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Gardening: More than a Solo Activity

June 1, 2020 by Steph Coelho Leave a Comment

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Gardening: More than a Solo Activity

The pandemic continues to affect everyday life despite lockdown protocols being lifted, and I’ve spent a lot more time in the garden because it’s currently one of the few things I can control (albeit barely!). For more than a decade, I’ve continued to make mistakes and discover tiny miracles in my outdoor oasis. It’s almost always been a solo activity for me. I am physically alone when I garden, but that’s hardly a good description of what gardening is to me. It’s much more than a thing I do by myself. On quiet mornings when the only friends I have around are the birds and rabbits, I am thinking about all the gardeners I’ve encountered and conversed with.

I think about the gardener who just came up with an ingenious idea to block squirrels from digging up his beds. I think about the gardener who just had her first child—a child who will no doubt dig in the dirt at some point. I think about the friend who is moving soon to a new home with a small outdoor garden space, and I’m so thrilled to see it bloom. I think about the people who aren’t even gardeners yet but who may well one day become part of the green-thumbed community. I think about the people who grow and supply most of the food I eat, the local farmers, the migrant workers—and everyone else who works to bring food to people’s plates. I think of the people who don’t even call themselves gardeners but who have more knowledge than I’ll ever glean from my pitiful forays into the world of dirt and greenery. They are all with me when I’m plucking suckers from tomatoes and grumbling about flea beetles on my radishes.

This morning as I watered my garden, I thought about the recent protests happening across America (and even a few in Canada—Toronto, Montreal). As a white person, I cannot fathom the lived experience of a black person, but I can be an ally. So today, instead of writing about something gardening related, I’d like to amplify the voices of black gardeners and point you in the direction of people to follow, learn from, and get to know. People I’ll think about, too, when I’m alone in the garden, but not really alone at all. People we should listen to, hear out, and hold up not just now when they are screaming in agony for someone to listen, for something to change but always.

It’s not enough to be against racism. We must be actively anti-racist.

#blacklivesmatter

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Day one of margaritas and flowers was a hit can’t wait to see every one again today #margaritasandflowers #themelaninurbangardener #urbangardener #wisconsingardener #zone5gardening #blackwomengarden #blackgardeners #blackgardener #blackgirlsgardening #blackgirlgardener #blackgardeningcommunity

A post shared by The Melanin Urban Gardener (@themelaninurbangardener) on May 31, 2020 at 10:09am PDT

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6 days 😍

A post shared by Green Thumb Sistas (@greenthumbsistas) on May 31, 2020 at 6:41pm PDT

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Some are big, some are small, and there’s still more to harvest. I’m thinking onion powder 🤔 Who else makes their own spices?🙋🏾‍♂️ ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ #justgrowit #alwaysgrowingfood #gyo #getgrowing #stayhomeandgarden #🇯🇲 #citygarden #urbangarden #inmygarden #inmybackyard #organicgardener #backyardgarden #smallspacegardening #zone9garden #howdoesyourgardengrow #mygarden #texasgardening #texasgarden #growwhatyoueat #gardentotable #ediblegarden #growingfood #growfood

A post shared by Timothy Hammond (@bigcitygardener) on May 29, 2020 at 6:13pm PDT

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I’ve been trying for a long while to write about how my racial identity intersects with my work with plants and my worship of the natural world. Off the back of what I posted last week, I want to share some of those words in the hope that to do so will ease a little of the heaviness that has gathered in me. . And what I’ve written about is by no means as catastrophic as what continues to unfold in the US. It is an incomplete depiction of how white supremacy is expressed in an arena into which I’m embedded and I hope that it is read with that in mind. Link in bio 🥒 will send later today after a few more anxious re-reads. . Further reading about growing up and living as a black person in the UK: Brit(ish) by @afuahirsch Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by @akalamusic Don’t Touch My Hair by @emmadabiri . . . . #cucurbits #cucumbers #marketgardener #foodwastewarrior #organicagriculture #growsomething #growyourownfood #organicgrower #organicgardener #organicproduce #organicfarming #organicvegetables #groworganic #locallysourced #eatlocal #eatorganic #growsomethinggreen #instagreen #verdurouswomen #gardeningforhealth #seasonalproduce #pocinnature

A post shared by CLAIRE | RATINON (@claireratinon) on May 31, 2020 at 11:34pm PDT

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My first harvest of #strawberries! 🍓🍓😋 #veggingoutwithyvette #indoorplants #indoorgarden #houseplants #urbanjungle #tropicalplants #desertplants #greenthumb #containergarden #flowergarden #blackgirlswithgardens #blackgirlgreenthumb #houseplantclub #plantlover #growyourownfood #regrowyourfood #urbangardener #urbangardening #raisedbedgarden #squarefootgardening #balconygarden #backporchgarden #vegangardener #blackgardener #gardeninginthecity #communitygardening #victorygardener

