It’s amazing what happens to sickly plants when we add a little water, prune away the dead branches, and perhaps add a little plant food. With just a little care and attention, most perennial plants will come back to life, and thrive and grow again.

Do you nurture your own life like a gardener would his plants, or do you neglect some areas? If it’s the latter try applying some gardening principles to your life and you could be amazed at the results.

During the flowering season, it’s important to keep an eye on wilting blossoms, and gently remove them from the dead petals. Doing this allows a new flower to bloom in its place. Ignoring it results in the decay spreading down the stalk and to the rest of the plant. The good news though, is that even if decay does set in, the plant can recover - clip away the dead parts of the plant and new growth will sprout forth!

What areas of your life are suffering? Do you have energy vampires? Devoting energy to activities that drain you of energy instead of boosting your reserves will detract from your ability to enjoy your life. And tolerating energy drains on an ongoing basis will, in the long term, have a detrimental effect on your physical or mental health.

If you recognize that an activity (or a person) is draining your energy, do something about it. How bad is the situation? Does is need a little gentle dead-heading or is some drastic pruning required? Whatever is needed, putting it off only delays your recovery. Avoiding dealing with it altogether will inevitably lead to your demise (maybe not physically, but certainly energetically and emotionally, and that’s serious enough to warrant your attention!)

Sometimes you don’t have to give up on an activity altogether, you just need to alter your care routine. With plants you might move it to a lighter or shadier position, increase or decrease the amount of watering you give it. In life, adjusting the time you spend in one area can have dramatic results. Reducing time in one area frees up time to give attention to other activities.

Some plants simply need regular pruning in order to thrive. The same applies to different activities in life. Do what is right for you at the time it is right. And when the time comes that it starts to feel a chore, and you’re resentful of not having as much time as you’d like for another activity, then release yourself from the obligation to continue. Free yourself up to plant new seeds and watch what grows.

The one thing that’s for sure, if things aren’t feeling right adjustments do need to be made. “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” So take a look at your life, decide what attention is required, and give it.

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Purpose of the Learning Garden

The John Muir Learning Garden is designed to give San Francisco Schools students a change to take learning further outside of the classroom. The Garden builds on the fundamental curriculum concerns of the elementary school and provides an opportunity for students to gain real life experience that complements their academic studies. San Francisco school students are able to integrate classroom literacy, mathematics, science, history, and language arts instruction through their participation in activities in the Learning Garden.

The Learning Garden reaches out to the community in providing outreach services for parents, neighbors, and interested volunteers. Mentor gardeners work with teachers and students to design educational opportunities. One of the interesting projects going on now is the sustainable composting program that takes organic waste from San Francisco school lunches and uses it for fertilizing garden projects instead of filling landfills. This is just one of many projects that combine garden training with practical real world environmental concerns. The events organized in the park help students and the community learn about how to protect the local environment while studying nature in an urban setting.

Partners of the Learning Garden

The Learning Garden would not be possible without the support in terms of time and money from a variety of neighborhood partners. San Francisco area businesses, organizations, and volunteer groups have all played a role in establishing the Learning Garden. Located in Daniel E. Koshland Park, the Learning Garden has benefited from the dedication of two part-time garden mentors provided by the Hayes Valley Neighborhoods Parks Group. These two women, Rebecca and Aubrey, have become part of the local community as they organize activities that raise local awareness about the environment.

Further assistance has come from the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners, the Center for Ecoliteracy, the Recreation and Park Department, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, and the San Francisco Zen Center. All of these organizations have devoted time and money to helping the John Muir Learning Garden become an environmental center for the San Francisco community, especially the children that attend John Muir Elementary School. In particular, the John Muir Learning Garden is indebted to the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, which donated the initial funds to start the Learning Garden and remains an active community partner with John Muir Elementary School.

A Look at John Muir Elementary School

John Muir Elementary School has a unique place within the San Francisco Public School System. Located in the Western Addition of San Francisco, it operates as a professional development school where education students from the San Francisco State University’s Muir Alternative Teaching Program are able to hone their skills in a real world environment, learning how to specially adapt course for the urban classroom.

