Garden report

I meant to take some snaps yesterday morning when I went to the Stony Point Garden to weed and water, but it started heating up more rapidly than I expected, so I left hurriedly, forgetting my goal.

It's tough getting used to a new garden. This one is pretty sterile compared with the Fulton Road garden. Bees and ladybugs, yes, but for birds I've seen mostly crows, a few little brown birds, and one robin. There are gophers around one of my beds, and they have gnoshed on both species of pole beans. I still have seven or eight Christmas lima plants left, and six rattlesnake snap beans, so that's not too bad.

The strawberries I inherited in the bean bed have taken on a new lease on life with weeding, fertilizing, and regular watering. The red basil looks great against a backdrop of bean leaves and the early girl tomato has set quite a few fruit.

I was late getting things in. First the late rains and all the weed growth they stimulated hindered me. And then being gone for nine days in early June meant I needed either to get things in and going a few weeks before that, or wait until I got home. It's not a good idea to have seeds sprouting or recent transplants still finding their feet when someone else will be doing the watering, perhaps irregularly. The beans I transplanted since returning are a little wonky, but the peppers and squash are chugging along. Other gardeners already have zucchini; in fact, it looks like some already have too much. Mine are several weeks away. The great blessing is that in this climate we can usually keep our summer producing plants going well into October, so I will not be deprived. While I'm waiting for them, I have two packages of fava beans in the freezer. I've harvested plenty of radishes, the garlic is finally ready to harvest, and the chard is producing full bore.

Here's the garden in mid-May.

Spring Reading

though you might want to add them to your list for summer.

The Upcycle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart was an inspiring read, taking up where their Cradle to Cradle left off.   It's not explicitly about the food system, but frankly I found its messages about  resilience and abundance applicable to many systems.   The two big take home ideas for me were

• Values are much more important than metrics.  We must begin any initiative by articulating what we value, not setting numerical goals.   For example, accessibility to fresh, healthful food for all, rather than 50% fewer outlets for sugary snacks and beverages in the neighborhood.   Then we can track progress toward that which we value.   Seems like there are ways this would be applicable in congregations, too.   
• Regulation indicates the need for redesign.   One of the things I think about a lot is that new regulations often cause new problems. With concern for health, NYC led the way in banning trans fats. But now the hunger for fats that are solid at room temperature has multiplied the number of palm oil plantations with the resultant destruction of tropical habitat and biodiversity.   In churches, the emphasis on "clergy boundaries" has caused a further distancing of ministry professionals from their communities, increasing the potential for abuses of power that the rules were meant to counter.   When we are tempted to create a new rule or regulation, we need to first step back and consider redesigning or reforming the system that calls for it.   

There are lots of inspiring examples in the book of values based planning and creative redesign.

An older book which I finally read is Patricia Klindienst's The Earth Knows My Name:  Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans. The title pretty much says it.  Here are a collection of stories about farms, urban farms, backyards and community gardens where traditions are carried forward, as cultures are remembered and evolve by peoples indigenous and immigrant.  It's a charming book that reminds us of some of the reasons why we garden.   I found myself thinking about the horticultural beans I am going to plant when I harvest my garlic in a week or two - the beans were one of my grandfather's favorites, something he grew every year.   Then there are my frustration with a rhubarb failure, and all the little lessons in frugality I learned from my dad, particularly about selecting plant starts to set out. I'm guessing that anyone reading this book will find themselves reconnected to their own food and gardening traditions.  

At the Board of Supervisors

I was impressed today by the knowledge some of the members of the Board of Supervisors showed - knowledge of the food forum report, and even the food system assessment. They had done their homework, and several showed that they had been paying attention to opportunities to address issues in their districts. Good for them.

Both the food forum report and the report of the survey of county lands to identify food growing potential were received unanimously.

What's distressing me, though, is the class bias evident on the part of two of the supervisors. Some of this relates to the obesity epidemic, and the facile drawing of cause and effect relationships. Makes me want to get up and scream, "I am fat and I do not eat fast food, nor do I have diabetes!"

