Nine years ago, the land around the Ponderosa High Greenhouse was an empty patch of hard dirt, with worn out weed cloth flapping in the breeze around the edges. Red ant piles were the only regular animal inhabitants. Today, it is home to a large diversity of plants that are beginning to bud, birds frequent the site, more animals will soon be active, and other organisms are thriving in the soil that we cannot see. There are structures made by the Ponderosa community that make the land more interesting and useful to people. It is a better place. Better, of course, is a matter of opinion. Between 300 and 500 people, depending how you count, spent time and worked on this land over these years. The land is transformed; the people are also changed by their experience of interacting with this land, many for the better, at least in some small way.

The experience offered by the greenhouse class is, quite simply, having a relationship with a piece of land and nature. The theme is stewardship (taking care) of this place. In caring for a place, we can make it better and help nature thrive; and in turn, this relationship helps us be healthy and grow. We exercise and benefit from fresh air, learn about what we’re ‘good at’ and what interests us, develop our skills, and feel the satisfaction that comes from giving of ourselves for the betterment of others (people, other life, natural elements). The process of interacting with a piece of land, proposing and working towards a vision for it, is stewardship, and may also be called gardening. In some cases the vision may be to simply protect it as it is; other times it may be a drastic change. As gardeners, we have the opportunity to make the world a better place, and become better ourselves, one humble step at a time.

Springtime in the Ponderosa High greenhouse class is the highlight of the year. Observing daily changes and new life emerging, planting the vegetable garden, enjoying the warmth of morning sun while working with friends outdoors, checking out the graffiti on the passing trains… this is what we’re missing with school being closed. Instead, we will each individually need to embark on a stewardship quest of our own, wherever we are. Following is a guide with ten topics to explore, in order. For each one, spend a minimum of fifteen minutes, and consider going deeper and spending more time. First, gather up some paper, writing tools, and whatever art supplies you have. If you have a computer or smart phone, you will find these useful as well. All of these activities are completed by simply observing, thinking, writing, photographing, and/or creating art. Document your progress in whatever way works for you.

You can interact with the class in a variety of ways. You can email your work, call in to talk with Bob and JT (you’ve been given our contact information), chat on this blog, and/or mail or deliver your work to Ponderosa (we mailed out a journal and stamped return envelope). In whatever way you choose to do this, do it with care. Label your work for ‘Greenhouse Class,’ and of course be sure your name is on everything. Yes, this all requires independence, creativity, and resourcefulness (finding ways to overcome difficulties). These are helpful traits and skills to develop in order to survive and thrive. You got this!

Let’s Get Started…

The first step is to choose a place, a piece of land that you can access. It can be a large piece of land, or a few square feet of yard or garden space, or somewhere in between. This can be your yard, an empty piece of land nearby where you live, the dirt alongside the edge of any alley, the woods or a meadow nearby where you live. Really, any patch of dirt where you have reasonable and safe access to be. Please stay focused on your personal safety and common sense as you visit and interact with this place. If you don’t have access to any patch of dirt or land, you can also do this entirely in your imagination. You can choose a place that you know in your head and heart; or you can create an imaginary place. You can go through this process on an imaginary planet, or on one of Jupiter’s moons if you like!

Once you have chosen your place, you are ready to get started. Consider each one of these steps as a class period.

1) Define your space. Describe it. What are its boundaries? Write about it. Draw it. Photograph it. In whatever way you choose, develop and communicate a clear understanding of your place.

2) Observe your space. What is its story? Imagine what might have happened here before? In recent time or in distant time. Ideally, do some actual research and find out what happened. Talk to people, read, look-up on the web, whatever it takes to gain some knowledge about the place. Back to the present, what is routinely happening now? Who ‘owns’ this place? What do they do, or not do, with it? Is it legit for someone to own land? What does that really mean?

3) Continue observation. Record the space some more. Draw it. Photograph it. Diagram its boundaries. Now go deeper, observe elements within the space, be they rocks or plants or animals or trash or whatever. Record things within your space. Draw them. Write about them. You are getting to know this space as it is, before changing or affecting it yourself.

4) What is the future of this space? What is likely to continue happening here? What outside things are affecting this space? What is coming in? What about this space is affecting the world outside its boundaries? What is going out?

5) Consider living things in this space. There may be big and obvious things. It may appear to be nearly empty. Look or imagine deeply. List what you can observe is living there. Take what you know about life, and take a guess at what might be living here that you cannot see. Make an inventory of these items. Write about them. Draw them.

6) At this point, you have observed this land for about a week, and are finally getting to know it. Is it changing or is it affected by the fact that you’ve been coming around for the last week? Is it changing youin any ways?

7) Now start to consider taking some action in this space. Think about what you might do to steward or garden this space. Before doing this, and to be responsible, we should think more before we act. What do you want to stay the same about this space? Describe all this.

8) Now explore and propose what you want to change about this place. Why? How? Go into detail.

9) If you begin to change this place, how will your actions affect the living things in the place? Living things outside of the place? Are you allowed to work on this place? Who decides this? Do you feel it is ok and ethical to work on this space? If you change it, is there a responsibility to maintain your changes? What ongoing responsibility are you taking on, or setting up for others, based on your actions? How much are you willing to do? For how long? Who else, now or in the future, may get involved?

10) At this point, you have thought long and hard about this place; and you’ve done the right thing, which is to think through your actions and how they may affect others. Before doing anything, you’ve thought this through from many angles. So the next step is: write and/or draw (or somehow artistically represent) your vision for this space. The vision may be to leave it alone and protect it as is; or it can be to develop the place as a garden. Describe your hopes and vision for this space. To be extra thorough, explain why your vision is for the ‘better,’ and why it’s worth pursuing this vision for yourself or others.

Your teachers, Bob and JT, look forward to seeing your work and learning about the places you share as gardeners. We will be doing this alongside you, and sharing our progress as well. We’re all in this together.