Plant a row

I've got a post up about community gardening with children on my other blog.

In the eye of the beholder

I was out working in the garden on Friday evening as people were walking on the path through the garden to head to a festival a few blocks away. Most people paid little attention to the space they were walking through. One woman came in and sat at the picnic table while chatting on her phone, seeming oblivious to the gardens, birds and insects all around her. Another swiped a few raspberries from the bushes as she walked by. 

Just one group, two young women and a young man, probably all in their mid twenties walked by talking about the space. The one young woman was asking questions about the garden, how it was used and managed. She laughed that she loved it because she is a hippy at heart. The other woman was less complimentary. She said she'd like to take a weed eater to the whole thing. She thinks it looks unkempt, too wild, and it is a poor use of space.

I'll agree with her that it is wild in spots. About 1/3 or more of the space is naturalized, with wildflowers, some native trees.  Some of the plots have not been tended to this year and have been left to grow wild. Common areas such as the raspberry patches could use some trimming

The garden definitely has a funky edge to it. Many of the plots use found or free objects for their structures, out of necessity, to keep costs low and to minimize the chance expensive items will walk away. One plot has curly willow branches as stakes for tomatoes and climbing plants. One gardener made a  lovely lattice out of branches and the dried stems of sunflowers. The many plots are lined with natural stones rather than the sharp lines of edging from the the garden centre. There are volunteer sunflowers popping up at the edges of the paths, the mulch is yellow straw rather than trendy cocoa bean hulls. The signs are hand painted. The grass cutters go around wildflowers rather than over them, leaving chicory and daisies dotting the paths. Rather than looking like something from Martha Stewart, the garden looks handmade, hardworking, natural, creative, and yes, slightly wild. I love it.

But I realize that just because I love it doesn't mean everyone does. If you aren't in the garden, if you don't wander past the plots tended with care, if you don't know about the fairy garden, the resident bunny, the school plot, you might not get a feel for it. If you didn't know how much the work of the gardeners has rehabilitated the soil and created a wonderful place for city wildlife, birds, insects and native plants you might think that it might be better paved or sodded over.  If you didn't know how the garden helps people connect to their community, to the land, to the seasons, to their food, you might not see past the wildness to the value of the garden. If you don't get to see the joy on my kids' faces at picking and tasting their own tomatoes, cucumbers or raspberries and watch them explaining the concept of community gardens to their friends who have never seen a cucumber except at the grocery store, you might not understand why we love it.

As community gardeners we have a responsibility to speak up about the value of the garden and its many benefits. We also have a responsibility to the community and to the city to make our space inviting and welcoming, to be good stewards of not only the land, but the idea and image of community gardening.

We can be confident that action which is in accord with a few basic beliefs cannot be wrong and can at least testify to the values we will need to cultivate. These are the beliefs that the human race is a family that has inherited a place on the earth in common, that its members have an obligation to work toward sharing it so that none is deprived of the elementary needs for life, and that all have a responsibility to leave it undegraded for those who follow.

~ Gilbert F. White, "Stewardship of the Earth,"

The plot after a month away

Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden.
~Robert Brault

We returned home from the extended (and somewhat unplanned) trip to the cottage not really knowing what to expect in the garden. With only a short garden visit on our one weekend in June that we were not at the cottage, we were a bit worried about the state of the plants. Thankfully all was well, if a bit weedy and dry. The rhubarb has grown by leaps and bounds, there are plenty of zucchini flowers, lots of green tomatoes, the beans and peas are trailing up the tee pee, and the herbs look great with the exception of the basil which I am hoping will bounce back.

There were lots of raspberries and some early blackberries on the canes that surround our plot and the kids quickly gave up weeding and watering chores for picking. (I think one or two of the raspberries made it home -  grin.) Colin and Sara came back however, and spotted a "gigantic" cucumber. Well two actually. And as they are the cucumber fans in the family it was quickly decided that they could do the honours and do the first official real harvesting.

In addition to the weeding and harvesting, we've been working on the structure of our little space. We've exhausted the onsite rock piles and so have made a few late evening runs to scavenge rocks from various construction sites around town so we can ring our beds and mark the paths in the hopes of stopping any further trampling.  The kids thought it was a blast to pick rocks (!?). However our favourite chore by far was the installation of our new garden sign, which was made by friends as a birthday gift for all of us. We've already had so many comments about how lovely it is.  It makes the garden seem more like our special space, and as a bonus it helps mark the division between our space and our neighbours.

Sara and I also spent a few hours there on Sunday. We planted a high bush blueberry which we picked up on clearance from a local nursery, in part to "pay it forward" and in part to pay back those past and current gardeners who planted all the raspberries. We've also planted a small wildflower pollinator patch across from our plot and need to make a sign to encourage people not to mow it. Most of our garden plot has been weeded, we've planted some more calendula and nasturtium and will replant lettuce and spinach and carrots this week (once this incredible heat settles down.) 

Since returning home last week, we have also stopped by the garden with little neighbourhood friends and treated them to a tour and a taste of fresh picked, still warm from the sun raspberries. It was heartwarming to see my kids give the tour of "their" garden and talk about our garden neighbours and the idea of a community garden. I love that they get that benefits of community gardening are about more than just the garden.

Toes in the dirt

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.
To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.
~ Alfred Austin

This was a gardening weekend for us - true to Canadian tradition. It was a lot of work, and a lot of dirt. Em and I spent a good chunk of Sunday in the garden center and then shoeless in the garden and I dragged everybody back for a mini workbee on Monday afternoon. We got the plot cleaned up, the strawberries and raspberries trimmed and transplanted, the beds laid out and what felt like a mountain of compost mixed in. We gathered enough rocks from the soil to make a small path between our beds.

Over the past few weeks I have been immersed in gardening books and blogs and I've been thinking about some of the things this new adventure is bringing to our family:  another way to connect with nature and honour the seasons; a deeper understanding of our food and where it comes from; a sense of responsibility and (hopefully) wonder and pride as they taste their first harvest; a new community - Em's already making friends with the neighbours; a new hobby for me and maybe some new goals.  I'm grateful for the growth in all its forms - the chance to dig our toes into the dirt and stretch at the same time.