There's a lot of blame the victim going on, too - as though avoiding obesity and diet-related diseases were simply a matter of personal discipline. I really do not care that one of the supervisors felt the need to confess to eating potato chips last evening. So what! Just because he has internalized the food police does not mean that he has the answers, or that the answers are a matter of conscience for everyone. Busy middle and upper middle class families should resist drawing parallels between their lives and the lives of the working class, working poor, and poor.

There was some poo-poohing of community gardens as no real solution to anything, too, and I wondered about that. I see the difference that our community garden makes in the diets of the 16 households who garden there, and their friends and networks. Other gardeners are constantly commenting on how at this time of the year they eat from the garden. One gardener shares with those for whom she provides in-home care, another pair of gardeners shares with their congregation and a twice monthly food pantry. A number of us swap our excess with other gardeners, give it to friends, get it to FISH or Food for Thought AIDS/HIV food pantry. We aren't very good at counting the pounds we share, but my guess is that at least four times as many households as garden get some benefit - some fresher or more varied produce - than they would otherwise. And when we talk about ways to use county land - spots that are too small for even small-scale commercial farming, can serve many households with fresh, local vegetables.

Now the work continues. The Board of Supervisors knows that there is a Food System Alliance, and we are working with them on the goals which surfaced from the forum, and on developing an action plan.

Finally - I would love to post a link to the forum report here, but I can't find it where it was supposed to be, on the Ag Innovations web site. grrrrrrr.

Vote early and often

I was a little stunned when I opened the April/May issue of Organic Gardening and saw the community garden contest described on the inside front cover and first page.

Why? because the sponsor of the contest is a winery in my neighborhood, but not one garden in this county is among those for whom people are invited to vote.

What were the people of DeLoach thinking? Where have they been? (France, probably...) With all the emphasis on community and backyard gardening here through IGrow and the 350 Challenge, they just are not paying attention. We could use $20,000 at the TLC garden. Heck, we could use a few thousand and share the rest with the other three church-based community gardens in this part of Santa Rosa.

But - there is an option. Don't bother to read through the descriptions of all 15 gardens on the DeLoach website. Just go to the bottom row, next to the right column - #14 if you are counting - and vote early and often until August 1.
http://www.deloachcommunitygardens.com/
This is the garden at Our Saviour Episcopal Church in Dallas, which started small and added a little something every year. They serve a low income neighborhood without adequate sources of affordable, fresh produce. And they serve the whole Dallas community by being a teaching garden. They have a greenhouse, water collecting roof which shades an outdoor gathering space, bees, worms and chickens! And their goal for this year is to develop an accessible section of the garden, to serve those less abled.
Becky Smith, parishioner and gardener, was immensely helpful to me when I was researching church-based community gardens. Our Saviour offers their land for the garden not as a church growth strategy, but as a gift to their neighborhood.
Please support them and VOTE!

Trafficking in tomato plants

I continue to try to connect the dots among church based community gardens and food distributions on this side of town.
We have a food drop by the Redwood Empire Food Bank at Thanksgiving Lutheran now, on Wednesday, as well as the Thursday food pantry at Knox Presbyterian, staffed by their volunteers as well as folks from Resurrection RC parish.
Last Friday I picked up some unneeded - but needy for attention - tomato plants and eggplant starts at Bayer Farm and took them over to the Stony Point Community Garden at First UMC. Not all their beds are spoken for this season, so they will have extra room to grow food
to share.
In another few weeks we'll all have summer produce coming in - two of us at TLC have summer squash already. The first one was a thrill - but soon there will be weeks when it is the dominant vegetable in my picking basket - and it will get tiresome. And there will be plenty to share with those coming for food bank staples.

Today's effort was going out to Shone Farm to get raspberry cane thinnings. We haven't got our berm plan yet, but if we have extras we can easily share them with Stony Point, where they have not begun to do their perennial fruit plantings yet.

One woman who was in the Santa Rosa Junior College class thinning the canes asked me all about our garden - because, she said, "I'm really interested in community."

And so are we all - nurturing the community in community gardening.

350 Challenge Reflections

I'm in danger of forgetting what I did, observed and learned last weekend if I don't write a note about it soon!

