom Beardsley, The Old Manse Site Manager, and Susan Adam, the groundskeeper.

Dr. Talhelm speaks with Tom Beardsley.

Susan Adam digs out a plant for us.

They kindly showered us with plants for the garden! Here are some highlights:

One of the more unusual plants we have acquired is purple-headed amaranth. Amaranth is an ancient grain that has been cultivated for thousands of years and has recently risen in popularity as consumers continue to search for gluten-free options.

The garden will also feature bloody butcher corn, a deep ruby colored corn most often seen in ornamental fall decorations.

In a nod to Concord's rich history, we are also hoping to propagate cuttings from a large Concord grapevine that drapes the side of The Old Manse.

We are deeply grateful to Tom and Susan for all of their help and generous plant donations!

We couldn't visit Concord without stopping by Sleepy Hollow Cemetery to visit the graves of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Hawthornes, Henry David Thoreau, and Louisa May Alcott and her father, Bronson Alcott.

We also had to stop at Walden Pond for selfies with Thoreau...

and a glorious dusk at Walden Pond.

More to come as the plants arrive in the next few weeks!

Under Construction!

So much really DOES depend on a red wheelbarrow! William Carlos Williams had it right!

I may have blistered toes and fingers, scrapes and bruises, but we have made such tremendous progress in the garden, I can honestly say it has all been worth it!

Armed with instructions and a shopping list from Ivan Katz of Great Lakes Landscape and Design, Inc., I headed to Lowe's to pick up some materials we needed to ensure proper drainage.

We began with a garden of weeds; once again, Matt Zimmerman, WBHS Class of 2005,  came to the rescue! (You'll remember Matt from the initial groundbreaking post back in May.)

One weed did NOT want to give up its home. You'll also want to note just how low the garden bed was when we began - ground level!

We had to create a "bladder" for drainage. We wrapped the drainage pipe in weed fabric and pea gravel and pinned it shut. This will help to prevent the dirt from washing out of the garden.

Rebecca Kruth of NPR stopped by and interviewed us for a story!

Because the courtyard is hemmed in by classrooms and offices, we had to bring all of the materials in by wheelbarrow - all FOUR YARDS of pea gravel and all NINETEEN YARDS of dirt! Thank you to everyone who loaned us wheelbarrows and shovels!

At some moments I feared the pile would never end!

Fortunately, I had a lot of help from a lot of wonderful people.

Thanks to my fellow WBHS teacher Brandy O'Connell-Wilson (and Jack!) for helping!

Thanks, Amy Goldman and Bobby Efros!

I LOVE my students. Love them! Look at this turnout!

We had so many volunteers! So many WBHS students, a couple of alums, a fellow teacher and her daughter, parents, community members, and West Bloomfield Education Foundation Board member Kevin Goldman - there is no way that this kind of project would have been possible without all hands on deck. Some of my students came back two, three, even four times! To each and every person who shoveled, hauled, pulled, pushed, dumped, spread, raked, and more - THANK YOU. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

Finally, the bed was raised! Today we finished off by creating steps into the garden. We still have to order some more steps, but if the plants came tomorrow, we would be ready.

Thanks, Tim, for all of your hard work! We couldn't have done it without you!

We are officially UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

Thank YOU for all of your donations - your money helped to purchase the materials we used to get the garden started!

Emily Dickinson's Daylily and Prepping the Garden

I am grateful for the generosity of Marta McDowell, a New Jersey garden designer who provides "consulting services on landscape design, preservation and gardening. She works with home gardeners, companies, museums and historic sites." Marta "consults for public gardens and private clients, writes and lectures on gardening topics, and teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, where she studied landscape design. Her book, Emily Dickinson’s Gardens: A Celebration of a Poet and Gardener, was published in 2005." You can read more about Marta and her work here.

When I contacted Marta regarding our project, she immediately - and generously - offered to send us a daylily culled from the Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts. This is the first plant I have received, and I am delighted to report that it is in good health with new healthy new shoots growing daily. Please join me in thanking Marta for all of her help!

We have been shoveling, hauling, dumping, and raking to prepare the garden for the plants, and my next post will detail that process in depth. Here's just a few pictures to show you how hard we have been working!

More to come this week - thank you for YOUR support of our garden!

We Have a Literary Sponsor! The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis

I am so pleased to announce that the West Bloomfield High School Literary Garden is now sponsored by the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library!

That's my daughter wearing my Slaughterhouse-Five shirt!

Julia Whitehead, the founder and Executive Director of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis, Indiana, has been a tremendous supporter of the Literary Garden since its inception. We are so incredibly grateful to have her expertise and ideas on board!

My daughter, Emily, and I headed down to Indianapolis this month to visit the Library and to meet Julia. We were dazzled by the collection of Vonnegut's artwork, the replica of his library, and the mock-up of Billy Pilgrim from Slaughterhouse Five.

