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One thing you can be sure of when it comes to the Edible Schoolyard soon to take shape at the Greensboro Children's Museum: it won't be a perfect rectangle of nice, neat furrows.

"It's going to have the look and feel of a more natural ecological setting rather than a bunch of rows," said newly named director Charlie Headington.

Headington doesn't like boxes. Not in his garden, not around his life, not in his thinking.

Headington, 61, lives outside the technological box. He doesn't own a television. He prefers his books to his computer. He and his wife, Debby Seabrooke, share one car. They often forego heating and air conditioning.

Instead of driving a fancy car or attaching himself to an iPhone, Headington devotes himself fully to his true passion -- gardening and caring for the Earth. He has done it as co-founder of Slow Food Piedmont, as a UNCG instructor teaching students about sustainability, as director of several school gardens, and now as director of the Edible Schoolyard, an organic garden and kitchen where children will learn about food cultivation and preparation.

To Headington, the serenity of his garden, taking time off to enjoy life and following his ideals are more important than having hundreds of channels.

"Slow it down," Headington said. "Get away from the TV. Get away from the computer."

While most people are caught up in the hustle and bustle of their busy lives, Greensboro residents Headington and Seabrooke take a different approach. Both teach part time at UNCG, buy their own health insurance and live on reduced means by choice.

By not working full time and living on a tighter budget, they are able to take time to travel and do the things they love in life.

"Everybody makes choices," Seabrooke said. "Those choices just really worked for us. We found that actually it was more fun and the world opened up more. It's not a sacrifice at all to drive an old car that we don't care if it gets dented."

Their backyard is an oasis of herbs, turnips, lettuce, apple trees, apricot trees, pear trees, kiwi trees and blackberry bushes. A colony of bees by the back fence and two ponds with slanted bamboo rods for catching rain water complete the aesthetic.

Headington and Seabrooke call their yard an edible landscape, because they harvest and eat everything they grow.

"I came to (gardening) with environmental concerns, and then I realized how we eat and what we eat affects the environment more than any single thing we can do," Headington said.

Sharing the wealth

With a tall, slender frame and a mop of white hair, Headington pulsates simultaneously with peace and passion for what he does. And for someone who likes to take things slow, he has done a lot, working extensively with food and organic gardening in the Triad.

He co-founded Slow Food Piedmont, which seeks to offset the fast-food culture and invigorate interest in where food comes from and local food traditions. He also runs permaculture workshops out of his home.

"People come for the day, I fix them lunch and then show them how to establish a home garden, to build ponds and capture rain water and grow fruit trees," Headington said.

He ran the gardening program at Greensboro Montessori School for more than 10 years, and he has also worked with gardens at Kaiser Middle School, Peeler Elementary School and Newcomers School.

"A big concern of mine is school gardens, and moving them from private schools, where they can afford them, to public schools where there's little money," Headington said.

Headington has also extended his knowledge of gardening to higher education at UNCG, where he has taught for 20 years. He teaches several courses in the master of liberal studies program such as Slow Food in a Fast Food Nation, as well Religious Traditions and Care of the Earth for undergraduates in the religious studies department.

William Hart, professor and interim head of UNCG's department of religious studies, has worked with Headington for nine years.

"He's a true humanist," Hart said. "He believes in educating, you approach the whole person."

The Edible Schoolyard

Headington will continue sharing his educational philosophy in his next endeavor as he directs the development of the Edible Schoolyard at the Greensboro Children's Museum. After spending time advising on the project, he threw his hat in the ring for the director position and suggested his Montessori colleague Eleanor Farlow join the project as well. "One of the conditions, for me, was to bring Eleanor with me as the lead teacher, and we would be a team," Headington said.

The Edible Schoolyard team also will include Anne-Marie Scott as kitchen manager, Justin Leonard as garden manager and Kat Siladi as volunteer coordinator and assistant teacher. The group is planning a variety of programs and lessons and will begin with a full slate of summer camps.

Farlow said the 1-acre space currently looks like "a destroyed parking lot," but by its May 22 grand opening, the Edible Schoolyard will be filled with chickens, rabbits, a pond, herbs, vegetables and 15 kinds of fruit. "We want it to be a place that's beautiful and productive at the same time," Headington said.