The 350 garden challenge - planting 350 water wise food gardens in Sonoma County last weekend - was a great success by all measures. I haven't been to IGrow site this week to see how many registered, but last time I checked it was pushing 600, and I know from my own experience that the number of gardens and projects was more than those listed.

I was pretty pleased that my little initiative went well. I potted and delivered 11 tomato plants to elders at the two senior mobile home parks nearest Thanksgiving Lutheran where the garden is. People seemed really appreciative. Some were inexperienced or claimed black thumbs, while others make a habit of growing tomatoes on their patios. I typed up an instruction sheet for those to whom growing a tomato, or growing one in a container, is unfamiliar, and gave them my phone number. It will be interesting to see if I get any sos's - or reports of success as the season develops.

It was great that all the materials were donated. I did buy a couple of cages, but the pots, plants and mix did not cost me anything. I'm still kicking myself that I did not bring my camera to Country mhp on Fulton - the office manager loaded up the potted plants in his golf cart to take them around to the folks who had ordered them. It was a lovely neighborly sight. Best, of course, is that I carried forward my Dad's tradition of supplying potted tomato plants to folks who would like a real tomato at their back door.

The other project I was involved in was moving the berm at TLC. This will be our commons - for berries and pollinator attractants, etc. I did take some photos, and will see if any are worth posting. I think this summer we will just load this raised area up with compost and plant it to the roaming cucurbits. (We got a donation of 10 yards of compost as part of the Challenge.) Then when it's time to put in canes and other perennials in the fall and winter we will have the conversations about exactly what they will be. The one discouragement about this project is that only one of the younger folks who was so eager for it came to do any shoveling and hauling. But who cares - there's a sense of power in realizing what a bunch of middle aged and middle aged plus women can do!

On Sunday evening when I returned from work I planted some of my own garden before heading out to the 350 celebration. I was late and brought no food, so didn't eat. These are not church folks - just as well because there was not enough, instead of the mountains of leftovers at church do's. Is this generational, too? Church folks, and especially church cooks, are older, and imbued with the tradition of casseroles and substantial salads and sides. The people in attendance, in spite of the cold, were great, though. I met several new folks with whom I will definitely follow up.

It is interesting to see generations working together on things like the 350 challenge. There is more of a "let the plan emerge" attitude among the young. This is fine - but if there is a deadline and a goal, it seems to me you do need some structure of coordination for what emerges to fit into, to be accountable. Some of the volunteer organizers delegated, then did it themselves; sent out questions without reading the email they had received which provided the answers already; called me on my cell phone, even though I made clear that that number was to be used by arrangement, and is not my main number. And these were not all young folks. There is a certain potential for frustration in volunteering to help when you are and organizer working for organizers without organizing experience. I suppose it frustrated me also because I am used to organizing based on volunteers' gifts and skills, not just their willingness with no instructions or coaching given.

This week I was back at trying to finish planting my own plot. This is not a really happy thing to be doing, given how cold May has been so far, but I feel under pressure to get things planted with a bit of time to settle before family doings take my time in early June. I must say it's better to be gardening when it's a bit cold than to be attending outdoor parties - two last weekend was enough! And the weather has been great for the lettuce and other cool weather produce. I always forget about the little dividends in the spring garden - the garlic scapes, fava beans, beet and turnip thinnings, etc. They give a new twist to the lingering foods of winter.

Now the question remaining would seem to be - to what extent did the 350 challenge really help people connect the dots between local food production, water conservation, and climate change mitigation? I do hope those organizers plan a return engagement for the fall at the usual time for 350 (ppm CO2) actions.

community gardens and plant therapy

Tucson Botanical Gardens - Michelle Conklin, Juliet Niehaus, and other folks - helped us make the connection last week between community gardens and horticultural therapy - may be there is some thing there for us as a congregation - a ministry involving plants and people who can no longer get easily to church, or other community activities... hmmm...

http://www.tucsonbotanical.org/

Meanwhile Christine Sine has got us all thinking about community gardens in Edmonds - she's advising the Church of the Beloved on starting a garden at Rosewood Manor - where they meet...

http://belovedschurch.org


And together with the Beloved, St Alban's people are planning a springtime celebration next weekend, the Little Feast

http://littlefeast.eventbrite.com

Wondering how other folks have made connections between community gardens and other services to the community...

