The Seed 26: A Community of Gardens

With every new flush of spring garden growth comes the promise of a stronger community. Gardening is once again gaining popularity, not just as a relaxing pastime, but as a tool that communities have at their disposal to help them grow strong, independent, food secure, and beautiful.

No gardener is an island. When groups of folks get together to build gardens we learn from each other, we get to know each other, and we make our lives more sustainable with every seed planted. Neighbors working together routinely turn blank sod grass lawns, and empty city lots into organic food producing, eco-system enhancing gardens.

The time for this kind of transformation is ripe in American life. As food and health care costs grow, the need for inexpensive access to healthy organically grown food is more and more apparent. Suddenly folks throughout urban areas are realizing that their sod lawns aren’t doing anybody any favors, and that the time for change is upon us.

We’re not in this life alone. The planet acts as a whole living system. The health of each part of the planet is dependent on the health of the whole planet. Due to global climate change it’s become apparent that we’ve got to stop pretending that we’re the only important creature here. It’s not only time to grow our own communities, but those communities of wilderness that we’ve been a part of removing and keeping at bay for so many years.

When we honor the land that we live on by planting native species, when we honor the planet we live on by growing our own food as close to home as possible, and when we teach each other how to do these things, we share vibrant sustainable lives.

This month Giving Tree Gardens has been hard at work putting these noble green ideas into action. We’ve built food gardens with kids, installed native rain-gardens with community members, attended garden club meetings, taught seminars, and talked with every green thumb passing by. This volume of The Seed will highlight some of these community-building efforts as an example of the awesome power of neighbors in action.

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The Seed 25: Let Freedom Grow

Sharpen your shovels, and turn your compost pile, Spring Has Arrived! Nation wide, gardeners are busy preparing for the upcoming growing season, and from the look of things, this year will be a time of garden expansion throughout the land.

Even in this troubled market, seed sales are a boom industry raking in 20-30% gains over last year’s sales. Gardening is the new favored pastime of many a cash strapped American family. Presenting an example to the world, First Lady Michelle Obama’s even getting in on the action, as she put her strong arms to work digging a Victory Garden into the White House lawn!

This profuse blooming of garden interest is just what the world needs right now. The U.S.D.A. is about to release a new Plant Hardiness Map that details what anyone with a lick of sense has by now accepted as fact, the “inconvenient truth” that the earth’s climate is rapidly warming. Vegetable gardens and local composting efforts are two of the best ways for folks to work at home toward a healthier, happier planet.

While the Obama’s of the world may be planting the seeds of victory in their gardens, I reap the bounty of freedom in my back yard. Freedom from chemically grown, dangerous, over priced food, the freedom to enjoy the beauty and bounty of life on earth, and the freedom to live with respect for the planet that raised me are all a part of my garden harvest. It’s this humble gardener’s opinion that victory without freedom is meaningless! This spring and summer as I install gardens throughout the Twin Cities, I’ll be sowing the seeds of freedom. I invite everyone reading this newsletter to do the same. Together we can reclaim our planet and our lives from the carelessness of our elders, to give our children and grandchildren hope for a healthy life.

In this month’s issue of The Seed we’ll take a look at some of these garden headlines that define and inspire this new movement to reclaim the good life. With a little luck, and a whole lot of compost, this spring gardeners everywhere will help freedom grow!

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The Seed 24: A Farm in the City

Formerly a city garbage dump in the middle of a low-income neighborhood, the site that St. Mary’s Urban Youth Farm now occupies and beautifies, was once a blight on the community. In the mid 1990’s neighbors along with local gardening activists organized to turn this wasted land into a community asset.

Cheerful and informative, Naomi Goodwin, director of St. Mary’s Urban Youth Farm was kind enough to talk with me about the goings on at the farm, and the story she told was one of transition.

Since 1995 when ground was broken on this garden, the space has served to improve the health and lives of the community. Despite recent funding shifts away from community gardening projects, area residents have continued to recognize and benefit from the farm’s bounty. Youth volunteers work alongside trained gardeners to produce food that is sold at discounted rates in local farmers markets. The young volunteers are trained in skills that they can utilize and market the rest of their lives, while the community receives the benefits of affordable locally grown organic produce.

Birds, butterflies, bees, and other local fauna find a home in the native plants that hold the hillside in place, all the while compost bins overflow and the blades of the windmill turn lazily in the soft breeze. Walking into this garden was like seeing a dream come true. Not only did I feel like I’d suddenly stepped into the countryside, but I could clearly see all of the basic Eco-friendly gardening steps that I teach folks here in the Twin Cities working on a larger scale then I’d ever seen in a city.

