So I'm opening a large yogurt container yesterday and I see the foil liner on top promoting the free Organic Gardening magazine subscription and I think, "There's a great idea!" Not so much for me, since I'm already a subscriber, but I could save the four tops required and give them to a new gardener as a way to help him or her get started and stay inspired all year long.
And this, of course, got me thinking about what else I can do to be a good "Companion Planter" to people. One way, of course, is Open Garden, where my friends whom I never see enough come over and help me in the garden and learn for themselves not only what it takes, but more importantly how it feels to be out there. I hope, of course, one day they'll need help in their gardens, and Open Garden will be spread among my friends' backyards like the scattered seeds of the Hungarian Broom Corn that two neighborhood children just helped me cut and save. Like Kate and Maggie in Australia and their Seedsavers friends each Wednesday. Helping each other. Being together. Feeling a part of each other's efforts, and lives. Growing not just gardens but friendships and community.
Other ways to be a Companion Planter:
* Make the bed. Show up and create an insta-garden for a friend. I did this with a neighborhood child who always seemed to heal what ails her when she visited. This is the third year of her garden, her sister has now created her own bed as well, and now when I ask them if they need rosemary or lemon balm or thyme from my garden for their mom (who loves to cook), they say, "Nope. We got it," with great pride.
* Pass it on. Recycle gardening magazines and newspaper articles by passing them on. Friendly notes with little smiley faces usually help, or perhaps annoy. No one has stopped talking to me yet (I think).
* Share the bounty. Bake and cook and always feature something from the garden. Homemade pizza with dried oregano. Zucchini muffins. Herbal iced tea. I aim to use at least one thing from the garden every single day, all year, and then share a little bit of this and that whenever I can. Right now it's rosemary, lemon balm, cilantro, the lettuces, arugula, tatsoi and chard. There's not a lot of it (except the rosemary) but a little is enough to keep my flame burning--and to keep my friends (and me) learning.
* Get class. Search out classes at nature centers, cooking schools and other places that you think may help your friends learn what they need to move to the next level. Offer to take the class with them. Have fun!
* Divide and conquer. Split that patch of chives, pull up some mint and lemon balm, part with some of your spring vegetable seedlings, share your saved seeds, and never let folks who truly want to get started gardening leave empty-handed. My mom had a garden that she called her Friendship Garden because everything in it had been given to her by friends. A lady up the street who no longer lives there gave me the mint, which has since graced many holiday tables in my home as pesto and appears in my children's lunchboxes almost daily as a fragrant lunchtime pick-me-up. Farmer D gave me the sorrel, which he had planted in a children's garden near me years ago (kids race right to these "lemon leaves" and gobble them up). And what once used to be one herb bed has since expanded to three other beds. And growing. So that I will always have something to share.
Any other ideas? Let us know what's worked for you as a Companion Planter to your friends!
As for the week ahead, tap in to FoodShed Planet for:
* Nurturing people: A new magazine I've discovered that I LOVE, cover to cover!
* Nurturing planet: An interview with a man in Maine who is making a major difference.
* Nurturing profits: Cradle-to-cradle eco-design.
* Eating close to home: A visit to a celery-scented local processing plant.
* Around the world: A trip to Thailand.
* And other food for thought: There's absolutely no way to plan for this one!
NOTE: This editorial calendar is subject to change, based on the unpredictable new wonders that continually present themselves in the course of a typical week. Like snow. And worms.
UPDATE: January 20: Moments later!
I just visited Eat Close to Home, where the FoodShed Planet Victory Garden Drive is mentioned, along with this GREAT suggestion for those of us who blog and already have gardens--offer to be a Companion Planter with personalized online advice to five folks who reach out to you through your blog. I LOVE THIS IDEA!
And so, I throw my metaphorical gardening hat in the ring and am now offering to TAKE FIVE! The first five non-gardeners (who are truly committed to starting an organic kitchen garden) who email me will be my Take Five Team. I don't claim to be an expert, but I'll share what I know and encourage you to keep going--and growing! I'll even feature your efforts on FoodShed Planet throughout the year! Could be fun. And gets us closer to 2 MILLION new organic gardens in 2008.
Email me at freshbakedcopy@mindspring.com. And all you other blogging kitchen gardeners, why not Take Five too?
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5 comments:
Hi Pattie,
"Companion planting" is a great idea! Just imagine what would happen if everyone who has a garden or farm picked one person only to mentor, helped them get started and got them to commit to mentoring their own person within 12 months and helping them get started. Then perhaps we could break this cycle of outsourcing our food production and take a more active role in what we eat.
Thanks for the post!
Tim
Nature's Harmony Farm
That's like the Heifer International plan--get a goat, and give an offspring of the goat to another. And so on, and so on, and so on.
There was this poster in one of my classes when I was a kid that said, "If you've had a kindness shown to you, pass it on!" I think of that poster all the time (especially when someone lets me in, in traffic!)
I spent 2 days last year helping a friend clear a garden plot of chest high weeds (I'm not kidding!) 8 hours total was spent. She never got around to planting anything and I will spend 8 hours again this year helping her clear all the weeds. Does this could as companion planting even though nothing ever got planted LOL. I even gave her seeds to plant.
A man contacted me recently, through our blog, and wanted help to start a veg garden. I will get beack to him right now and make him my companion gardener. He lives just at the bottom of the hill and wants his kids to grow up knowing about growing food but doesn't know how to get started, especially when it is so hot. I can do that....
Kate: I love that line, "I can do that." And it's no coincidence that I have been walking around lately saying, "Because, this I can do" about almost everything, because you and I seem to be tuned in to the same "channel" or something. "Because this I can do" has become my answer to anyone who asks why I went veg, but it also works for why I carry cloth bags to the supermarket, and why I garden organically. "Yes, I can do that." "Because this, I can do." A word or two flipped, like the flipped seasons and hemispheres between Adelaide, Australia and Atlanta, USA.
Let us know how things go with The Man Down the Hill.
And Christy, that's friendship! Maybe planta fe wthings for your friend this year and check back once a week or two.
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