Celebrating our 20^th Anniversary, Featuring Heide Felton, Deb Krieger and our Garden Classroom

“Over the years the garden has provided students, teachers, and guests the opportunities to be a part of the food cycle, use microscopes to see the life within the soil, to be a part of the present and the future, and to share that knowledge and excitement with their parents, friends, and classmates.”

This piece was written by Deb Krieger (formerly Deb Fenwick), one of the original founders of IslandWood’s Garden Classroom.

Heide Felton doing what she loved – working with children and gardening in IslandWood’s Garden Classroom.

Heide Felton was a visionary. She loved children and gardens. Heide also had a kinesthetic learning style. At a young age when she was not doing well in school, her father set aside some garden space where she could plant and nurture those plants. In the process she also learned mathematics. Heide went on to excel in school, obtain a few degrees, and start her own business. She never forgot the opportunity she was given and wanted to make that available to others.

Heide and her husband Matthew had the opportunity to tour the property that was to become IslandWood and meet with Debbi and Paul. It was decided that Heide’s vision of a garden “classroom” would fit within the realm of what they were trying to do with IslandWood and so Heide embarked on the task of making it a reality.  Heide met with islander Deb Fenwick, shared her vision and excitement, and convinced her to join the project. A garden had been in the original plans and it continued to morph under the guidance of Heide and Deb. The area allocated to the garden was used as a staging area for construction until late in the construction phase. Once the area became available, garden construction could begin. It was not expected to be completed until sometime after the official opening of IslandWood but both Heide and Deb decided it had to be ready for opening day.

A greenhouse was ordered, land was deeply tilled and amended (it had been a parking lot for many months!), wonderful fencing and gates were installed to keep the deer out, low raised beds and irrigation were installed as well as taller concrete planters. The goal of the garden was to have visual interest, productivity, ease of use. It was to be a demonstration garden, a productive garden, a working garden, a place for children to feel welcome, connect with the earth, understand where their food comes from, see and be a part of the cycle of how what we do now impacts the future, and to experience the love of nurturing things.

Heide Felton and Deb Krieger with a group of students and garden volunteers in the Garden Classroom.

Many fun stories abound from the building of the garden. The team of Little & Lewis were engaged by a wonderful donor to create a vegetable washing sink that looked like a chanterelle mushroom as well as a fountain in the garden entry that was in the shape of a cabbage (why not, it is a garden after all!). Elizabeth Drury, wife of the head of Drury Construction, who was working on the project, and an avid gardener herself, would occasionally get in trouble with her husband for “borrowing” a worker or two when we needed an extra hand or piece of equipment for a task in the garden. Greg Atkinson, the chef at the time, was kind enough to occasionally send Deb home with dinner from the kitchen for herself and her husband and 90 year old father-in-law (who occasionally helped!) when she was there late stacking blocks to make the raised beds. Heide would recruit friends from Seattle to come over and help clean the glass in the greenhouse. And, have you seen the slugs climbing the walls of the garden shed?

As the opening day of IslandWood approached, espaliered fruit trees, blueberry bushes, and strawberries & cranberries (no, you don’t need a bog for cranberry plants!) were planted. A medicinal garden by Kayla Black and Jennie Sheldon was installed. We did not have time to grow our own starts and so for the opening we purchased vegetable and herb starts. We wanted people to see that a garden can be productive, beautiful (have you seen the variety of lettuce leaves and colors available???), and as simple as an herb in a pot. We were determined to be done by opening day and we were!

The first year or so the garden was maintained by volunteers. It was so much fun for the volunteers to see the students come into the garden and see what food looks like growing (not in a can!) and to be a part of that cycle. It is quite fun to see students discover the potatoes that grow underground and harvest cherry tomatoes and beans on a trellis or taste a vegetable or herb they have never seen before. The greenhouse allowed us to have student groups plant seeds for future classes to transplant to the garden and then have another class harvest. It really points out how what one does today affects someone in the future be it food, clean water, or clean air.

Celina Steiger (far right), current IslandWood’s Partnerships Manager and Graduate Program Faculty and former IslandWood graduate student (class of 2003), with her field group in the garden classroom during her practicum week in 2002.

Over the years the garden has provided students, teachers, and guests the opportunities to be a part of the food cycle, use microscopes to see the life within the soil, to be a part of the present and the future, and to share that knowledge and excitement with their parents, friends, and classmates. Students plant, harvest, and with the installation of the pizza oven, can now cook and enjoy the creative process relating to food and nutrition.

Unfortunately, Heide has passed away but I know that both she and I are so very thankful to IslandWood for giving us this opportunity to give the students, teachers, parents, and anyone really, the opportunity to experience all that a garden has to offer in terms of beauty, purpose, science, art, practicality, and sustenance. The possibilities are endless for where and what sort of a garden can be created. In the end, we all benefit!

As the quote in the garden reads: “We have not inherited the earth from our parents, we have borrowed it from our children.”

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