Born in 2020 from stones unearthed during excavation, the Four Directions Circle Garden has grown into a living space of connection, creativity, and abundance. Guided by the land itself, the garden began as a circle of intention, with each direction honored through painted stones by artist Hazel Bell-Koski. Over the years, it has flourished with seasonal plants, towering sunflowers, and the teachings of what thrives and what does not. Today, with the care and energy of summer staff Blythe and Fianna, the garden continues to be a place of learning, play, and healing—where art, nature, and community intertwine. Every visit is a reminder that the land listens, teaches, and provides, and that we are deeply connected to one another through its gifts.
reflections from the season
Here are a few words from Blythe and Fianna about their time nurturing the Medicine Wheel Garden this past season:
Throughout the season the Medicine Wheel Garden has been a place of learning, gathering, teaching, and being. It has been a place to observe the changes of the plants day to day from the beans coming up in the spring, the sunflowers bursting forth and the skipper butterflies arriving in later summer to the cool weather bringing a flush of nasturtium flowers.
We (Blythe and Fianna) love nurturing and learning from the garden:
- Learning about the medicine wheel
- Being in deep connection with the plants through observation and patience
- Drying and preserving plants for salve making and medicine.
- Joy of trying different ideas and seeing how the plants respond.
We started the season not only thinking about delicious food that we could help grow and share, but also how to plant creative possibilities. Imagining fabric dying projects, canning events, tea making, and dried flower bouquets we planted coreopsis, onions, strawflowers and a plethora of tomatoes. Each plant was chosen with care and intention. Some of the plants also choose this season to emerge in different beds, and we nurtured them through the season.
The garden has held so many moments of growth, laughter, sadness, art making, and healing. As the plants continue to grow and change with the seasons, we hope that everyone who connects with the garden feels the love and possibility shared by the plants and all who live in the Medicine Wheel Garden.
The garden is all about community, connection and joy. Each element is like an instrument in an orchestra: plants, people, bugs, microbes and soil. When in-balance has a glorious melody. Being in connection we heal ourselves and this beautiful world we are a part of.
– Blythe
the green house
In addition to the medicine wheel garden we caretook this greenhouse which housed warm season veggies including six varieties of tomatoes, peppers, cucamelons, and cantaloupe and marigolds.
Community events in the garden
potlucks/stewardships days
Throughout the season we created space for sharing food, knowledge, and creative connections with the garden. This took several forms, hosting Wednesday potlucks for friends and staff. We planted sunflowers, harvested radishes, weeded the beds. The potlucks’ combined art, tasty food, and gardening together building multidimensional relationships with the space.
bio-burst
We gathered for an afternoon to connect with the land and learn more about the more than human beings that live here including plants, trees, insects, birds, amphibians, mammals, Fungi. This experience was motivated by the desire to continue deepening our connections with place and nurturing relationality and care. stories and number of species on Sḵwx̱wú7mesh traditional territory at Deer Crossing the Art Farm. We used iNaturalist, an app that allows you to share your observations with others and get support with ID and learning more about the organisms that were seen.
Laughter and excitement filled the air as we fanned out from the garden to go look for and learn more about the bugs, plants and animals who live at the art farm. During the afternoon, we observed over 70 species including oyster mushrooms, white-bark Raspberry, Pacific Wrens and Elk. Highlights being the diversity of mushrooms and seeing Elk poo!
art-making
Some of the art activities included, writing love letters to the garden, sign making, leaf rubbings, silk screening, making paper with plants from the garden. This was combined with the art of food preservation and harvest including making cucamelon quick pickles, cleaning garlic together, harvesting potatoes and squash.
Thank you for growing food for everyone who enjoys tending to you. Reciprocity. Generosity. Yay! You have the tallest sunflowers in the land that is a fact that I have yet to check but choose to believe. Your fertility feeds us. Thank you very much. I love you.
– participant from our “love letters to the garden” art-making day
celebrating the harvest
We started the season not only thinking about delicious food that we could help grow and share, but also how to plant creative possibilities. Imagining fabric dying projects, canning events, tea making, and dried flower bouquets we planted corieops, onions, strawflowers and a plethora of tomatoes. Each plant was chosen with care and intention. Some of the plants also choose this season to emerge in different beds, and we nurtured them through the season.
three sisters bed
Three sister planting is an indigenous agricultural practise that varies wildly through different cultures, communities and regions.
We tried two different planting styles this season a mound planting (Haudenosaunee Confederacy) and a field planting (Tarahumara).
sunflowers
Celebration of Sunflowers!
Enjoyed by the pollinators, birds and potluck goers.
Lavender harvesting.
Medicines and tasty table grapes.
The Three Sister, Corn (Pink popcorn), Beans (Cherokee Black Beans) and Squash (Delicata and Butternut).
Squash, tomatoes, carrots, and potatoes.
Tomato, kale, peppers, nastursiums, and carrots.
Greenhouse abundance: tomato, peppers, cucamelons.
Native species: trailing blackberries.
Mint, oregano, plantain.
Delicious plums. Yum yum yum.