The Seed Of Life Garden in Jails & Prisons

The Seed of Life Garden
in Jails and Prisons

The Seed of Life Garden Project Introduced at
Vacaville State Prison, Vacaville, California

The Seed of Life garden project was born in Nevada City, California. Kathy Irving has been promoting the use of this geometric garden pattern in local schools, jails, and residentially. The Nevada County Department of Sanitation (which handles the county recycling programs) and the Wayne Brown Correctional Facility collaborated to create the Full Circle Demonstration Garden which features the Seed of Life garden as a model for the residents and schools to duplicate for their own implementation; it also teaches residents about composting green waste to save energy. The last time I was at the site an ex-inmate who had helped build the garden when he was incarcerated returned with his sister. "I put those rocks there and laid these bricks", he said. "Wow", said his sister, "we can definitely build this at home."

Success with the inmates in Nevada County encouraged me to contact James Thang, who works at the Vacaville State Prison as a vocational trainer in Landscaping. He invited me to come, show the pattern, and create the pattern in the ground with the men in his horticulture class on the 15th of May 2007.

James met me at the entrance to the prison. He assured me there had never been an incident involving visitors and then we walked together across a vast acreage of concrete and ugly grass surrounded by curled barbed wire and in front of hundreds of men all dressed in blue. I was stunned by the sweetness in the eyes of many of the men. James kept talking with hands and words. The wind was blowing hard and cool and steady the whole time and the sky was sky blue as only the friendly sky can do. There were walls around all of us in four directions and many of the men I had come to see would never go beyond them.

Past a warehouse sized building that housed various classes; we turned the corner and came upon a beautiful flowering lot complete with a new greenhouse. Perhaps thirty men were working the gardens and digging the foundation for the patio that would be in front of the greenhouse and right next to our Seed of Life Garden. The ground was already prepared as many of the men had already read my Seed of Life Garden Manual which I had sent in advance. After meeting everyone we went inside to fill the chairs. It seemed like the people mostly sat behind masks looking on but a few bright eyes sparkled as my story commenced

When the Overlighting Deva of Healing Gardens entered the story to answer my request for a garden pattern that would help heal people, some of those masks hit the desk. More fell when the pattern made its way to California and emerged for free behind the trailor I live in. Light behind their eyes became visible as the discovery came that the pattern was already called the Seed Of Life and that it is an ancient and global concept. The concentric rings of flowers, culinary plants, therapeutic herbs and food suddenly made perfect sense to my audience and more eyes sparkled as I related how the Nevada County Peace Center took the project on and the story unfolded. I think we all got excited by the telling of the series of classes that led to the recycling department that led to the jail that led to the schools which led to the California Horticultural Therapy Association which led to the prison. I told the men how it is possible that their efforts with the Seed Of Life garden in Vacaville State Prison could lead to other projects throughout the State or Nation. I felt like all the lights in the house had been on.

I said What I really need is for all of you to sincerely bust out your ju~Ju as we lay the Seed Of Life garden pattern on the ground outside. What that means is that you each get into that place inside of you that wants the best for people you will never meet, that place inside of you that really cares about strangers; that place where we are all the same. I know that this is the quality of feeling that has graced this project from the beginning and brought it here today. For each of you to stay in that place within while working on the garden will be what ensures that it will go on to help others from here.

We went outside together and everyone took turns who wanted to. We cast the pattern on the ground. First we hoed a groove and then we filled the groove with lime in a large circle, then six other arcs were hoed and filled with lime, finally we had four concentric rings delineating the beds and walking areas.

What do we do now, ju~Ju? He called me ju~Ju, undone, I suggested that now it was up to them to take it where they liked, put the bricks in first, then the plants. We spoke of symbolism and similarities between traditions. They spoke of Unity, Hope rekindled, and Medicine Wheels. One man said yesterday I didn't have any hope, and I thought you should know, now I do. One of the men was a vegetarian, one of the lifers. He walked me through everyones small plots that make the patchwork quilt of treasured plants out behind the greenhouse. He made me laugh suddenly aloud and the strangeness of the sound was precious and brief. Our guard told me that he wanted to introduce the pattern to his church and I was invited to come back. The day had been enchanted. It was time to go.

