Roger Doiron is a leading figure in propagating and inspiring others in the benefits of local, organic gardening. Earlier this year, as you may have seen on the time
line, Roger came to speak at the local Yarmouth auditorium. Although I was not able to make an appearance, apparently the event was both entertaining and enlightening.
Mr. Doiron has also been the leader of one of the most original and progressive gardening ideas I have heard yet: to put a
vegetable garden on the
White House lawn. The garden would serve as a positive, worldwide role model in an era of global warming and pesticides. Apparently, as Mr. Doiron writes, it is not the first time an idea like this was put in action:
One of the first things President John Adams did upon moving into the White House in 1800 was to plant a vegetable garden. In 1917, President Wilson brought in a herd of sheep to mow the lawns as a way of conserving resources - human, financial and fuel - for the wartime effort. In the 1940s, Eleanor Roosevelt grew a Victory Garden inspiring countless others to do the same.
This is from a facebook group about the issue, seen
here.
For more information, you can also visit the
official "eat the view" website (with a petition that all you loyal readers out there should sign)
or
the official "on day one" campaign idea website (of which it is the most popular first-day presidential campaign idea)
or
the "kitchen gardeners" website (about Mr. Doiron's steadily-growing group of people who believe in local gardening, globally)
Finally,
here's a fantastic Boston Globe article about him, his story, and his superb idea.
So what does this have to do with our Yarmouth School Garden? Well, it brings to light a revolutionary notion; we are part of a global movement to support local gardening, to subvert transportation costs of non-domestic goods, to help individuals in need, and to share positive ideas to a starving earth by means of grassroots.
Or, to be especially clever: by means of vegetable roots.
And that, my friends, was a horrible joke.
More specifically, Leo is coordinating some kids from the recreational ("rec") camp at which he works to come down to the garden and paint these benches with flowery designs and what not. Before the kids do that though, Leo and I had to prime the benches with white paint, and then add a base color. I'm excited! Gotta admit it's going to be fun coordinating kids to some functional art. Painting does, indeed, happen to be a hobby of mine, so we'll see what happens.
Strange, one might say. I am a driving force to keep the angel flying at the top; for now, we've primed all but the wing-ed figure. Here's an idea: a speech bubble coming out of the angel's trumpet. How about "abandon all hunger ye who enter here"?