Several local organizations work with the land at St. Mary’s. While various groups of volunteers tend to the crops, others work to keep the beehives buzzing.

Naomi impressed me with her sense for the overall health of the space. “We have so many volunteer’s here that sometimes things get out of balance.” Naomi explained, “We used to get a lot more migratory birds stopping by the pond, but since more of our land has gone to food production, and less to native plants, the system is out of balance and we aren’t providing enough habitat to entice them here as much.”

The full vision for the space has not yet been realized. Physical changes such as adding a water pump to the windmill. Once the windmill is pumping, then water from Isle creek pond, which sits in the middle of the farm, can be used on the crops. Organizational shifts away from agency to agency competition for land use and towards a more collaborative approach are also needed before the farm functions to it’s highest potential.

Despite this room for improvement, St. Mary’s Urban Youth Farm is an example of excellence in landscaping. Transitioning this space from a dump to an urban farm has proven to be an enormous benefit to the community. Gardeners everywhere can learn from these neighbors good work, and those of us lucky enough to have our own little corner of the earth to shape, should heed the good example of the folks at St. Mary’s. Wherever we can we need to turn open urban space into habitat for earthlings of all stripes.

In Minneapolis and St. Paul our yards and parks give us green space on nearly every block. I hope for all our sake that many more of us here at home begin to recognize our unique responsibility as citizens of these gorgeously green cities to preserve, and maintain the lush vibrancy of our home towns. I know for my part, I’m planning to put a rain garden full of native plants in the back yard this spring in order to provide habitat for birds and butterflies. After all I figure, why have a yard, when I could have an enchanting, urban oasis!

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The Seed 23: In Love With the Redwoods

Driving North up California’s hwy 101 is a bit like traveling backwards in time, the landscape seems to grow more ancient as the road makes it’s way North. As my partner Shaunna and I drove away from San Francisco’s rolling, paved inclines the cityscapes gave way to large eucalyptus groves and sage covered hills. Not far North of the city we soon found wine country with mile upon mile of leafless rows of, pruned and still dormant grapevines. We traveled onward eventually entering the woods as the day turned to night over the highway. Sometime after nightfall I had to wonder aloud if my road weary eyes were playing tricks on me, as up ahead of our car I started seeing what looked like giant walls right next to the road. The illusion only lasted a moment because when we approached these enormous structures Shaunna and I realized that we were seeing coast redwoods up close for the first time. Excitement filled the car, and all that was heard for the next few miles from either of us were gasps of shock and the occasional “Oh My God!” Both of us had been dreaming of seeing these trees since we were kids, and driving through them for the first time at night was a little too distracting.

We pulled off to rest the night in Garberville, just before the start to an old scenic highway named Avenue of the Giants. The next morning I shined up my camera lens and the two of us set out to meet the trees that had stirred our imaginations since childhood.

Our first stop that morning was only a few miles outside of Garberville. The Avenue of the Giants is a 31 mile stretch of old highway 101 that twists and turns it’s way like a river through huge redwood trees. All along the way there are places to pull over and explore the woods. We quickly made our first stop in a grove of trees wider and taller then either of us had ever seen. We both took time to thank the trees, to pray for their protection, and to put out some tobacco as an offering for them. While walking our way toward the Eel River that snakes through the forest I noticed a scurrying below me and bent down to grab the little salamander at my feet. We took our pictures with this handsome fellah, and put him back where we found him so his family wouldn’t miss him too long.

Walking among the giants Shaunna and I wondered what it must have been like for the native folks who lived here in the undisturbed beauty of these forests a few hundred years ago. We figured this rich and abundant land must’ve made for some fine living. Waking up beneath the protective canopy of these elder trees, and walking down to a river teeming with life to sing a grateful morning song sounds like a pretty good way to start each day. These trees have witnessed the people passing through them loose the greatest wealth mankind ever knew, the ability to live in balance with our environment. When peoples needs are freely provided for by their surroundings, folks end up with a lot more time to sit back and just be grateful for the life they live. I guess that’s basically why I spend so much time encouraging folks to grow their own food. When we grow our own food at home, and mix those food plants in with some native plants for the other creatures to enjoy we start to live in a way that taxes our environment less and begins to bring our corner of the earth back into balance. If we all just do our little part and empower those around us to do the same, we’ve got a chance to experience some of that fine living too.

