by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
In the spirit of hope and renewal, one local company is striving to ease the pain of a nation at war.
Celestial Therapeutic and Ornamental Gardens is creating the Gardens of Peace, a place for reflection, optimism and cooperation, in Springfield’s Klutho Park.
The effort began after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Celestial’s board of directors was attempting to deal with its agenda, but the attacks remained foremost in everyone’s mind.
“The topic kept coming back to what we can do to make things better,” said Liz Peak, director of Celestial, a nonprofit group that creates gardens for the elderly and disabled. “We wanted children to understand what was going on.”
That’s when the idea for the garden took root.
“The director of the Karpeles saw an article in the paper and said he had the perfect spot,” said Peak. “ A lot of the schools want to see the gardens as a school field trip. Now they can come to the Karpeles, and the JEA’s Waterworks Museum is being built there, too. The Department of Health is also putting in a museum out there.”
Over 8,000 children from 43 elementary schools painted their concepts of peace on bisque tiles to decorate the paths, archways and flower beds. Home schooled children also participated by placing their depictions on the tiles at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum for later transfer to the park. Fleming & Sons offered the 10,000 tiles to Celestial at a discount. An American Indian group contributed its sacred sage plant and Children’s International Summer Villages donated a Japanese maple tree.
Various cultural institutions donated plants and Florida Rock contributed cinder blocks for the foundation of the raised flower beds. Fifty individuals helped clean the park on Make A Difference Day and several volunteers at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens provided their skills in firing the tiles.
“It’s a full day process for 100; we have 9,000,” said Peak. “The Cummer has a back load. We are still in need of people. It will probably be another month before it [the tile work] is done.”
The finished design is still being tweaked. Once construction is complete, maintaining the gardens will be an ongoing chore.
The Gardens of Peace met recently to solicit public feedback on the project.
“Initially it started off as a small project that grew and grew,” explained Peak of the reason for the meeting. “We stopped and said this a community project and should be voted on by the community. There’s a lot of people out there that have experience in how a community project should go.”
A garden management plan, outlining initial and recurring monthly responsibilities was the main topic discussed.
“The parks department manages Klutho and gave us the approval to grow the gardens,” said Peak. “It was an inactive park, neglected. It was a focal point of community activities in the early 1900s. We plan on turning it around back to what it used to be.”
According to the Department of Parks and Recreation, growing and managing the plot is the committee’s responsibility. Once an operational plan is developed, it will be submitted to the Department of Parks and Recreation before going to the City Council for approval. Government officials want to ensure that the work is not abandoned. The committee hopes to break ground in about two months.
“The department has had so many people do special projects and walk away from it,” said Peak. “We want to get as many organizations involved as possible. One group we definitely want on board is the Islamic community, but we haven’t had a response back yet.”
The grand scheme is for a group of volunteers (Boy Scouts, the 4H Club, churches) to meet in the garden the second Saturday of each month to pull weeds, pick up trash and do general maintenance. Every three months a replanting is scheduled. Peak has already been knocking on the doors of hardware companies, nurseries and others to supply the necessary materials.
Diversity will be the key at each gathering. Groups attending the maintenance sessions are allowed to showcase their culture with song, dance, crafts or food items.
“It will get the different groups talking,” said Peak. “A lot of the cycles of misunderstanding between cultures stem from not knowing what they’re all about. We hope the garden activities will open people’s minds and let them learn more about each other as they work together in the garden.”
Other amenities include the installation of a sprinkler system, the restoration of the bandstand (a new roof and fresh paint) and the addition of picnic tables and trash bins outside the garden’s perimeter. The walkways will be constructed of bricks engraved with peace symbols and will extend from the center of the garden’s statue of Mother Earth like spokes of a wheel.
Peak’s wish was to have large art works, such as sculptures from area colleges, sprinkled throughout the garden but concerns over theft and weather resistance have stalled those plans. Benches will be placed in each of the four corners of the garden.