“The garden is a wonderful place to be.”
These words — from a Methow Valley child’s poem called “The Garden,” published in “Classroom in Bloom: A Year in the Life of a School Garden” — best sum up the experiences Classroom in Bloom has created for Methow Valley students over the past 22 years.
And it’s the sentiment the reader is left with, after leafing through the book’s pages.
Thanks to the keen eye and the macro lens of photographer Jack McLeod, the book manages to awaken all five senses to the pleasures found on Classroom in Bloom’s 2-acre plot on the Methow Valley School District campus.
The book will be for sale at a release party to be held in the Classroom in Bloom garden on Saturday (Sept. 12).
“The book exquisitely captures the story of Classroom in Bloom,” the nonprofit’s executive director, Julia Johannesen, said. “But beyond telling the story, the creation of the book itself also beautifully reflects the magic of Classroom in Bloom: It exists because we, as a community, believe it is worth preserving and celebrating.”
McLeod, a Classroom in Bloom volunteer, took photos in the garden every week for a year. His book is organized according to the four seasons: the promise of spring, the abundance of summer, the harvest in fall and the resilience of winter.
The book is about a lot of things: garlic waiting through the long winter to sprout, legumes nourishing the soil through their roots, sunflowers growing hairs on their thick stems to protect themselves from the sun.
Methow Valley students poke holes in soil to plant seeds for the coming year’s garden and for the spring plant sale at Classroom in Bloom. The photo appears in “Classroom in Bloom: A Year in the Life of a School Garden,” a new book by Jack McLeod.
McLeod got up-close and personal with dozens of different insects and plants, with the help of his Nikon Z6ii camera and a macro lens. He shows us a bumblebee with bulging pollen sacs in summer, and the intricate latticework of a snowflake on a rose hip stem in winter.
But what the book is really about is community.
Vision for the book
McLeod and Kim Romain-Bondi, who was Classroom in Bloom’s executive director from 2017 to 2025, originally envisioned “Classroom in Bloom” as a basic coffee-table book of photographs. Then they realized community members and students should have a voice, too.
“As I volunteered more, I realized more about what Classroom in Bloom was and what they did — that it wasn’t just a garden with pretty flowers,” McLeod said. “The story was really about the program and the kids.”
“That garden and that program are really a community, like everything in this valley,” he added.
McLeod and Johannesen both acknowledged that Classroom in Bloom was something of a minor miracle, founded through the tenacity and dedication of Anaka Minesa and Lexi Koch on a small patch of infertile, mole-ridden soil.
“Classroom in Bloom was founded and funded by passionate community members, and it has continued to thrive for 22 years because people who understand the importance of getting kids outside — connecting them with nature, and helping them understand where their food comes from — continue to show up and contribute,” Johannesen said. “The book is, in many ways, another expression of that same community spirit: a collective effort to keep this magic alive and pass it on to the next generation.”
During her eight years leading Classroom in Bloom, Romain-Bondi knew well what was growing in the garden — beyond the arugula and the zinnias, and everything in between.
“Through its changing seasons,” Romain-Bondi wrote in the book’s introduction, “the garden tells a story of growth — not just of plants, but of people.”
Fellowship winner
McLeod’s “Classroom in Bloom” is a follow-up to his 2013 travel guide “The North Cascades Highway: A Roadside Guide to America’s Alps,” which also prominently features his photography.
McLeod is a professional photographer whose work primarily focuses on dark skies, mountain landscapes and nature close-ups. He taught high school science in Everett for 30 years and has lived in the Methow for the past five years, having visited the valley for several decades prior.
He created his new book with support from a $1,000 Mary Kiesau Community Fellowship Award he received in 2024. TwispWorks offers two Kiesau fellowships each year to help cover the costs of creative and educational projects led by artists, photographers, naturalists and educators.
Kiesau was a TwispWorks board member and served as the educational programs director with the Methow Conservancy for 13 years. The fellowship fund was created after Kiesau’s death in April 2020 from melanoma.
Look for “Classroom in Bloom: A Year in the Life of a School Garden,” soon at various Methow Valley shops and at blurb.com/bookstore. All of the profits go to Classroom in Bloom.
IF YOU GO
• What: Book release for “Classroom in Bloom: A Year in the Life of a School Garden” by Jack McLeod
• When: 4–6 p.m. Saturday (Sept. 12)
• Where: Classroom in Bloom garden, 18 Twin Lakes Road, Winthrop
• Details: Books and photos for sale; light refreshments
• Cost: Free