And then, of course, I hit the gift shop to add to our growing collection of literary puppets. We have grand plans for them!

I am also honored to announce that I have been invited to speak at VonnegutFest 2016! I will be presenting on the Literary Garden and its curricular connections to the authors we are featuring.
VonnegutFest 2015 looks amazing! For more information, click here.

We look forward to continued collaboration with the Library and our students this year. Thank you to Julia and the Library for their encouragement, support, and tireless efforts on behalf of one of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut.

Emily Dickinson's Roses

I had a wonderful day today visiting with Oakland University Distinguished Professor Emerita Jane Eberwein! Dr. Eberwein is an internationally renowned scholar of Emily Dickinson's work, and we are so fortunate that she has been willing to share her expertise and enthusiasm for our garden.

I also had the distinct pleasure of working with Oakland County Master Gardener DaniAnn Connolly, who volunteered her skills to help us obtain a cutting of a Harrison's Yellow rose bush from Emily Dickinson's Homestead garden in Amherst, Massachusetts. To the best of our knowledge, Emily Dickinson planted the rose bush herself.

Thanks to Dr. Eberwein's kindness, Emily Dickinson's roses will hold a very special place in our garden. Dr. Eberwein is also working with me on a curricular level to link some of Dickinson's poetry with the flowers in our garden. (We just might have more of Dickinson's plants coming - more on that soon!!!)

DaniAnn worked diligently to choose the perfect cuttings. We are so incredibly grateful for her care and consideration for this historical plant.

As I am an Oakland University graduate (GO GRIZZLIES!), it was a special honor to work with such an acclaimed OU professor in this capacity. I was honored that Dr. Eberwein made the time to collaborate with us. Emily Dickinson once referred to herself as "a Lunatic on Bulbs," and "identified with the orange tiger lily... [she] sometimes called herself Daisy, for a flower that symbolized innocence. She associated certain richly scented flowers, like roses and jasmine, with men and women to whom she formed emotional attachments." As Dickinson's passion for flowers helped to inspire my original idea for the garden, she absolutely should be represented in the West Bloomfield High School Literary Garden.

DaniAnn has planted the cuttings, and now we are trying to cultivate patience as we wait for the roses to develop roots!

Please join me in thanking Jane Eberwein and DaniAnn Connolly for all of their help and guidance!

If you would like to donate to our Literary Garden, please click here.

Hemingway and Faulkner Join the Literary Garden!

I am so excited to share that we have two more American literary legends on board for the garden!

Ernest Hemingway will be represented in the garden in a special MICHIGAN connection. Hemingway's Nick Adams stories are based on his boyhood summers in northern Michigan, especially in the Horton Bay and Petoskey areas. Chris Struble, President of the Michigan Hemingway Society, has offered to send a mint plant mentioned in "Summer People," as noted by Phillip Greene, author of the book and blog "To Have and Have Another:"

"The Hemingway short story 'Summer People' is yet another of the great, semi-autobiographical Nick Adams stories, set in the Michigan woods of Hemingway’s youth. His family spent their summers near Petoskey, at their cottage Windemere, on Lake Walloon. 'Summer People' is set in the town of Horton Bay, named for an inlet of nearby Lake Charlevoix. The story begins:

'Halfway down the gravel road from Hortons Bay (sic), the town, to the lake there was a spring. The water came up in a tile sunk beside the road, lipping over the cracked edge of the tile and flowing away through the close growing mint into the swamp. In the dark Nick put his arm down into the spring but could not hold it there because of the cold. He felt the featherings of the sand spouting up from the spring cones at the bottom against his fingers. Nick thought, I wish I could put all of myself in there. I bet that would fix me. He pulled his arm out and sat down at the edge of the road. It was a hot night.'

In October of 2013, while presenting at the Michigan Hemingway Society’s annual conference, I visited Horton Bay, and was fortunate enough to talk with Jim Hartwell, proprietor of the Hartwell & Co. Bookshop, part of the Red Fox Inn. Jim’s grandfather Vollie Fox is said to have tutored the young Hemingway on trout fishing in Horton’s Creek. Jim directed me to the very spring mentioned in the story, 'halfway down the' now-paved road toward the lake. Sure enough, mint still grows around the spring. I took a few cuttings, and now I have some of that very mint growing at my home. Kinda neat, in an admittedly geeky way."

Mr. Greene, I feel exactly the same way!

Another literary legend is headed our way - William Faulkner! William Griffith, the curator of Rowan Oak, Faulkner's home in Oxford, Mississippi, has offered to send a cutting of a rose bush. This is a perfect choice for our 10th grade American literature students who read Faulkner's most famous short story, "A Rose for Emily." 

We are not done! We may have a few surprises up our sleeves! Stay tuned...

We are still looking for donations of pea gravel and plant mix (topsoil and compost) for the garden. Please contact me here if you can help.