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Spring Gardening Events

So much is popping here in SoCo this spring with the encouragement of food gardening.

One of the two most notable events is the Sustainable Food and Gardening Festival at the Finley Center on Saturday April 24:
http://www.igrowsonoma.org/content/sustainable-food-and-gardening-festival

This event is kind of a hodgepodge of things, and I haven't found the organizer responsive, but I do plan to go anyway. Ruth Lefkowitz (www.ruthysrealmeals.com) will be selling sandwiches there, and I've offered to help her. I also plan to cruise the booths.

I am definitely helping with the 350 garden challenge
http://www.igrowsonoma.org/content/350-garden-challenge
This is an innovative and collaborative event, over the weekend of May 15 and 16. A number of organizations and agencies are working together to see if we can plant 350 new or renewed water wise food gardens in Sonoma County. Why 350? To link food system and water use issues to climate change, as in the 350.org project, the one that has church bells ringing in October to remind us that 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere seems to be a maximum safe level - and that we have exceeded it.
I like the idea of tying the complex of environmental issues together. Or should I say recognizing that they are tied together.
I also like the idea that the gardens can be big - or just a potted tomato.
At our TLC community garden we are going to talk this Saturday about what we will do to get with the program. And I'm working to link all the church-based community gardens on the west side of Santa Rosa. There are two new ones this year, at Knox Presbyterian(http://www.knoxchurchatwest3rd.org/garden.html), and at Santa Rosa Alliance Church. The latter is a communal urban farm on an acre and a half - Cielo Azul Farm(http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100328/NEWS/3281108?p=1&tc=pg). And I just learned from a fellow knitter last week that the SW Santa Rosa branch of First UMC is putting in a garden - they have all this lush grass (looking to become a mega church, I guess, at least that's the way it felt the one time I attended there) that could be food!

To keep this all down to earth, literally, I am also starting extra seedlings - of the cucurbits mainly - to give away on May 15.

Garden Prayer

Liturgy: A Blessing For the Planting of a New Garden
Christine Sine

God bless this soil rich and fertile with life
God bless the seed we plant this day
As it falls into the ground to grow
We remember Christ's body broken for us

Unless a seed is planted in the soil and dies
It remains alone
But its death will produce many new seeds
A plentiful harvest of new lives

In the name of God the creator,
We sprinkle it with the water of life
Remembering that though we may plant and water
It is God who gives growth to all our efforts


Read the rest of Christine's prayer at
http://msainfo.org/articles/garden-prayer

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Rosewood Community Garden

- this just in, from our friends at the Church of the Beloved.


Date: Sunday, February 28, 2010, 1:54 PM

So, the garden is calling you...

...but you don't have a garden and maybe you've never gardened before.
That's okay, because that's what the ROSEWOOD COMMUNITY GARDEN (RCG) is for!

WHAT YOU WANT...
This Garden is for everybody, if you are pre-novice or if you are a 40 year expert - we want you to join in.
We're making a schedule of events and designating beds and want to know what you're interested in.
Take thirty seconds to fill out this Doodle Doc and let us know: http://www.doodle.com/fxppdxvkbgmv95de

WHAT'S POSSIBLE...
The real of possibilities is massive when it comes to what we could do together. Here's just a few ideas, but we need your ideas!
Heirloom seed harvesting, drying and sharing, vegetable gardening, flower gardening, soil testing, soil reclaiming, worm bin & composting workshop, educational films, seed starts, cider pressing, canning and pickling, berry bushes, mulching, earthen cob oven construction, green houses, classes for kids and families, energy conservation, rain water catchment... what else?

