Busier than a hive of bees, more deluxe than a Chinese Jade, and even more glorious than a Marigold, this 2013 summer flew by in an amazing flurry at the OMI/Excelsior & Bernal Heights Branch Living Library & Think Parks.

Twenty hard-working, and exuberant middle and high school students from across San Francisco came together this month with the challenge to use A Living Library Gardens as a lens to explore a more profound understanding of themselves, and the world we live in.  Over the first month of their Internship, students learned about the environmental fundamentals of a garden, from living soil, to water resources, to ecosystems, and community connectivity.  

Art, Science, Cooking, and Mentorship Projects helped support ideas of environmental, social, and personal health and sustainability.  A.L.L. brought a fun twist to the big question of the future of our communities and our world. Take a look at the photo montage below to follow A.L.L. Garden Fun!

Welcome to A Living Library Lower Garden: Jasmine Flowers with Bunny the Bee, and Carrot Top photos taken by Student Steward Interns. 

Our A.L.L. ECO-ART Interns showed no apprehensions; from day one, they dug right into garden work, such as seed and food harvesting, garden bed resurrection, and all-around, garden beautification. 

Students became aware of healthy food supporting healthy bodies.  Instead of a soft drink, or coffee, they learned to try this refreshing Melon Slushie.   Just blend chunks of fresh cut watermelon,  honeydew, and ice! 

Through an ecosystem health lesson, students learned that garden friends, such as invertebrates and birds, can be indicators of environmental quality. Students used recycled materials to create bird feeders and houses to encourage our garden diversity. 

The more hands the merrier! Our Student Stewards discussed the importance of mentoring younger generations, from the symbolism of role models, to the idea of sustainability for our future communities and world.

In an effort to help A Living Library shine at City Hall, a handful of our Student Stewards showed up to the Garden early one morning, collected flowers and herbs of every color and smell, and crafted beautiful bouquets to dazzle Mayor Ed Lee and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.  We walked to BART, and walked some more until we reached the front door of City Hall.  Our students posed briefly for a photo opportunity, before entering City Hall, where they were able to deliver personal support of A Living Library through reading their letters, giving away bouquets, and meeting some of the Board members.  

What a way to get a deeper understanding of our city and community government and systems, learning how it affects local groups, down to each individual child who is part of A Living Library. 

As a Thank You Gift to our Student Stewards, and Congratulations, for their first completed month of the A.L.L. ECO ART Internship, we took a hike to San Francisco's Glen Canyon Park.

From the front gate of the OMI/Excelsior Branch Living Library & Think Park, we left full of zest and excitement. We were shocked by the transition from city streets, to valleys deeply filled with trees. Glen Canyon made it obvious to our team, that wilderness and nature really is all around us, and can be just as much a part of urban lives, as rural lives.

We arrived back at our A.L.L. Garden exhausted and proud, walking a total of 5 miles in 4 hours ! What a hike ! If you have not yet had the chance to visit Glen Park in San Francisco, it is worth the exploration, a hidden gem dazzling us in its natural beauty.  And, the same Islais Creek that is under Balboa High School, is day-lighted here !  Pretty exciting to see and learn about !!!

Thank you A.L.L. Eco-Art 2013 Summer Stewards, you have made the garden beautiful and full with your interest, care, and laughter! 

Blog post written by A Living Library Garden Instructor, Courtney Calkins. 

In May, OMI/Excelsior and Bernal Heights Branch Living Library & Think Parks were illuminated by three brightly shining stars in San Francisco. The largest one in our solar system, the sun, finally made a long lasting appearance in all it’s glory. It warmed our bones, and our new greenhouses’ occupants from last month’s seed planting course.

This month our students focused on community and environmental stewardship conversations spurred from the brightly shining Hayes Valley Farm, the Free Farm Stand, and REACH The Future. These stars made a lasting impression on our students and posed the rhetorical question of whose responsibility is the future of our earth and its communities?

As a person caught in limbo between rural mountains and urban architecture, I often question: Do green spaces support strong communities, or do strong communities support green spaces ?  

