Two alders: The Harbin garden area, As hippy place, Lingering there

Harbin ethnography:


... Water and hippy beauty continue to unfold at Harbin over the decades, as symbolic expressions of its milieu and emergent vision.

The Harbin garden area was bigger than it is now before the temple was finished in 2005. As hippy place, the Harbin fruits' and vegetable garden has had its ups and downs over the decades, given freedom-seeking hippies' work habits, and what Harbin has been willing to pay gardeners. In the past 5-10 growing seasons, it's flourished from the focus of, first, I think, All-Be, and more recently, Drona-Ma. In the past two or three summers, the Harbin vegetable garden has been, has been abundant, and beautiful, as a well-tended, and beautifully hippy-ordered, organic garden at the lowest end of the garden, near the rarely used green house, and some other garden houses. The garden is located between the main Harbin road, the Residents' Community Center with a big blackberry patch between, the garden gate near the Harbin flower house, some decks of Stonefront Lodge, the Harbin Theater building and its deck above, and separated by a fence from the newish Harbin temple. (Fig. drawing). The whole, Harbin garden, has its own magic, as place – as an open, central place to the Harbin Mainside area. Above the vegetable and fruit tree garden area, there's a little, homemade, outdoor stage with hay bales to sit on; I've never seen a performance here. Above this stage and the blackberry patch, paths continue up past Stonefront Lodge, and past the Gazebo. The main part of the Harbin is an open, sunny area with a few sculptures, some quirky statuary, a hippy, art circle on the ground, made not to last, like a Tibetan sand mandala circle. There are benches and seats, mullein plants, fruit trees, herbs and nice, slightly wild plantings. Over the decades, since 1972 and before (I heard in early March that there used to be a wild bear in a cage in this garden), a lot of vision and ideas have informed the Harbin garden, and what emerges is a welcoming place which many people pass through coming up from the lower parking lot, or when heading down to a dance in the Conference Center, or a yoga class in the temple. In nice weather, it's so very pleasant just to linger in that corner or this cranny of this varied garden, so full of growing things.

The pool area …













(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2011/03/two-alders-harbin-garden-area-as-hippy.html - March 28, 2011)