This week, we begin by asking ourselves questions about community involvement. Our focus fell on inquiries like: “How can we involve our community while acknowledging accessibility and meaningfulness of labor?” We take inspiration from the Alder who teaches us about building community through partnerships with others and offerings based on our own ability. Questions we can ask ourselves to better understand these teachings:
- How can I strengthen my relationship with plants, the land, and spiritual traditions?
- How can I support people who are different than myself? What can I learn from our differences?
- How can I contribute to the health of my community?
From these questions we can imagine what support means to us.
This week’s resources include: GRuB Garden Growing Guide, Tend, Gather, Grow Curriculum Module: “Ecosystem Garden Guide,” referencing the subsections “Design”, “Find the Plants you Want to Grow”, “Invite Gifts of Labor and Resources”, GRuB’s Plant Teachings Cards, and chapter six: “Crop Planning” from Farming While Black
How can we involve our community while acknowledging accessibility and meaningfulness of labor?
The community garden area is in fairly poor shape. There is garbage in many plots and the communal areas, debris in large piles or scattered around, and most buildings look tattered to varying degrees. Because of the way we plan to sow and care for our plot, we do not foresee much help being needed in that. Our focus with involving our community will be caring for and reviving the community garden as a space for people to join and/or grow food.
When thinking of involving our community it is important to understand that everyone has differences in ability. It is also important to think about how we can accommodate those differences in the activities needed to care for this space. How can we make this activity (more) accessible? Respecting others limits and voicing our own helps us to create healthy boundaries and allows us to do what we can without feeling lesser.
Our differences are what makes us stronger together. Just like any ecosystem, every organism helps others in their own unique way. How can we strengthen our community by acknowledging our unique experiences and ranges of ability?
We can involve our community and acknowledge accessibility by recognizing differences in ability and remaining open to all suggestions for change. We want to hold a space where all can ask themselves and others questions and be vulnerable within ourselves and our cooperative action.
Community Garden Goals
- Grow food for/with community
- Enrich the community space
- Learn from the land and each other
- Accommodate all ranges of ability in work and planning
- Help regenerate and steward the land
Design:
Mapping the Garden Plot
Rough draft to tentative final draft. We envision the path winding through beds of plants like a tree or river.
Will the plants change the conditions of an area as they grow to full size?
Yes, all plants will change the conditions of an area. We plan to utilize this in companion planting, as well as attempting to replicate natural cycles and relationships. Squash will grow across the soil, providing a shaded and sheltered environment for insects and other plants. Maize and sunchokes will grow tall and provide a pole for beans to climb. Clover will fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into the soil. Our goal is to grow these plants alongside and in amongst each other, while taking into account the changes they may have on the area.
What to Grow:
Crop Planning
Greenhouse
At the beginning of this week, we finished cleaning the community gardens greenhouse. We began with clearing the space and floor, and then moved soil to fill in gaps. We moved and organized planter pots, cleared the benches, and removed trash.