John Muir students come from a rich cultural background and are supported within the school community with language and literacy programs beginning in infancy. The programs also extend to the parents and families of John Muir Elementary School students. Within the San Francisco school district, John Muir Elementary School acts as a BASRC (Bay Area School Reform Collaborative) leadership school with a clear focus on literacy for the whole community.

A fairy garden is a great kids party activity, especially if your theme is a fairy party, garden party, or tea party. A dinosaur den or construction site garden is a fun alternative
for little boys too. Here’s how to make a magical miniature garden kids will love.

This project is a truly unique kids party activity, combining fun, fantasy, and learning. Kids love getting their hands dirty and learning how things grow. They will also love the idea of making a magical garden place for a fairy to live.

A miniature garden takes little space and can rest on a tabletop. Maintenance requires only a light misting from time to time and watching for fairies to come to call. Just kidding about that last part, but you never know…

Start by collecting various containers such as woven baskets, large shallow bowls or deep dish clay saucers (like a birdbath), or even discarded bureau drawers. Check yard sales for innovative ideas and inexpensive materials.

Next, supply potting soil and a selection of small plants that will reach under a foot when fully grown. Dwarf zinnias, marigolds, violets, ivy, baby’s tears and sprigs of vinca are all good choices.

There are many types of mosses that will work nicely too, fitting into corners and small areas easily to add texture and interest. A variety of low-growing herbs such as thyme and rosemary lend aroma to the mix as well.

Start by lining your garden container with heavy duty plastic, fill to within an inch of the top with potting soil then kids are ready to landscape the top. Let them choose their favorite diminutive plants, interspersing them with various materials to add charm and character to the fairy garden.

For example, turn a colorful plant pot on its side and submerge it halfway in the soil to serve as a proper fairy dwelling. Add dollhouse sized furniture to set in the garden, popsicle sticks to construct a fairy fence, or small flat rocks to make a wonderful stepping stone path.

A small mirror symbolizing water making a faux gazing pool. The round flat glass beads used in vases make nice accent pieces too. Tiny garden accessories like terra cotta pots and shovels give your garden a “lived-in” look.

Fairy gardens needn’t be for little girls only. Boys can make a miniature dinosaur den using many of the same materials. Herbs, moss and other green plants can make a forest or wooded area in which small plastic dinosaurs return from extinction to live another day. Soil mounded to one side forms a volcano, spilling red aquarium stone lava.

A construction site garden is another option for boys. Tiny rocks, stick logs, and craft stick lumber can be stacked up waiting for the big rigs to move them. Small toy bulldozers and cranes can be scattered about, among the plantings.

These whimsical gardens can go wherever your child’s imagination takes them. You provide the materials, they supply the ideas and creativity. Planting and maintaining a miniature
garden teaches kids about plants, caring for living things, and most all the fun of gardening.

Copyright 2005 Kids Party Paradise All Rights Reserved

Perhaps nothing says “garden party” like having afternoon tea outdoors. It’s a charming reminder of bygone days and childhood make-believe. Outdoor spaces of all kinds, including balconies, can be successfully adapted to a tea party.

Tea parties span generations and will be enjoyed by your most sophisticated women friends or all the giggling little girls of your acquaintance.

What makes an elegant tea party? Look at these factors.

Flowers

Plan to hold your tea party when your garden is in its fullest bloom — perhaps it’s lilac time, June roses, or peony season. Be sure to cut some of the blooms for the tea table vases. If you don’t have a garden, buy an armful of flowers at a farmers’ market or stop by a country ditch and pick bunches of wild daisies and Queen Anne’s lace.

Invitations

Send handwritten notes by snail mail. Your guests will recognize your party as an elegant affair and dress accordingly! Typically, tea is held around 4 p.m. — perfect for day-blooming flowers. Include an invitation for the little ones to bring along a doll or teddy friend.

