GARDEN


Juanita Havill (2008). Grow: A Novel in Verse


A delightful novel about a growing a community garden set in a verse and illustrated.

Meet Berneetha the adult woman, Darlene the girl narrator and her friend Harlan the boy...together they tend a garden on a city plot with permission of the owner until he dies and his son takes over...the new owner of the plot uses the law to oust the gardeners because he wants to build a parking lot (reminds me of the song by Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ratQlft_G5c...they paved paradise to put up a parking lot...don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you got till it's gone...)...fortunately an amiable firefighter offers them a little plot next to the fire station to use as their newly transplanted garden...there are many "life lessons" throughout the story including: 

walking slow in the morning is when i do my best thinking

let the doodle grow into a lightbulb idea

the land belongs to those who care about it

transplants: they may not make it but you gotta try

patience: the baby doesn't become an adult overnight, so too the sunflower seeds take time to mature into a full grown plants...


we get to decide what we want to plant in the garden of our lives...plant good things, tend to them lovingly, nurture them, share the work and joy with others, watch as the garden grows, flowers, and provides seeds for the next generation...

oh, the things we can learn from the garden!!



 

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