JOIN THE RCG MOB...
Not only do we want to create a spectacular working urban farm that offers growing space and hands-on education, but we also want to rally together to bless other gardeners and small sustainable farms by creating "Garden Mobs". This is where we get a big group of volunteers together and do in an afternoon what would take a small time gardener or farmer weeks. And what we get out of it is new know-how, strengthened community, and that, "Wow! We just did that!" feeling. There's a box to check on the doodle if you want to join or let me know if you want to nominate a garden/farm. (read more about other Mobs around the country)

LASTLY, WHAT'S THIS GOT TO DO WITH GOD?
Everything! The Trinitarian Creator God who has called us Beloved has also called us to care for this big beautiful planet starting with what's right in front of you. But we've gotten so far away from our sources of food and the natural world altogether that there's no wonder that we have no wonder left for God's good creation. Nothing personally impacts us and the world more than what we eat. At every meal there is a hotbed of issues directly related to how we "Do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God." So this is just one little way to love and serve the God who creates, saves and sustains the world... and invites you to join in.


JOIN US THIS TUESDAY 5:30PM in the garden to do some planning with author Christine Sine
and THIS SATURDAY from NOON to 4PM for the first round of planting at RCG.
Keep praying that we receive the garden grant, but either way the sun is emerging and so is the Rosewood Community Garden,

peace,
ryan
--
_____________________
www.BelovedsChurch.org
"It's a really, really big house church"
worship_sundays @ 5pm
____________________
phn&txt_206.356.7976
adrs_8104 220th st. sw edmonds 98026

New resource for churches

I just hate when I can't find the right person to talk to so that I have an Episcopal hook on an ecumenical story. It happened again this week when I found nobody home so that I could write up the efforts of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon at their October 3 conference, Food Sovereignty for All.

But I can at least post a link to their handbook here:

http://emoregon.org/pdfs/IFFP/Food_Sovereignty_for_All_handbook.pdf

Download a copy and have a look. It's great stuff - practical advice for congregations wanting to do a food system related project, with real life examples. If you've got extra land or a big underused kitchen at your church, of if you just want to strengthen connections with and support for local agriculture, there is help with getting started in these pages. Even if a congregation has never done a community ministry project before, there should be no excuses after reading this handbook. There are also several pages of resources if a congregation wants to begin with study of the food and faith connections.

Church based community gardens secrets for success

Early this week I finished my article for Episcopal Life on community gardens around the church. As I revisted some of the gardens I got photos from last year, and contacted some new ones, I got another look at what makes them go.

The most important factor seems to be seeing the garden as a way of living for others, of being a good neighbor, of giving. I don't mean that all the produce has to go to the food bank. But I do mean that if people think a garden will bring new church members and pledges, they should think again. This is the wrong reason for doing the right thing, and leads to diminishing ownership and support of the garden project by church members. Gardeners become "those people" who don't come to church.

Another factor is that a key church leader needs to be involved with the garden -with genuine encouragement, and preferably with clogs, sun hat and rolled up sleeves. This need not be the rector or vicar, though that's not a bad idea. Deacons can do it. And in family-sized congregations a matriarch or patriarch with good organizing skills. S/he doesn't need to have all the vision - that can emerge from those working on the project - but does need to have energy and commitment.

Which leads me to a third observation. If there is any question about the buy in of the congregation to a community garden project, start small. I've seen a few gardens where folks went gangbusters - building beds, readying lots of plots, doing a y'all come - only to find that they didn't have the volunteers to sustain it, or that some of the gardeners they recruited in haste proved irresponsible, and need to be uninvited next season.

Real gardeners know that there is no such thing as an instant garden. Community gardens evolve, too - and the best ones I've talked with are always learning from experience and leaning into the future, adding on, improving, changing with the neighborhood's needs.

As I look back at these three factors, I wonder if they aren't necessary ingredients for any successful congregation-based community ministry:
do it for others, without ulterior institution-serving motives
enlist authentic support from key leaders
start small and evolve, working with those you serve

Still, when you think about it, a community garden is one of the least expensive ways for a congregation to steward its resources for the good of others - to make a difference, make friends, make a little beauty in the world.

Community Garden legislation

was introduced in Congress last month.

One was a bill to make August National Community Garden Awareness Month. With lots of whereases - primarily from a food security standpoint - it seems to have gotten stuck in committee. Let's celebrate it anyway.

