Global Children’s Gardens – Seeds of Promise
Filed Under: Environmental News, Organic Gardening on September 21, 2009
This weekend, at the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Fair, we saw a really cool geodesic dome greenhouse structure and went inside to have a look at it. The builder, Udgar Parsons of Growing Spaces, walked in and greeted us. In answering questions about the dome, which I was highly interested in, he mentioned that they were there in support of the Global Children’s Gardens, who build the domes as greenhouses. I’ll talk more about the domes and Growing Spaces in a future post.
So we eventually went to the booth outside the dome and talked to some great people there. They gave us a small pouch with a folded information page and a packet of seeds inside. The ladies explained the Seeds of Promise and a girl told us about Global Children’s Gardens.
I think the story in the packet, Five Seeds: A Story of Abundance explains it better than I can directly:
It was to be the first spring planting in “Gebo,” Evergreen’s children’s greenhouse and also Global Children’s Gardens first project. Middle school students from Montessori came to visit bearing hundreds of tiny plants they had started from seeds to transplant into the labyrinth growing beds inside Gebo. Among the many were five plants that had lost their tag and were unidentifiable. The kids chose a spot to plant the mysterious five and then nature’s magic took over.
All five thrived through the summer and fall and matured into impressive vines climbing nearly to Gebo’s 16′ peak and displaying hundreds of beautiful multi-colored Morning Glory blossoms. Wow! We were awed and delighted!
That was not nearly the end of the story however. As autumn approached hundreds of seed pods began to appear on the vines. The kids and I were impressed by the intricate structure of each pod and how they protectively encased 4 or 5 seeds. We focused on the design but didn’t completely recognize the incredible potential they each contained.
The inspiring story of the five mystery seedlings might have been forgotten if not for nature’s unexpected and exponentially expanded Morning Glory exhibition the following summing. As the children prepared the garden beds that spring, they inadvertently dispersed Morning Glory seeds throughout the greenhouse. The surprising display of beautiful blossoms in the summer followed by an abundance of new seeds in the autumn reminded us to appreciated the unexpected bounty and beauty around us. We were challenged to become active and aware stewards of our natural world and inspired to spread the dream of Global Children’s Gardens.
To share our experience, we chose to fund future greenhouses and garden projects internationally through the gift of our original Morning Glory seeds. Thus we are proud to introduce to you:
Seeds of Promise,
Planting Gardens of Hope
Growing gardens globally,
One community at a time.
The little seed packet contains at least a hundred of those Morning Glory seeds. How great is that?
Global Children’s Gardens is a charity (501(3)c) organization dedicated to cultivating sustainable and balanced living through natural gardening around the globe. They promote this idea directly to communities globally through education and community involvement.
A very cool idea and great approach. They are based in Evergreen, Colorado and were founded in 1998 when Allan Werthan, a restaurant owner, decided to do something about his years-long worry about the direction humanity was taking regarding global destruction through unsustainable practices.
The organization, obviously, focuses on their educational efforts by teaching children how to grow and garden plants and food in a greenhouse environment using natural methods that are both sustainable and eco-friendly. Through the children, the foundation works with parents to teach the same instruction.
This is a great organization and awesome idea. We will be planting the Morning Glory seeds they gave us around our house this spring and sharing the resulting seeds (and the Five Seeds story) with friends and neighbors in the years to come.
