Adventures in Gardening

I had an inspiring conversation with Sarah Ramirez five days ago about urban agriculture, permaculture, and the shareable food movement. Inspiring, because Sarah spoke about her own garden (which sounds wonderful) but also about the social justice issues involved in this cause. Have we ever thought about the wisdom that the immigrant community holds regarding the growing and sharing of foods for sustainability? Can we tap into that wisdom in mutually beneficial ways?  Much to think about.

I, for one, am readying myself for the revolution, the apocalypse, the 11:11, the Maya prophecy, the tea-party uprising, or the Big-One...whatever inevitable catastrophic disaster may hit the Bay Area. Years ago, I thought that if we had a Katrina-level (or more recently a Japan earthquake level) event, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have the capacity to sustain ourselves "off the land" but I shrugged it off given that we have so little so-called land to work with. (Recall my first entry that told of a paved over back yard). But I'm learning how to make do with even a little bit of land.

The backyard experiment is progressing. The beans have come up nicely, but everything else is a bit sluggish. The brussel sprouts are still wee-seedlings; the cantaloupe just started to grow past the seedling stage but I'm afraid that it, along with the watermelon, was planted a bit too late. Maybe not. By October, it is still summertime here so perhaps the extra growing time will be enough to harvest something. If not, then maybe next year. I've also planted scallions and garlic that are sprouting as well. Still to come: weeding the back strip of soil and planting a full herb garden. And mulching and nourishing our poor little peach tree that is not well, at all.

Neighbor's thriving walnut tree (red arrow)

Ultimately I want a nut tree (despite the local nurseries saying they don't do well here). I've got a neighbor who has a huge thriving walnut tree. I'm thinking we should plant pistachios and learned you need 2 trees (a male/female pistachio pair) in order to produce nuts. So the plan is to plant two trees in that patch...somehow. Why a nut tree? The survivalist in me imagines that if we are without access to the neighborhood Trader Joe's or Safeway or, God forbid, our muppie/yuppie Market Hall, then what would be a decent protein source? Nuts. (Maybe I'll progress to having chickens one day, but even they may be devastated and decimated by the cataclysm so a nut tree isn't such a bad idea...)

Speaking of emergency preparedness, tomorrow, my family (Alec, Sam, and I) will complete our emergency responder training with the Oakland Fire Department. For the past 5 weeks, we have participated in the CORE program (Communities of Oakland Respond to Emergencies), whose mission is to promote the spirit of neighbor helping neighbor. The underlying premise is that a major disaster will overwhelm city agencies leaving many citizens on their own for up to 7 to 10 days. They (the city/county emergency response agencies) will need to rely on local communities to be self-sustaining during that lag time and as such are training local folks to be able to step up if and when needed. We've been learning the book-knowledge about setting up an incident command center, doing damage assessment, search and rescue, and first aid. Tomorrow we go to the Fire Department training site for actual drills, (including putting out fires!) after which we become certified responders. (I will post a follow-up to that soon after we complete it).

What does that have to do with adventures in gardening??? When I told Sarah about my participation in the CORE training, she reminded me that the shareable food movement was another important piece to emergency preparedness. (Visions of my neighbor's walnut tree danced in my head...)

Planting the seeds for a new way of being in our community...

So in addition to getting prepared to be among the first to respond to an emergency, we need to get our neighbors on board to be willing and able to share resources. The plan to get there??? Baby steps:

Next Tuesday, August 2nd is National Night Out Against Crime, the idea being to generate neighborhood spirit, police-community partnerships, etc. We'll use the opportunity to begin organizing our block. Today, we will distribute this  flyer to each home on our block, inviting everyone to gather in our newly weeded, cleaned, replanted, and now very pretty front yard (!!!) for dessert and wine:

And Pretty Maids...

I've thankfully arrived at the last verse in the English nursery rhyme.  This should free me up a bit to frame my future writings according to some other rubric...perhaps. After all, this is a blog about a transformative journey, not about a nursery rhyme. But there is much to learn about such journeys through rhymes. Or rather, there's a wisdom in them that is worth thinking about. And thus we come to the final verse. What can it teach? I shall cover the first part here and will complete the verse in the next blog.

Mary Mary quite contrary,

how does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells...

Most of us know the version that says she had pretty maids (all in a row). But it seems that Mary's garden changed a lot.

According other versions, she had cowslips (all in a row). I am intrigued with this one. Cowslips, also known as the Venus herb, is a popular flower in the British Isles known for its magical and medicinal uses. Think of Botticelli 's The Birth of Venus and you'll note that she emerged from the sea having been born from a cockle shell. So it follows that if you have cockle shells in the garden, certainly the Venus herb should be there, as well. As you all should know, Venus is the Goddess of Love and what better place to include love than in the garden.

Another verse has her having ladybells (all in a row). A beautiful flower, a hardy perennial... I'm thinking this might look good in my front garden. Except there is a discussion board dedicated to warning you never to plant this one. They call it a thug (for it's ability to takeover a garden and overcome your other plants.) But remember that Mary was contrary and I may be as well.

As many other authors have noted, there are many other endings to this nursery rhyme (columbines, cuckolds, and muscles all in a row) and it isn't clear which is the original. Given the nature of nursery rhymes, it shouldn't matter -- that is, whether or not these verses were composed for the entertainment or education of children or for adults as political satire or joviality, they have been continually shaped and reshaped to fit their purpose.

Case in point: a series of advertisements that appeared in British newspapers, magazines, and billboards to discuss climate change (which, by the way, were banned by the Advertising Standards Authority as being misleading - go figure) .

Well, maybe the endings weren't poetic in the sense of rhyming, but the point is made. Nursery rhymes have been used for centuries as the times dictated.

And so I shall similarly use it for my purposes. I'm using Mary's garden verse: to announce and reclaim a certain freedom (a commitment on my part to make life choices that promotes growth); to chronicle my exploration of the urban garden movement (for my own family's sustainability and for raising awareness of food instability and the environmental crisis); to affirm my spirituality and faith as it guides me on my transformative journey; to reflect on my family--my forebears, relatives, and immediate family, and how they are an important source of moral and material support; to begin (as my next entry will introduce) a process of community organizing; and to do all of this as a labor of deep love --for life, for God, for family, for humanity.