Thugs and Bullies

This week was about bullying. In the garden, we talked about plants that run over everybody else, crowd other plants out - and are, in general, thugs and bullies.

We also talked about safe way to control plants - and animals - that can create havoc in the garden. In Hands for Growing we learn about healthy relationships, and that includes having a healthy relationship with the Earth.

One of the plants that can take over and edge others out is our soft, beloved Lamb's Ear. A lot of it had to go. This was in our animal plant section, so in its place we planted (thanks to a generous donation)  some Dragon's Blood Sedum. We've never had dragons in our garden before!



An old-time way to safely deter pesky critters is to use a scarecrow. So, we put together our own scarecrow. Scarecrows have also been referred to as Scarebirds or Jacks-of-straw, so our straw brained friend was christened Jack.

It took a lot of stuffing and figuring out how to make everything fit and stay - but we got it done!

 

Drawing ideas for the face

Ahhh! Everybody is scared of the scarecrow!

Ta da!

 Jack doesn't have a face yet, hopefully next week.

Our new garden buddy - Jack

 For the relationship piece we talked about bullies and abusive relationships, and how to deal with those situations in ways that are safe and non-violent.
We talked about the harm that words can do, and what happens to a person who lives with abuse and bullying.

 There was good discussion and questions.








                                                                           

To bring home the point that once harmful words are out they're out there, that there's no taking them back as if they were never said
we did the toothpaste exercise.
















Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, you can't get it back in the way it was before.

Next week: Identifying Signs