Shasta daisies are still blooming in my garden. They just beg to be picked so I can pluck one petal after another to make a choice.
I should bury another time capsule.
I should not bury another time capsule.
Another time capsule? The one I wrote about yesterday was fairly small, a tiny plastic box maybe two inches square. So when I say I included a note and a few trinkets, that’s really all that would fit in the box.
By the way, there appear to be 21 petals on the daisy, so that means I SHOULD bury another time capsule.
Choices are so easy to make when you are a gardener and you have a daisy handy. (I like to include a picture with my blog post that relates to the topic of the post. I can hear the groaning about how I related a picture of a daisy to a gardener’s time capsule. Sorry about that, I couldn’t stop once I started. Let’s just move on.)
What should you use for the actual gardener’s time capsule?
What should you put in the time capsule?
Where should you bury the time capsule so it will be found some day?
Here are some of my thoughts.
Instead of a tiny plastic box, I think I’ll get a small metal tin, the kind that cookies come in. I know I can find one at the local craft store. Once I’ve filled it up with fun garden related stuff, I can tape it up with duct tape so that it is more or less water proof.
Items I’ve thought of including:
– a note
– a few 2oo7 pennies
– some empty seed packets
– this post printed out
– a short one-page history of the garden so far
– a few trinkets, to be determined
– my picture!
I’m going to have to think a bit about where to bury the time capsule. It should be someplace where I’m not likely to dig it up, but where someone might one day dig it up by accident. Or should I take a page from that television program, “If Walls Could Talk” on HGTV and put it up in the attic or down in the crawl space? That might not be as fun because the whole idea is for a future gardener to discover the time capsule while digging.
Maybe I should bury it in the garden and then hide a note about it someplace in the house. Then when someone finds the note, they can go out and dig for the time capsule.
I’d be interested in others’ thoughts on what they plan to do. Do you think you would ever bury a gardener’s time capsule in your garden? What would you put it in it? Where would you put it? Or would it be more fun to just randomly bury some water proof items here and there in the garden?
Carol..you’ve convinced me to do this! And if it’s more or less water proof, why not some seeds from your garden? I wonder how far down I should dig…I really don’t want to be digging it up over and over!
How about a page out of people magazine, you know, the story of how Britney lost custody of her kids. Something meaningful like that. Just kidding.
I would put in some pressed or dried flowers from your garden.
A page out of your garden journal.
A picture of your garden at it’s best.
A roll of hundred dollar bills in case you have to leave town suddenly.
I have a suggestion for your list of items: a picture of your complete hoe collection with a letter explaining why you couldn’t/wouldn’t do without any of them. That is the kind of stuff that’s garanteed to drive future historians slowly but surely mad. 😀
The historian in me won’t allow me to seed the garden with objects, but demands an orderly, well-planned time capsule. (Oh, the guilt you’ve stirred up!) This project of course has to involve the kids. I like the idea of including a pic of what the garden looks like at the time of the capsule. You could also include a page of a plant catalogue that includes the price of a “New” plant.
Carol you come up with the most fun projects. Hmmmmmmm… what to plant in the garden for future gardeners to find. Hmmmm
I have only found broken bottles and chunks of concrete.
All of the suggestions are good. I would add a well used hand tool so they would know what was available when I had my go at the garden.
Lisa at Greenbow
I think a gardener’s time capsule is a fantastic idea. A photograph of how the garden looks in the year 2007 would be good if the time capsule was buried for a number of years.
Sara from farmingfriends
The idea of a time capsule is fascinating but I’ve never tried it.
As to your own time capsule, everyone has said ‘photograph’ but no one has suggested the one I’d like to see in the container – an actual photo of you, Carol [not the lady in the dress]. It’s not absolutely necessary for us to know what you look like, but shouldn’t there be a record of the gardener, as well as the garden, for posterity?
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Leslie… Yes, if waterproof, would seeds survive and for how long? Here, depending on how deep I dig, the contents could be frozen solid in the winter. That’s a good question, though, how deep to bury it. I guess it depends on where you bury it.
Chigiy… all good ideas except for the roll of hundred dollar bills and the stuff about Britney and do I really want to tear a page out of my garden journal? Too funny!
Yolanda Elizabet… Of course! Why didn’t I think of that… pictures of my hoes. Maybe I could even bury a hoe some place (one I’d buy just to bury, I couldn’t bury any that are in my collection now!)
Mr. McGregor’s Daughter… good idea to include kids in the project. I’ll have to borrow some from Sister with the Homestead or help them bury their own time capsule. And if I do randomly bury stuff in my back yard, and anyone sees me, I’ll become an official eccentric gardening geek. so I won’t tell anyone if I do that.
Lisa at Greenbow… I don’t think I could part with a well worn gardening hand tool!
Sara from FarmingFriends… Yes a picture of the garden is a great idea.
Annie in Austin… I should and would include my own picture. And I’ve been giving consideration for posting a “sighting” of the gardener here at May Dreams Gardens. But I need to get someone take a picture, probably one of me mowing the lawn, don’t you think?
Thanks all for the great ideas. Keep ’em coming!
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
I agree with farmingfriends about a picture of the garden. Maybe several. The one thing I’d love to find (besides a sack of gold) would be photos from the 1970s, when there was a really nice garden here. I’d love to know what it looked like.