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The Seed 22: Healthy Yards, Healthy Lives

We need food, we need air, we need water. Generally speaking we need all of these things to be clean and free of toxins. We share these needs with the rest of the creatures on this planet. These common needs of all earthlings are best served when the world around us is balanced. For example, If the microbes in the ground are fed nutrients in the form of a cow pie, then the microbes in the ground help the roots of the grass take up water and nutrients, and the grass can grow up tall to feed the cows. The cycle starts all over when the cow lifts her tail to waive goodbye to the grass she has digested.

Now, if for some horrible reason the ground is treated with chemicals such as fertilizer or pesticide then the microbes in the ground will be killed off to a degree that the grass will now not be able to grow without the assistance of the chemical fertilizers. Instead of being dependant on easy to produce cow pies, the food cycle on the planet becomes dependant on environmentally and economically costly products. This is one tiny example of imbalance in a world full of similar circumstances.

We need only look around us to see the world out of balance. We can see the air we breathe, as it’s laden with chemicals. We can taste bleach and metal in the water we drink. Our rivers and lakes are overgrown with invasive species and toxic run off. Our food travels thousands of miles in petroleum burning vehicles only to arrive to our dinner tables laced with carcinogens and bacterial diseases. These problems are only a drop of water next to the ocean of trouble this planet is facing. Enough Is Enough! It’s time we clean up our act!

In a time of need like this the world has only one place to turn. Gardeners, I’m talking to you! It’s time we put our heads and hearts together to keep this planet from self-destructing. Giving Tree Gardens is happy to announce that we’ve come up with a plan to guide brave gardeners everywhere in their heroic efforts. Our plan is strong in that it’s simple and ready to be adapted to the creativity, lives, and yards of anyone willing to pick up a shovel and work toward a better, healthier day.

In this special edition of The Seed, Giving Tree Gardens is proud to announce the launch of our new free educational program: Healthy Yards, Healthy Lives, 7 Steps for Growing Personal and Global Health in Your Own Back Yard!

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The Seed 21: Change Begins At Home

Let’s begin this month’s newsletter with a riddle:

What does a parking meter hold, a baby need, and a politician always promise?

You guessed it, Change!

Recently there’s been a lot said in this country about the subject of change. It seems to me as though many of my fellow countrywomen and countrymen have had their hopes for America renewed by the symbolic election of Barack Obama, a man who promised in his victory speech that, “Change has come to America”. Well this humble gardener couldn’t be more ready for some changes in America! The changes I’m most excited about however, will require much more then symbolism and politician’s patriotic promises. Real change is as inevitable as the snow that will soon blanket our yards, and once real change has taken hold, it will effect every part of what we see and do just as the snow changes the landscape. One big question many Americans are forming for themselves right now is "How do we stay ahead of the learning curve of change?" Many of us have a sense that there are going to be adjustments that need to be made to the way we live our daily lives if we are going to keep ourselves and our communities livable and economically viable, but what will these changes look and feel like?

Change is what makes a gardeners life exciting. We watch for the seasonal changes in our yards, we rearrange garden beds to give us a different sense or feeling in our landscape, we happily observe trees growing taller and perennials spreading out. Change comes as natural to a gardener as the sunset or the moonrise, so this gardener has a few suggestions for how Americans could change the way they live with their landscapes, while positively impacting their own lives, and the way the entire community functions. This month’s newsletter is dedicated to long needed change, and the capacity we each have to make this world a healthier, happier, and easier place to live.

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The Seed 20: Gardens on Franklin

The Seward Co-op Grocery and Deli on Franklin Avenue in South Minneapolis has been a source of growth and nourishment for the entire community. Healthy, organically grown produce, wonderfully prepared foods, and customer service that is second to none are just a few of the regular offerings of this fine institution.

Giving Tee Gardens has been blessed with the opportunity to work with The Seward Co-op for the last four years in order to create yet another high quality daily offering, namely an organically maintained blooming landscape that offers year round beauty. Thanks to the teamwork between these two organizations, what was once a drab parking lot is now a space that the community can enjoy.

While the co-op moves locations to a few blocks further East on Franklin Avenue this winter, Giving Tree gardeners will be readying our garden supplies, and sharpening our shovels for the beginning of our next phase of gardening along Franklin Avenue the following spring.

In honor of a job well begun, and much more gardening fun to come I give you this volume of The Seed, an homage to one of my favorite gardens at one of my favorite places in all the world The Seward Co-op Grocery and Deli.

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