HR3225 is in the House Committee on Agriculture, and actually proposes grant support for community gardens. You can read the whole thing on Thomas. I'm most interested in the first reason it gives for community gardening - the environmental impact one, with health second, and educating around and about community gardens third.

My congressmember is a co-sponsor of the bill, but after three weeks no one in her office has called me back. One of my fellow Food System Working Group members here is trying to get a visit when she and her staff are at home this month.

It also seems that the agriculture appropriations bill for 2010 was amended (by Sanders, VT) to include funds for school community gardens, but I must admit to being a bit rusty at following all this bill history.

Something positive for the piggies

The other day, while following the stories of the dancing parrots, I ran across a note on a pub in England which barters allotment (community garden) produce for pints.

It's The Pigs, Edgefield, in Norfolk.

http://www.thepigs.org.uk/index.php5?page=The Pub

Great web site; made me hungry for lunch, never mind longing for a winery that might barter for zucchini in a couple of months, or even fresh herbs now.

(and I don't know why my cutting and pasting won't copy the whole web address - you may need to cut and paste, too - or try this instead http://www.thepigs.org.uk/index.php5?page=Press)

hectic autumn

I seem to have missed World Food Day and World Poverty Day, not to mention Indigenous Peoples' Day and the advent of COOL, so on a curiously free Sunday - except for garden chores at home and at the community garden and the last AL game of the year - I am going to do some catching up.

It's not that I haven't been thinking and talking about food issues. Our local food systems working group resumed meeting for the fall on Wednesday. My goal for working with this group is to push for a thorough baseline survey of our county food system. If we know where we are starting from, we will know where the leverage points are to improve - access, sustainability, localness and worker justice. I drafted a paper for the group which others will now add to, to make our case.

At dinner on Friday I chatted with folks from St. Stephen's in Colusa where there is interest in a community garden. Chatted may be the wrong word - I really dropped the whole load. Someone pushed the right button and I cranked up the enthusiasm - the evangelist of community gardens c'est moi.

I think our gardens are going to be needed even more with so many people's income and wealth declining while food prices rise. I don't know what kind of saving home or community gardening growing represents in the food budget, but I know the quality is better, and time spent in the garden is time spent in wholesome activity that doesn't cost a penny. As people cut back on shopping for recreation and expensive vacations, why not spend time in the garden? And you don't need a special outfit for it like you do, it seems, for every sport these days; you can wear your oldest clothes. Gardeners become re-users and producers, not so much consumers - which addresses one of the sacred cows of our U.S. economy that got us into this mess in the first place: consumerism.

Also on the food front, I was happy to be able to take tomatoes and baby green beans and squash from my plot for a raw veg platter at the Total Ministry Gathering reception. I also made homemade roasted tomato salsa to go with chips - which turned our really well for a first time improv. There is something about the companionship in good food that makes a meeting better. Most of the food at our gathering was prepared by members of the Redwood Cluster who were also participants in our conference, so that earth, food, friends in Christ were all connected. Whatever the topic of a meeting, such efforts make a difference. When the topic is servant leadership as a note of Total Ministry, it makes all the difference.

More Episcopal Community Gardens

I keep learning about more community gardens at Episcopal churches, ones I would have liked to have included in my article.

St. Mary's, Los Angeles built a community garden last year, the Yamazaki Memorial Community Garden. A quick web search yielded only this photo.
http://stmarys-la.org/?p=11
For those of you who aren't familiar with it, St. Mary's is a 100+ year old congregation rooted in the Japanese American experience. John Yamazaki, for whom the garden was named, was a new priest when he went to camp - internment camp, that is - during World War II. I had the privilege of knowing him when I worked in the Diocese of Los Angeles.

The neighborhood around St. Mary's is no longer one of folks of Japanese descent, but of newer immigrants from Mexico and Central America, and near the current Korea Town. The garden is proving to be a place where commuter members of the congregation and those who live in the neighborhood can come together. Thanks to Steve Nishibayashi for bringing this to my attention.

Just today I learned about a garden at St. Andrew's, Arlington, Virginia, serving those in need in their area. They have a blog - using the same canned header and color scheme as this one! - where you can see pictures of their pretty large garden. It's posted to the right.