Two well known San Francisco Urban Agriculture programs, the Hayes Valley Farm and Free Food Stand, lead me and A.L.L. students to question and answer, Well, maybe both ?

Students were brought into the world of community supported green spaces and community building through giving and the generosity of certain community groups. The Hayes Valley Farm was a three year interim land use project, dedicated to educating people that dirt and plants can grow bountiful food and community. The Free Farm Stand was spurred by the idea that bounty should be shared. This project started as neighbors giving away excess from their own backyards, and rapidly transformed to become a city-wide, supported endeavor where we learned first hand that food, health, and community can, and should be equitable and accessible to all people.

This year, both of these community supported projects came head to head with adversity, as they were asked to leave their areas of green occupation. After multiple years in their respective locations, these projects had to be temporarily dismantled and relocated to make way for new city development.

And how did the groups respond ? By giving !

Our students were introduced to dozens of plants given to A Living Library by these two organizations. Our students were gleeful about the opportunity to plant and care for food plants, such as tomatoes, basil, peppers, tree collards, and chayote. They learned the benefits of beautiful native and ornamental geraniums, yarrows, strawberries, comfrey, and clover. And, through all this, our students were mesmerized by the generosity of communities, and green space. It seems that green spaces supporting strong communities is a closed-loop system, that should be everywhere. They are equitable, integrated and help elevate each other.

With grace, inquiry, and camaraderie, another group, REACH The Future, engaged students in a discussion about natural resources and our abhorrent consumption of energy as Americans. Although the U.S. only houses less than 5% of the world's population, Americans use 25% of the world's energy. Some students were shocked to learn of our unfair consumption, while some retorted that we deserve more than other people. This reaction, and the unanswered questions, as to whose responsibility is our future, was a spark that provided an eye-opening introduction to students into powerful, real-world issues happening today in San Francisco, and across the world.

REACH The Future founder, Michael Gutman, continued with the lesson to discuss cleaner, renewable energy sources such as wind, water, and solar power. And to the students’ surprise, he showcased a simple, do-it-yourself solar oven with a warm, delicious apple cobbler. This treat would have convinced any critic of the impressive power of the sun.

After our classes learned how to build their own solar ovens using just cardboard, aluminum foil, glue, and string, a finished oven was auctioned off to a lucky student in every class ! 

This month at A Living Library, our partners planted seeds of green space, food, health, responsibility, nature and nurture, and we hope to produce the most abundant, beautiful bounty of all, community.

Blog written by A Living Library Garden Teacher, Courtney Calkins.

Let us take our baskets early

To the meadows green,

While the wild-flowers still are pearly

With the dewdrops' sheen.

Fill them full of blossoms rosy,

Violets and gay

Cowslips, every pretty posy

Welcoming the May. 

Then our lovely loads we'll carry

On each door, with laughter merry, Down the village street,

Hey-a-day-day! It is spring now, Hang a basket sweet.

See the pretty things we bring now, Lazy folks, awake!

For the May Day's sake! 

May Baskets by Evaleen Stein 

It is not yet May in our OMI/Excelsior and Bernal Heights Branch Living Library & Think Parks, but Spring is well on the way.  And, change is happening all around us, as sleeping, barren branches make way to grow blankets of apple, plum, and pear blossoms. And, the quiet winter air turns to a buzzing warmth with gold and black ballerinas dancing across floral stages.  Our curious feathered friends, from year-round residents, to week-day visitors, streak the skies with brilliant blues, greens, and mahoganies.

Spring is here, in all it’s bounty. It is a time of celebration, not only for our Branch Living Library & Think Park Gardens, but also for the students, who visit as the school year draws to an end. This spring, we turn our focus towards our Garden, our home.

Students revisited the idea of this Garden home as a bustling working system that integrates all components of life. Billions of micro-organisms build strong soil for plants to unfold from protective bulbs and seeds. Flowers and fruits develop to serve as a beacon for friends and foes. Birds fly with wings and maintain balance. And, our composting comrades are always working hard to ensure energy is continually flowing through all these components.