Walking back to the entrance I felt wrapped in a Blanket. All the gifts received during the day were both heavy and light bet the two had never seemed so close.

County jail hits paydirt
Worm compost beds get inmate out in the sun
By Laura Brown
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
The Union Newspaper

A demonstration garden and compost project at the county jail that began as a way to reduce trash headed to the landfill also is giving inmates a sense of purpose.

The Full Circle Demonstration Garden opened to the public last fall. It is a collaborative effort between Nevada County Recycles and the Wayne Brown Correctional Facility.

The garden features worm composting, or vermicomposting, which turns 45,000 pounds of food scraps from the jail's kitchen each year into rich soil that fertilizes an organic vegetable garden used to feed inmates.

The Full Circle Demonstration Garden sits next to Wayne Brown Correctional Facility and the Eric W. Rood Administrative Center
off Highway 49 in Nevada City.

The garden also showcases a year-round Circle of Life garden created by horticulturist Kathy Irving and hosts community composting workshops several times a year.

On a warm, sunny Tuesday morning, Larry Henslee tended the worm bins - seven rows of wooden raised beds filled with soil and red worms. Each day, Henslee, an inmate at the jail, feeds the worms 124 pounds of vegetable-based food waste from the jail's kitchen. Each day, the worms devour the food; their waste, called castings, is a gardener's gold.

Henslee has served 200 days at the jail. He is the envy of his cell mates because he has the privilege of working outdoors in the earth and sunshine each day.

"It's nice to be able to give back. For me, I've been so self-absorbed for so long," Henslee said.

It's gratifying to see the reactions on people's faces when they pass by the garden that he takes pride in as if it were his own, Henslee said. Since he began working in the garden, he said, he has been treated as if he were human again.

"I've had some tough times. I've learned a lot from all this," Henslee said, adding he wants to grow a large garden and become a landscaper when he is released.

"The ability to work outside is very valuable for these folks," Captain Lee Osborne said. "It gets them outside and in the fresh air. There's a real sense of accomplishment."

Larry Henslee, an inmate at the Wayne Brown Correctional Facility, scoops up dirt full of worms that feast on kitchen scraps; their waste, called castings, creates a rich compost for other garden beds nearby where inmates grow vegetables used in the jail kitchen.

More gardens possible

That's just the kind of response Kathy Irving wants people to have to plants. She is the designer behind the Circle of Life Garden, a planting of repetitive patterns, like a mandala with flowers, culinary, therapeutic and food plants. She said she got the idea three years ago when she realized it was her path to help others.

If grants become available, her gardens could soon start popping up in schoolyards in Nevada County.

Saves money, shows others

Composting enriches the garden soil, but it also makes economic sense.

The jail saves $1,600 a year in disposal fees, Osborne said. The garden is nearly self-sustaining, with minor costs for seeds, tools and plastic covers to keep the worms warm in winter months.

Only minimum security inmates can participate in the garden project. They must meet grooming standards and be willing to work. Inmates earn a day off their sentences for every 45 hours worked.

But the garden also is meant as an outreach for others in the community to show people how to compost at home or business.

"This is really to be a model to show people what they can do," said Tracey Harper, recycling coordinator for Nevada County.

Osborne wants to expand the grounds and looks at other counties for models, such as a jail in Sonoma which has a 40-acre garden.

"We've shown that it can work. There's no reason not to do this," Osborne said.

~ooo~

To contact Staff Writer Laura Brown, e-mail laurab@theunion.com or call 477-4231.

More info

To learn more about the demonstration garden at the Nevada County jail, go to:

www.seedoflifegarden.org

www.nevadacountyrecycles.com

~ Laura Brown

The Union photos by John Hart © 2007

The Seed of Life Garden Project Thriving at the
Wayne Brown Correctional Facility
Nevada City, California