If you didn't see the photo album published by Episcopal Life On-line, here is the link:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_101277_ENG_HTM.htm

I feel like doing a kind of "dear diary" entry today. What a day - I filed my story for the November Episcopal Life about environmental education at Episcopal Camps, we got real rain - for which the garden and I thank God - the Red Sox beat the Angels again AND

the on-line photo album of Episcopal Community Gardens was finally published!

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_101277_ENG_HTM.htm

I had such a wonderful time doing this story, phoning and emailing with folks committed to community gardening all around the country. There are a couple more that I did not receive photos from, but with whom I am in touch. Several have blogs which I am going to post links to here.

They are all wonderful witnesses to that place where care for the earth, care for the poor, and building community among generations and cultures come together.

Yes, but we must cultivate our garden

Just a note to recommend conversation around the topics treated in "Gardening at the Dragon's Gate" by Wendy Johnson - who gardened at Tassajara and at Green Gulch Farm near Muir Beach in Marin County California, both SF Zen Center projects, and now carries on in her own garden near Stinson Beach.

Lovely beginnings - friends who got me started on it also got me thinking about community gardens in Snohomish County WA where I now am (mostly). . . some local churches have (I think) gotten into community gardens as well as food banks -- making the connections from land to table.

What is going on around here for sure is Annie's Kitchen at Edmonds Lutheran Church - open to all, and all sorts of folks come. It's free, using donated food from local grocers, and cooks and servers are volunteers (including some from St Alban's, Edmonds, my own place). I'm wondering if we might cultivate a garden (displacing some himalayan blackberry bushes, at least temporarily) out behind our education building.

Meanwhile two of my 'bio-intensive' organic gardening enthusiast friends are staging a pumpkin growing competition in Santa Cruz..... will fog-kist squash beat out hillside sunned?

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At Christ Church, Bayfield WI, a couple bring produce grown in their garden to the sherry hour after High Mass - help yourself and leave a cash donation for Lutheran World Relief (one of the most efficient charities, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, so you get a lot of bang for your buck - as well as string beans and summer squash).

Even more garden news

I almost forgot to post a link to this great story by Pat McCaughan on a community garden project in the Diocese of Los Angeles. I wish I could have been there!

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_97719_ENG_HTM.htm

Garden News

Word of mouth locally and news reports from Britain and the US all suggest that vegetable gardening is on the rise. Marian Burros reported on the phenomenon in yesterday's New York Times. Her gleanings about who and why seem to match what one can learn by observation and conversation.

It's the price of decent produce which is the trigger, even though there are lots of other reasons (exercise, food miles) to grow your own. She even suggests that if you don't take a traveling vacation, you have more time to garden. That's one I hadn't thought of: the gardening staycation.

At the TLC community garden things are finally beginning to move. One thing I've noticed is that most of the interest seems to be among younger and older adults - and the pictures in the NY Times article illustrate this.

Water has been in at our community garden for several weeks now, and my plot is planted - at least as much as I am going to do for this spring and summer. I now have two twenty food beds. Our second heat wave has finished off the peas, and I'm letting the last of the lettuces go to seed for next year. I'd already interplanted the hot weather crops in that bed - tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, eggplant, basil - so they'll keep on chugging as I pull out the peas. There are blossoms on the tomatoes and one of the peppers has set fruit. Nights have been warm, so the tomatoes should be setting fruit also.

My second bed is planted in green and shell pole beans, summer and winter squash. It needs a top dressing of the compost which was supposed to have arrived yesterday. There was not enough on hand to do the job right, but I was eager to get my planting done. I'm determined to get a few boxes built during the summer, and do some winter cropping this year. Probably chard will go in when the beans are done, and lettuce in the smaller boxes.

Late this afternoon I am going to help water down the rest of the plots so that they can be tilled and planted soon. I don't know what those gardeners are going to do for gopher proofing - my beds are lined with wire. But we have it on good authority - from Joe Imwalle - that tomatoes can be planted as late as Bastille Day and still yield in our climate.

Meanwhile, just the act of watering for a couple hours on a hot evening seems like a good thing to do - refreshing all the way around.