We ask our students to discover where else, this intricate system can be seen. Everywhere, our students offered.

And, so, we went to work in the Gardens, doing our part to add bounty, beauty, and a strong diverse plant foundation. Throughout the duration of the month, students broke into groups and set out to plant seeds. The sweet and savory smells of cilantro, basil, dill, and onion began to stimulate our nostrils. Images of ripening tomatoes, eggplants, and summer squash filled our minds and eyes. And, the colors and smells of zinnias, sweet peas, marigolds, calendula, cosmos, and towering sunflowers, mixed, like tie-dye across the Garden. Our seeds were small, and newly planted, but our dreams were huge this Spring!

With our plantings just starting, two projects were about to bloom.

One, a lifeless greenhouse, which stood as an aspen in winter waiting for spring, to come alive. Our greenhouse, up to this point was a lifeless structure. Banished to a world of random wood storage, plant-less, useless. Within the first week of April our after school Student Stewards  Interns took it upon themselves to resurrect our greenhouse.  And so they began. Within the first week, students had cleared the clutter, started measuring, cutting, and attaching a flexible transparent roof, putting about six hours of measuring tape and screw driver experience under their belts.

During Week Two, they added doors, and found the most fluorescent spring green paint imaginable to make it visually obvious, this was our GREENhouse!  And, by the middle of April, just as seeds were starting to peek through the seemingly enormous soil grains, we were in business. A newly bustling hot spot, literally the warmest place in the Lower Garden.

Students learned the many benefits of a Greenhouse for added protection for seedlings from weather and insects, water conservation, and storage. The question of greenhouse gas led to a discussion on the larger issue of environmental stability in our future of global climate change. In typical Living Library Garden fashion, small projects evolve into larger environmental and social learning opportunities.

Our second major garden project of April was well under-way. A year’s worth of garden visits and idea-sharing from our 8th grade Community Development Class, had created a new movement, A Living Library’s Farmers Stand !

This idea came from our study of the inequitable distribution of food and health, where under-served families are usually the victims of food deserts. A national plague, where fast, fatty foods are far easier and cheaper to access, than healthy, supportive foods. This was a community development project that our Living Library environment, and its students, could directly confront. 

And, so it began.  A Living Library’s OMI/Excelsior Branch with James Denman Middle School Students came together to share the Spring bounty of the Garden with other students and families in the Denman community.  The actual Farmer's Stand was not scheduled to debut until Mid May, but preparation was well under way.

Students laid out a list of what could be given away from the Garden. And though our crops seemed sparse, they learned that there is always much to be shared. Students began transplanting apples, chocolate mint, and nasturtiums into pots to give away. They made a list of foods that would be ready to harvest in May, such as kale, chard, onions, artichokes, and beautiful bursting roses. 

A discussion of sustainability inspired the idea of a seed-give-away, and so, seeds of sunflowers, carrots, parsley, corn, and peas were offered in homemade packets.

As you can see from the photos, there was plenty to give. And the Farmer's Stand turned into a huge success with students, friends, and even families, who stopped by to enjoy all that the Garden, and the Students had to give. Some were astonished by the rich bounty ready for harvest in May, that included parsley, thyme, chard, artichokes, and many brightly colored flowers, while others remembered fondly, their past year of working in their Living Library & Think Park Garden.

The bounty was so great, that even our San Miguel Child Development Center classes visited, and took home handfuls of food and flowers for their families.

This was our first attempt this year to share the wealth of our labors with others who might not have access to such beautiful and healthy food-scapes. For many of our students, running the Farm Stand was fun, exciting, and most of all a powerful learning experience.

Beauty, bounty, and wealth are all up to personal interpretation, but are always exponentially exemplified when shared with others. We hope to continue our Farmer's Stand with future students of A Living Library, and make it an even more, long-term learning resource.  And with this, April fog showers bloom into to May flowers where new Garden surprises await.