OK, I admit it. I got sucked into playing Pokemon Go this summer. Actually, it was all very professional: as soon as I heard that churches were somehow involved, I had to try it for myself. I started with an American account, but it wasn’t long before I was Canadian again. I discovered that our church is a gym. Also, it is a game that works best if you leave your house and go to places like Casa Loma.
Pokemon Go wasn’t the reason I ended up there this summer. At a charity auction (my husband and I seem to go to an awful lot of those!) we bought a pass to Toronto attractions that included places like the Toronto Zoo and the CN Tower. The kids enjoyed some of them, but my beloved and I were glad to have a day to poke around the castle we haven’t been to in years. It was much nicer than we remembered, especially the gardens.
If you’ve never been there, Casa Loma is the former home of Sir Henry Pellat, a businessman who began building it in 1911 (it took three years to complete) and lived there until bankruptcy forced him out in 1924. It has grand rooms and secret passageways, a conservatory, billiard room and smoking room. There are stables, a garage and several different gardens, all sitting on four acres of property.
Why we climbed all the way to the top of a turret on a #*%! hot day is beyond me. But at least we were rewarded with a lovely view of the gardens below. (I didn’t even drop my camera when I took the picture.)
Getting to see that garden close up was lovely. It was set up for a corporate event, which made it hard to get close to most of the perennial beds. On the other hand, it looks like a gorgeous place for a tea party!
After we popped in to see the potting shed (which was actually a bright and beautiful building with pretty period details) we met up with one of the gardeners. She was getting ready for that night’s event, too, picking rose petals to be used in the kitchen. How does one get invited to that sort of thing, anyway?
The property is filled with long, sweeping perennial borders and winding wooded paths. There is a lovely blue fountain, too, surrounded by benches to sit and enjoy the sunshine. Everything was immaculate and there wasn’t a weed in sight (I spied a number of gardeners quietly tending the beds. Obviously they are doing a great job). 
It was a beautiful day. We did exactly what one should do on a day set aside for rest: we wandered down beautiful paths, shared a drink on the patio and admired the flowers. Also, I caught my first Gastly, a dark Pokemon with big fangs and a cloud of poisonous gas. A little weird, maybe, but a nice day all the same. Thanks for everything, Casa Loma.
The wilderness camp I grew up with had lots of great programs (does catching frogs count as a program?) but never anything like the chance to grow carrots. Since Camp Kintail’s co-directors grew up in farming communities, they know they know the importance of growing food. Now, what started out as just a few rows of vegetables has blossomed into a round herb wheel, huge swaths of garden beds, a garden shed, a composting system and even a chicken coop. It seems to expand a little (or a lot) every year.
In my years at camp I served as a canoe tripper, counsellor, and even a cook. But if I had the privilege of being camp staff again (oh, wouldn’t that be nice!) I would want the job held by a young man whose camp name is Escarpment–this year he’s the Camp Garden Director. Since the spring, he has been planning, planting, tending, weeding and harvesting a huge variety of produce including tomatoes, kale, peppers, lettuce, beets, potatoes, onions, beans, and peas. Everything goes to the kitchen where it is prepared and shared as a regular part of the camp menu. One of the directors told me that he was amazed at the beautiful bowls of fresh salad they serve every single day.
But that’s not the best part. What I love most is that gardening has become a regular part of the program for everyone who goes to camp in spring, summer and fall. School groups, churches on retreats, international visitors and the lucky ones at camp in July and August all get to spend time in the garden. They see first hand how food grows and they learn how to tend it. Then they eat their hard work!
There is no doubt that camp is fun, but it is not frivolous. Camps like Kintail teach all kinds of people how to live in community, and how important it is to respect the needs and comfort of others. It offers a level of spiritual depth and intimacy that is rare at home or even at church. It lets campers and staff live in close proximity to creation where they encounter the awe-inspiring beauty of stars and sunsets. It shapes them into compassionate, thoughtful people. When they leave camp, they go out to make our world a better place.
I had never thought of it before, but a camp garden makes perfect sense. It draws a clear line between care for the earth and food on the table. It creates an opportunity to participate in feeding one another. It illustrates all the good that comes from working together. It has a unique set of lessons and experiences to offer in spring, summer and fall.
In the fall I cleaned out the box of red kale and left the box of green. We ate it well into November, even while the plants grew lean and spindly. It was still growing when the snow arrived in December, but eventually died back and looked sort of brown and forlorn. I felt sorry for it on cold winter afternoons.
Then, just when I was enjoying the flowers, they ran to seed–back to the brown and ugly. Still, I let them stay and take up an entire garden box, mostly because I’m cheap. I knew that if I harvested the seeds, I wouldn’t need to fork out $3.95 for packets of kale any time soon.
Some of the pods–many of them, actually–had cracked open before I got to them. Dozens of brown husks had spilled their tiny black seeds on the ground underneath them in the garden box, in the garden boxes next to them, and on the path. As I took the long stems to the compost, I realized that stray seeds were being dropped all the way along, too. I can only begin to imagine how many tiny kale plants are in my future!
This afternoon, I ran my fingers through a nice big bowl of dry kale seeds and marvelled at their abundance. I noticed the birds pecking at my now empty garden box–I even noticed a purple finch I’ve never seen before–and they were enjoying the seeds, too.
I have been anxious about planting a few things early: lettuce, so I can stop buying it at the grocery store; peas, because they need enough time to grow before the hot weather arrives; and spinach, because I am in a race with the dreaded leaf miners who will hatch in May and completely destroy all the leaves. Besides, every gardener spends the winter waiting for spring to arrive. And here it is!
I was probably outside a grand total of twenty minutes but I felt terrific when I came in. I was so glad I had seized the moment instead of stopping to put on pants first. Because then I would have seen the laundry that needed to be folded, noticed the dog’s empty bowl and gone running to answer the phone. I never would have made it outside at all.
First, we enjoyed a tiny enclave overflowing with purple coneflower, lavender, nasturtium and every manner of garden herb. then we saw the sign: The Herb Society of America: Frankenmuth Mid-Michigan Unit Garden for Herbal Education. I bet there are some great volunteers behind such a lovely space. 
bloomingreverend 
