Last night I went for a long walk and happened upon Colleen Stewart, the gardener in charge of all of the wonder in the public school garden. Except for people I passed at Buck Park, she was one of the only other humans I came across. She didn’t know she was about to be the subject of an iPod photoshoot and neither did I. But there was just something about the whole scene that was so captivating.
The air was perfectly warmish, there wasn’t a breath of wind, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and there was a peacefulness so Orcas Island that documentation called to me.
Colleen is a beautiful person, outside and in. Her exterior beauty is the kind you would see in a catalog or a magazine, and yet her inner depth is so far from that kind of superficiality that you can’t fathom her ever doing such a thing.
She is one of the most grounded people you’ll ever meet, no pun intended. Her solid, calm, balanced nature makes it impossible to imagine her ever getting flustered. I feel like a hyper little chicory in contrast, my mind jumping from branch to branch. Her time spent in the garden, in eight-hour blocks, has obviously cultivated a kind of steadiness that is unparalleled. Or maybe it’s the other way around – that this kind, gentle, intelligent ‘old soul’ was perfectly suited for tending life that requires silent patience and lone perseverance.
How perfect that she oversees a botanic menagerie normally hopping with children learning how to prepare, plant, tend, harvest, eat, and adorn. I’m sure her presence has a calming effect on them.
Since school at school hasn’t happened in the last three months, the garden is especially bursting and dazzling.
I’ve always enjoyed walking through it over the years, as it is open for respectful enjoyment by others, but right now it’s like a silent gem. There will be no garden tour this summer – it is normally a regular stop along the annual route – so I’d like to show you Colleen and the beauty she has quietly fostered.
Thank you, Colleen, for allowing me to take your quiet evening of solitude in this horticultural paradise that you’ve nurtured over the years and turn it into a public display of your time, knowledge, and work…
Beautiful story and I absolutely can not wait to visit the garden this summer!!! What a lovely job she has done with this space. Thank you for such an inspiring piece!!
Fantastic job of gardening.
You have a nack of making it all happen.
Keep up the Great Work!
Dick