Table Setting

The more elegant, the better. Stash the paper table covering and the plastic glasses just for today. Instead, use a crisp linen tablecloth, pressed cloth napkins and your best bone china cups and saucers. If it’s a little girls’ party, you might want to invest in two or three miniature tea sets.

Try to have adequate seating for everyone. Consider setting your straight-back indoor dining chairs outdoors. They can add an elegant touch, whether left unadorned or covered with flowered chintz.

Hats

Encourage all of your guests to wear hats — big-brimmed, floppy and flowered. If the party is for little girls, collect old hats, scarves and silk flowers at a thrift shop, yard sale or discount store. Make decorating the hats a fun activity at the party. You can also include a box of flowery cast-offs for dressing up. Include “grown-up” shoes and old jewellery — anything that will make the little ones feel elegant. Tea time is a fun way to introduce young ones to “elegant party” manners.

Food

Other than teaspoons, no cutlery should be required at tea. All sandwiches and sweets should be dainty finger-food. Try sandwiches of watercress, cucumber, or egg with the crusts removed and cut in quarters. Sugar cookies and petit fours are traditional sweets. You can substitute mini-cupcakes or tiny tarts.

Tea

One of the first things that I learned in seventh grade home economics class was how to brew a proper pot of hot tea, but that was many years ago. I suspect that tea-making is becoming a lost art.

Tea is actually the common name of one plant: Camillia sinesis. The three basic types of tea — black, green and oolong — are distinguished by the amount of oxidization that the tea leaves have undergone. The more than 3,000 varieties of tea in the world are all derived from those three basic types.

Herbal teas — more properly, tisane or infusion — are made from a wide variety of flowers, herbs, barks, berries, fruits and spices.

At a minimum, offer your guests a traditional tea and a caffeine-free herbal choice. Have milk (not cream!), sugar and fresh lemon wedges available.

So, dust off your teacups and your manners and sit down with your girlfriends for a proper tea party. It’s a lovely summer interlude!

It’s a long time since I’ve eaten at one of the Noodle Stalls of Spring Garden Lane, on Hong Kong Island, but the experience is one I will treasure all my life.

The street food stalls are what the Cantonese people call ‘Dai Pai Dong‘, and they are wooden food stalls where you sit and eat at a raised bench, rather than a table and chair.

The food stalls are painted green and have a tin roof to keep off the tropical sun and the rain. They are built on four small wheels, because some past regulation must have said they have to be mobile. However, the wheels are set firmly into a block of concrete, so they can’t go anywhere. And the food stalls have electric power connected to them permanently, and even a telephone to take orders.

The Chinese cook creates everything in a giant-sized boiling pot in the center of the food stall, with a roaring kerosine burner underneath. He tosses in the indredients and stirs it with a wire scoop and 2-foot long cook’s chop sticks… Then he ladles out the noodles and wuntun into the large soup bowl placed in front of you.

My favorite food there was wun tun mein, a large steaming bowl of noodle soup containing Chinese Wun Tun - steamed dumplings contining chopped shrimp or beef.

You can even tell the cook what types of noodles you want; just point. The choice usully includes bright yellow egg noodles, white vermicelli super-fine rice noodles, brown thick wheat noodles or even white hor fun noodles (thick strips of hand-sliced rice pasta).

Living there as a local Gwai Lo (meaning ‘Foreign Devil’) for many years, I was reluctant to eat at a Dai Pai Dong for a long time. They looked so crude. But once I overcame my initial unease, I discovered the food was fantastic and cheap, and their hygene was tip-top as well.

You can always ask the cook to rinse your bowl and chopsticks in boiling water for you before you eat. They do it all the time for people and they won’t take offense.

Oh, you can use chopsticks, can’t you? They won’t have any knives and forks. I suggest you learn to use chopsticks first, before you try a street noodle stall.

If you just can’t make it to Hong Kong for the experience, there are Asian food stalls all around the Far East, in Singapore and Malaysia as well. But you really should give it a try somewhere. You’ll be glad you did!