For the benefit of body and soul: Sagalund in Kimito

Small wooden carts in the gardens of Sagalund.
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While in Turku, or Åbo in Swedish, in the southwestern coast of Finland, my parents took us to the charming outdoor museum of Sagalund in Kimito, founded in 1900 by teacher Nils Oskar Jansson. Jansson was a devoted admirer of the Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné, and believed strongly that gardening had an inspirational, uplifting effect on the young souls he was entrusted with.

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First of May gardening tool inspection at Vreta Folkskola, Sagalund, in 1906.

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Every spring, his students were instructed to bring tools from home to the school: a wooden trowel, a small rake, a basket and a little cart for transporting soil, mulch and manure, and for hauling away waste to the compost. Each year on the first day of May, all students stood in row while the tools they had brought were inspected. The students were also encouraged to take home bulbs, seedlings and plants in their small carts.

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Nils Oskar Jansson wrote to his students in the early 1910s:

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"The purpose of gardening is to benefit both the body and the soul. (...) The needs of the soul should be nourished by making the nearest grounds of the home as flourishing, blooming and attractive as possible. This is achieved by growing all kinds of fruit trees, shelter belts of green trees and well-tended hedges, and by saving and pruning what nature itself has planted in the place."

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I especially liked his thoughts about the connection between gardening and the characteristics of a soul:

"What is planted and grown bears witness to the home owners disposition; idleness and negligence do not thrive in gardens, and coarseness and wickedness do not like flowers."

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Next week, the school year starts again here in Seattle. I wonder if we are doing as good job as Nils Oskar in nourishing the young bodies and souls of our children...

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