Planting

Home grown flowers and herbs

Lifelong learning is one of my core values and for that reason, last Saturday, I attended the Northeast Organic Farmer’s Association’s Winter Conference in Manchester, NH. I went because there were opportunities as a backyard gardener to learn about how I can utilize the techniques of permaculture to boost my garden’s productivity. I learned how I can build healthy soil, and encourage pollinators and beneficial insects to come to my yard. I attended a workshop and learned how I can help encourage and build community farms in my area. I learned the importance of supporting small local growers as a way to make sure there is food security in my region. I met a variety of people with amazing skills and ideas. I built my networking skills. I found hope because being a farmer, a gardener, or someone with a few plants on their windowsill is to be a hopeful person, someone who plans the future.

You certainly have to have a lot of faith when you put seeds into the ground. There are a plethora of challenges that those seeds will have to overcome before you will harvest the benefits of that single act. If you have ever tried to grow something you know this. If you’ve ever nurtured another living thing you know this struggle. Just getting up every day and making it through the day is a huge leap of faith but one that must be taken.

Last summer’s eggplants.

If you sow the seeds too early they might be harmed by the cold. Plant them in muddy soil, and they may rot. The young shoots might be nibbled up by the critters. A hard rain or hail storm may flatten and break your plants. Perhaps you chose to plant in a spot that is too shady for that particular variety or you put it in the blistering sun. Droughts, pestilence, fire, floods all wipe out the efforts put forth by a grower, yet they do it every year. Why? Because that is what they do. Oh and yeah, we humans like to eat.

Farming is an act of love for our fellow human beings. There was a time when we all had to gather and hunt down our own food. Then we banded together and divided some of the daily tasks of life. Next step we started planting and domesticating animals. You get the point, with time we divided the labor of life in a community. Now magnify that to encompass our huge 21st Century societies. Most of us are now dependent on someone else to meet our most basic of human needs - food. Today we are so distanced from that process that we no longer know where our food comes from, or the vast amount of knowledge, effort, blood, sweat, and tears goes into making sure we can walk into a store and pick up a ready made meal to go.

Marigolds are great for companion planting and pest control.

Now more than ever that system is under threat. Climate changes are resulting in massive shifts in weather patterns bringing unpredictable temperature swings, intense rainstorms, greater frequency of droughts, wildfires, flooding you name it. This can interrupt the number of growing days in a region, cause increase risk of plant disease or insect damage, loss of crops due to late or early season frosts, and the list goes on. Factory farming is causing an increase in watershed pollution, increased methane (greenhouse gas) levels, and as we’ve seen most recently wide spread disease in livestock such as bird flu. On the human side, the threats of mass deportations will result in the loss of thousands of migrant workers who keep farms working on a 24hour/365day basis, picking produce by hand, and processing all of this food so it can make it to our grocery shelves.

It sounds bleak doesn’t it? But it doesn’t have to be. We all need to acknowledge what is going on and push back against corporations taking over control of our food systems. We need to fight for the governmental agencies that help to ensure a safe food supply. We need to value and fight for the people who grow our food. We can participate in the process by growing some of our own food and healing the soil in our yards.

Planting can also bring joy and hope into your life. Will it bring some sorrow, yes, but that is how we learn to deal with life in general. Take the risk of clearing a plot in your yard to put in some seeds or seedlings. Have pots on the patio or front stoop. Grow herbs or microgreens on your windowsill. Go to library and grab some books on how to garden. Oh and some libraries even have seed banks where you can get seeds for free!! There is plenty of advice and knowledge to be found on YouTube and other websites. Start small, learn, grow, reflect, and repeat.

Prepping vegetables for freezing.

Plant flowers to support the growth of your edible crops. They help to attract the pollinators and beneficial bugs who eat the bad bugs. Plus they are cheerful. Can’t afford to buy flowers, grow your own. Store your abundance for the future by preserving what you’ve grown by freezing, canning, or drying. Share the bounty of what you’ve grown with others if you can. Importantly, save some seeds for next year’s garden. Planning for the future in an act of hope. Having hope is a tool of resistance. Maybe gardening is not accessible to you, but find out which tool of resistance is and put it to good use.

Take a moment this week to reflect on all that goes into making sure you have something to put on your plate.

Maryanne