WHAT COULD BE MORE PEACEFUL?

Emily Kaitz claims that she has “Fayetteville’s smallest lawn, which I trim with scissors.”

“Since I don’t have that big of a yard, I’ve taken every square inch of it and made it some kind of garden,” she said.

Kaitz has a hilly yard where flowers do better than vegetables and she has a shade garden in her back yard. She has lived in her house for 15 years, and she said it has taken her years to make her yard into a garden. But now, she noted, when one plant quits blooming, something else will start. She said if her yard was all grass, “it’d be boring.”

Kaitz is not a Master Gardener, but she has worked with Master Gardeners for many years. They have given her plants and taught her a lot about gardening, she said. Plants thrive more than she needs, so she also gives away plants to people.

She said gardening is peaceful and seems to promote peace.

“What could be more peaceful than beautiful growing plants?”

Kaitz is the coordinator of this year’s Peace Gardens Tour set for Saturday, and her garden is one of the stops. It’s an informal tour around Fayetteville that is presented by the Omni Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology.

Each garden will have a yard sign, and guests can purchase tickets for the tour at any of the gardens. All of the people with gardens on tour are committed to promoting a peaceful world and social justice, Kaitz said.

Some of the gardens will have refreshments or entertainment available.

Kaitz, who is also a musician and piano tuner, said she may be playing songs on her porch during the tour.

Each garden has a name, and her garden is called the “No Plant Left Behind Peace Garden.” She said there will be no shortage of blooming plants for visitors to see. Some of the elements include a yellow rose bush, irises in a variety of colors, peonies, larkspur, coreopsis and a metal unicorn. Her favorite part of the garden is a peace path that runs along the side of the house.

It was overgrown with weeds at one time but now features a rock path.

Between other people’s gardens and her own, Kaitz spends about three and a half hours a day in a garden. When she gardens for other people, she works for about two hours a time. At 61, she said she is in good physical health and hasn’t worn out her knees. Her approach to life is to not do anything to the point it will seem like work or wear her out. Instead, she enjoys a variety of activities and loves her life.

“The best way for me to live my life is to make a living but also to love everything I do. If I was just doing one thing all the time, no matter how much I liked it to start out with, I think I would start getting tired of it,” Kaitz said.

Kaitz grew up in northern Virginia and did a little gardening as a kid. When she became a homeowner in Austin, Texas, in 1984, she became more interested in gardening and landscaping. She noted she is very old-fashioned and likes to do things with her hands. Since her move to Fayetteville, she has continued to enjoy digging in the dirt and being around plants that respond to her care.

Dick Bennett, co-founder of Omni and also a tour participant, has some deeper thoughts on the tour. The event started in 2006, he said, as another manifestation of Omni’s mission of peace.

“I was thinking of all the different ways one might imagine peace in the world, and a garden was a natural,” he said. “I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it earlier. My model was the garden club tours, which emphasize beauty, and I very much associate peace and beauty - from my literary life, I suppose.”

Bennett, an emeritus professor of English at the University of Arkansas, said “as you may expect from me,” he wants visitors to think about that association and the contrast of the destruction caused by war versus “the gorgeous, pleasant, interesting yards we enjoy here in Fayetteville.”