A post shared by Yvette Wesley (@vegging_out_with_yvette) on May 29, 2020 at 3:29pm PDT

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Good News—> my county landfill will load in your vehicle a cubic yard and half of wood mulch for FREE! . Bad News —> A cubic yard of mulch is 400 -800 pounds and I don’t have a pickup truck to haul it in☹️☹️ . My solution—> Picked up a few bales of #PineStraw from my hardware store and hauled them in my little sedan to spread in the garden before the rain started today . . . . . . . . #growyourown #growyourownfood #growyourownveggies #blackgardener #blackgardeners #urbanfarmer #urbangardening #plantlove #growfood #growplants #femalefarmer #yardwork #gardenlove #vegetablegarden #pinestrawmulch #strawmulch #backyardgardening #zone7gardening #blackgardeningcommunity #blackgirlswithgardens #blackgirlgardening #girlgardener #growfromseed #gardenlife #gardeningcommunity #growingyourgreens #growyourgreens #ediblegarden

A post shared by Tanny Farms (@tannyfarms) on May 24, 2020 at 1:38pm PDT

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Harvested one cabbage today!! I am so proud of my love child.. #cabbage #farmer #blackgardeners #blackgardener #harvest #happy #vegan #gardenlife #livingofftheland #blackfarmers #blackfarmers

A post shared by 🌿Green Babe Marlee🌿 (@greenbabemarlee) on May 27, 2020 at 3:21pm PDT

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When I found purpose. I found myself. #gardening #communityoutreach #growyourownfood #urbanfarmer #beautyscommunitygarden #blackgardener #volunteerwork #sustainableagriculture #texasagriculture #gardens #learntogrow #blackeducator #workhard

A post shared by ValleyCrewReid (@valleycrewreid) on Mar 1, 2020 at 3:12pm PST

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It’s a good day for @olivers.agroforest today! ••• Started off the morning on a call with @wellspringforestfarmschool to talk about long-term and 2020 strategy, evolution of log yard, and other projects brewing in the pot. ••• Ending the morning with drop off of a few dehydrated mushroom orders at the post office! Thank you so much to those who have already ordered! If you haven’t gotten yours yet, head over to oliversagroforest.com/shop (#linkinbio ) ••• Feels good to be able to finally get some food/medicine out to you all! Mushrooms are so powerful and dehydrating them helps them preserve longer in your cabinet if you don’t want to use right away🥰.

A post shared by Olivia (@olive_watkins) on Dec 20, 2019 at 8:39am PST

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If my garden was a chessboard, then green onions would be my rooks. ⁣ ⁣ ⁣Their long, thin stalks stand firmly at the perimeter, serving as a barrier between my main edibles and the insects seeking to infiltrate.⁣ ⁣ ⁣Pests like spider mites, aphids, flea beetles, carrot flies and mosquitoes are repelled by the smell of green onions, and they abandon all hope of getting to the queen (aka my main edibles).⁣ ⁣ ⁣By planting more green onions than I can eat in a season, their pungent smell permeates the bed, making them more and more effective against the bugs.⁣ ⁣ ⁣Though everything is fallible and NOTHING is absolute (especially in the garden!), my green onions have stood tall in the face of attack. ⁣ ⁣ ⁣Every queen needs her rook! 👑

A post shared by City Girl Gardener (@citygirlgardener) on May 27, 2020 at 7:29am PDT

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YOU DON'T HAVE TO WATER DAILY/ Keeping track of how much water your plants need can be difficult, so why not take the hard part out of the equation. In this step by step tutorial, I show you how you can grow vegetables in 5-gallon containers without over and under-watering. Who says you need a ton of space to grow food? What would you grow if you could? Check the full video out on my YouTube channel. Link in the bio 🖇 #transplants #afrobeets #afrovegan #blackvegan #gardentotable #dcgarden #gardeneducation #blackmenwithplants #blackgirlswithplants #plantzaddy #containergarden #urbangarden #blackgardener

A post shared by AFRO Beets (@afro_beets) on May 30, 2020 at 11:46am PDT

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Thank you to my neighbor @khalias_kreations for the shirt✊🏾 #BLM . . . . . #backyardgarden #dcurbangarden #dcgardens #urbanfarmer #containergarden #springgarden #blackgardener #vegetablegarden #herbgarden #raisedbeds #blackgarden #momsgarden #urbangarden #urbangardening #greenthumb #garden #gardenlife #summergarden #blackgirlswithgardens #gardendc

A post shared by Kea (@dcgardengirl) on May 31, 2020 at 11:09am PDT

Steph Coelho

Steph Coelho is a freelance writer gardening in zone 5b. She is a certified Square Foot Gardener and has taught various garden-related workshops. When she’s not digging in the dirt or writing, she’s cooking up fresh produce, running, or listening to her favorite podcasts.

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