Can toes grow sprouts?
Let's Find Out!
However did Garden Toes come to be?
My name is Peggy Nolan from Atlantic Beach, Florida and these are my garden toes. Most of my days are spent in the gardens and kitchen: tending plants; watching birds, butterflies and bees; studying weather; smelling salt air; concocting food and plant medicines; connecting with my goodness. Mostly barefoot.
I am a mother and grandmother and I relish the company of many children and families in the gardens. We learn and we play and we plant and we harvest and we form relationships with each other, both humans and other beings. And my feet and toes, wandering through the garden, are mostly carriers of soil and plant materials! So back to garden toes….
Believe me, I take good care of my feet as they support the rest of my body everyday. I scrub them with my friend Ariah’s homemade goat milk loofah soap and soothe them with homemade chickweed and calendula salve. And I wear comfy socks when they need extra nurture. It’s just that my soles and toes always hold a bit of dirt in their cracks and crevices. The wrinkles are like magnets in their attraction to healthy soil. And so I wondered, “Is it possible that my toes could grow their very own sprouts?” And that was the beginning of a song.
Garden toes, garden toes
Look at my garden toes
Brown from the soil
Green on its way
Sow some seeds
Sprouts any day!
During a 2 week camping trip with my husband Brian and dog Gandalf in the southeastern United States, I wrote some lyrics to go along with the chorus. We love camping and hiking and this July trip was spectacular, especially Virginia…so many waterfalls and winding creeks, wildflowers and wild ponies. I love leaving behind the internet and letting the spirit fly! I was away from the gardens and moving mindfully through the forests, with a deep appreciation for both. And it seemed to me that the garden gave me purpose while the forests gave me opportunity to percolate thoughts. However that occurred, by the time we arrived back home to the beach I had words to a song, GARDEN TOES, and it just needed some music!
I play the autoharp in my garden classes with children and I like to sing; that is the full extent of my musical knowledge. Nevertheless, I sat down one afternoon and strummed out a melody on the autoharp. Now GARDEN TOES was truly a song!
In garden workshops we often use picture books to enhance garden themes. In fact we always open our workshops with the song and book, “Inch by Inch, The Garden Song” by David Mallett to gather our energies and wake up the garden. So I wanted a GARDEN TOES book to share with the children and that became the next venture. I asked my sister Terry, an artist, if she could create some collage images based on the lyrics and in a very short time she did. They were amazing…feet and insects and smiling soil and nectar tea and nature spirits and more feet! What fun pictures! I added some watercolor backgrounds and a few more collaged pictures and spent many days playing with designs. My granddaughter Adisyn added some ideas. A very simple book based on the song came to be. I shared it with the families at the garden and they loved it!
I guess the point of this writing is to say that I want to get GARDEN TOES published. My intent is that I send GARDEN TOES out into the world to teach and inspire. There are so many of us, I know, that have these relationships with the natural world, more than brain knowledge but a deep felt connection with gardens and animals and forests. Since my feet touch the earth, I am allowing that they are special receptors for the life and energies that are underfoot and all around. GARDEN TOES is my sharing with my community, especially children, how very full our lives can be when we are connected, grateful, and wandering the world with wonder!