Plant Parade!

What a fantastic time we had at Gouge Elementary in Bakersville, NC. The sun was shining, the air was warm and we had 120 Germination Corps. members making up the biggest Plant Parade to date! We made our way with flags, vegetable puppets, headbands, costumes, music float, bean tambourines, songs and 120 plant backpacks to the 4-H garden to plant the baby plants in the ground. This was the longest and most colorful walking garden this town has ever seen! Thanks to all involved!

IMG_0833_small_cropped

IMG_0788_small

IMG_0815_small

IMG_0809_small

More pictures as I receive them…I was running up and down the parade line, so all my action shots are just that, in action!

Advertisement

More Members of the Germination Corps.

IMG_0672_small

This past weekend, we were at the Yancy County Library, holding a making event, a little teach-in and build of some plant backpacks and shoulder bags. Last Friday we had some great helpers at the Collaboaratory making giant vegetables for our Plant Backpack parades. This is Emily, below, a graduate of University of Michigan, School of Art and Design. She moved down to Asheville after she graduated, and drove out to help paint a giant carrot. It was a super day at the gallery!

Screen shot 2013-05-15 at 7.54.07 AM

Next, we took the giant vegetables to the Yancy County Library to dress up their stairwell and lead visitors to the making workshop that we help last Saturday. Many people showed up to make a Plant Backpack. Screen shot 2013-05-14 at 8.17.47 PM

This great member of Germindation Corps., Mira, had never sewn before she came into the Library last weekend. She is now an accomplished bag maker. She planted a pepper and a cabbage her bag, and got a water bottle to hydrate herself and water her plant. Screen shot 2013-05-14 at 8.17.26 PM

These ladies were from the local 4-H group and they run a radio show on the local radio station too!

IMG_0699

People are great! Here is another volunteer from the Dig In! Yancy garden, making a few bag fronts.

IMG_0704

Cutting out the all-important 3 leafed sprout of the Germination Corps.

IMG_0705

John Hartom and Lisa Blackburn head up the information table and told people about the project as well as spread word of their garden, Dig In! Yancy Community Garden and project Empty Bowls that has really taken off as a way to raise money for feed people in the community. It has been great to grow the project with them and bring The Germination Corps. to Yancy and Mitchel Counties to spread the word of food sharing, food security and sustainable growing to feed the community.

IMG_0709_small

The larger parade seemed to get rained out at the garden, but we persevered with our own mini parade.

IMG_0725_small

Planting Seeds of Germination May 10-11

Update from our Germination Corps. correspondent Mark Boyd, on this past weekend in North Carolina:

We built some stuff (plant backpacks & giant vegetable puppets), hauled over to the Yancey County library, built a little more stuff (plant backpacks & shoulder bags) and did a little teaching and informing on the the fly (food security and accessibility, how and why to grow your own, where to distribute the extra to share, recycling and reuse, community gardening), THEN hauled on over to Dig In Yancey! for our first garden event.  The weather graced us with a break in the rains so we could take a few pictures and march around the garden

This coming week Germination Corps spreads like kudzu into the schools to work with 120 elementary school kids!  Each child will receive a plant shoulder bag generously fabricated and donated by Quality Plus Apparel (many thanks!) based on Jessica’s original design.  (Only in a small tight knit community would a local manufacturer step up and provide such a generous donation.  This is the power of neighbors helping neighbors!)  We’ll then have a short teach-in about plant propagation, community gardens, and food security and sustainability.  After that we’ll transplant seedlings (started with the assistance of the local ag extension service, more neighbors!) into the bags, then have a parade along the creekwalk to the site of the new 4H community garden.  At the garden, we’ll transplant seedlings event.  Here’s hoping for a sunny day!

And stay tuned, next Thursday we’re doing a big wrap up event at Dig In Yancey! during the afternoon.  Details coming here soon.

materials

We have been making plant backpacks out of every type of material here at the North Carolina residency, including used belts and old backpacks that get ripped up and recycled into the plant backpack pattern. A great deal of the fabric for this project in Yancy and Mitchell counties was donated by Glen Raven Technical Fabrics in Burnsville. They make things like Sunbrella and super fabrics for Jansport and the US forces. If you have any old backpacks or suitcases or belts that you would like to donate, bring them by the Green Plum gallery this week from 1-5 p.m. We can make them into a Germination Corps. Plant Backpack!

Image0716

Here is the pattern table in the gallery workshop. You can see all the woven belts we found and are using for shoulder straps on the right. Old shopping bags work well for the pattern pieces.

Image0718

Some kids-sized shoulder plant bags made with the Glen Raven donated fabric. The emblem of the Germination Corps., the three leafed sprout, is a necessary component of each bag and is a quick identifier of the project.

 

Gallery and Workshop open Tuesday to Friday 1-5

Head on down to the Green Plum Collaboratory on Upper Street in Spruce Pine, NC and join in the fun making some of these guys:

IMG_0008

We have workstations set up, and everything you need right at hand, including encouragement and guidance! I am there the whole time and will gladly discuss the project and get you on your way to planting and walking and nurturing. Everyone with a bag will be invited to participate in the field day at the Dig In! garden on the 11th.

Hours this week of May 6-10 are 1-5 p.m. so come on by and see what Germination Corps. is all about! There are short activities if you have 5 minutes, to longer full bag making activities. We want to get as many people involved, adults and children, so tell your friends.

growing together

One of the best things about Germination Corps is that it teaches kids and adults to learn to care for plants through the individual attachment that each has to their own plant backpack. It also creates community through the workshops and plant parades and walking garden events. This will be exciting to see happen in North Carolina, a smaller community than Philadelphia, but perhaps far more organized already. Keep spreading the word, people!

Brother's Backpacks

Two brothers with plant backpacks, Summer 2010