The Edible Schoolyard will help children understand how nature works and teach them how to make healthy choices about food. The program will also hold workshops for families to learn how to cook with local, seasonal ingredients.

Farlow hopes the schoolyard will serve as an outdoor classroom that will teach children to slow down, enjoy food preparation and connect with the Earth.

"It will be a place for community around the table," Farlow said. "It's a really important part of the garden to enjoy the harvest as a group, to prepare it together and to partake together."

To Farlow, her long-time co-worker's relaxed demeanor makes him a perfect fit for the Edible Schoolyard director position. "Charlie is very calm," Farlow said. "He's very peaceful and very centered and knows so much about the whole process of bringing a garden to life."

But Headington feels more confident about Farlow's ability to work with children than his own.

"Eleanor is 10 times calmer than I am," Headington said.

Developing his passion

Headington has always had the kind of deep-seated connection with the Earth that he and Farlow hope to foster in the Edible Schoolyard's students.

He was born in Costa Rica on a farm where his parents worked, so as a child he was constantly surrounded by cattle, chickens and fresh food. From a young age, he saw the benefits freshly grown food can have for one's health and for the environment.

But in school, he focused on the humanities rather than nutrition or environmental science, devoting his time to religious studies, philosophy and history.

"I was very idealistic, very much a dreamer and not very practical about things," Headington said.

He didn't start his first garden until graduate school when he was working as a caterer, and he didn't become serious about organic gardening until middle age.

"I took a personal interest and made it more of a professional interest," Headington said. "I felt that if I could show people that gardening is fun and gives you fresh food, it was a real way of helping the Earth."

As he delved deeper into gardening and teaching, he discovered his favorite activity is just being outside in the garden and watching how it evolves.

"The most fun for me in working with kids is just to walk out with them and say, 'What's happening today in the garden?' " Headington said. "That's the lesson."

Kindred spirits

At UNCG, Headington met Seabrooke, who teaches writing and literature courses in the master of liberal studies and bachelor of liberal studies programs. Though they ran into each other frequently, they didn't really notice each other until he discovered she shared his passion for gardening.

"She always converted her front yard into a garden, and I just thought that was the greatest thing in the world," Headington said.

They have been married nearly 17 years and have three children who are now in their mid- to late-20s. The oldest two are from Seabrooke's first marriage and the youngest one is from Headington's first marriage.

Headington and Seabrooke took a trip to Europe shortly after they got married and decided they wanted to go back with the children. To afford it, they offered a tour for their children's classmates. They took them to Venice and Florence and fell in love with Italy, so they decided after that to conduct tours called "In Search of Good Food" for adults.

They frequently travel to Spannocchia, Italy, through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms program, in which participants volunteer for 30 hours a week in exchange for room and board.

"It's a very simple life there, but it's just beautiful," Seabrooke said. "I like the routine of the farm and feeling like I'm part of something significant in the world."

During one trip to Spannocchia, Seabrooke decided to teach part time instead of full time so she would have time to do the things she loved, such as reading, writing and art. "The sun was setting and we were both up in the trees and Debby just stopped, and she was taking it all in," Headington said. "She said, 'You know what? Life is just too short.' "

Seabrooke said the decision to slow down and enjoy life wasn't a difficult one for Headington.

"I like the fact that Charlie is kind of a dreamer," Seabrooke said. "He's always thinking of 'I want to do this thing. How can I get there?' And he's not dissuaded by all the obstacles that normally pop up. It's very encouraging to live with a person like that."

Even though Headington is a dreamer, he said Seabrooke has a certain whimsy and love of life that keeps him balanced.

"She has a very different temperament than I do," Headington said. "She just does things more in the present. I'm off in the future and planning, and she just does things as they come and does them so beautifully."

For now, Headington's plans for the future include working with the Edible Schoolyard, continuing to care for his garden and enjoying life with Seabrooke and their 9-year-old rescue dog, a dachshund named Greta.

"I really want to establish the Edible Schoolyard and its whole program, and then my goal is to travel around the whole Mediterranean and visit the different countries and cultures and cuisines," Headington said. "If that's what I did, then I think I'd feel pretty complete."

Contact Alexa Milan at 373-7120 or alexandra.milan@news-record.com