A more resilient future begins in the garden
Published 1:30 am Thursday, April 16, 2020
By Sue Letsinger
Earth Day is the perfect time to start a garden. It’s spring and we’re all at home, and some of us are looking for ways to stretch out our food supply while sheltering in place. It makes sense to think about sowing seeds in our home gardens for future resilience — but if we’ve never gardened before, how do we start?
As a latecomer to the food gardening world, it is difficult for me to offer advice. But I can share some guidelines which have kept me from feeling overwhelmed. With serious attention, commitment and a willingness to learn, we all have the capacity to grow our own food.
Start small. Think of your garden as a relationship that will grow and change over time. If you start small you can start now — sprouting seeds in your windowsill for an indoor micro-greens garden, sowing seeds in half barrels or large pots on your deck or tucking lettuce and kale among the flowers in a perennial border for the beginnings of an edible ecosystem.
Starting small this spring allows time for you to make informed decisions about your overall garden site. While you harvest greens this year from a small garden, you can define a space for next year that’s large enough for the amount of food you eventually want to grow, but small enough for you to steward with care. You might cover your sunny lawn with cardboard and woodchips (or a large tarp) and use this area to regenerate soil this fall with cover crops, green manures, compost and mulch. Take time to read and learn about regenerative gardening, and by next year you’ll be able to apply new skills and energy to a well-prepared no-till garden bed.
Start simple and let your skills grow over time. It’s good to start with plants that do well in our climate, such as greens. Greens are forgiving and adaptable, tolerating different light conditions, germinating and growing quickly and needing little in the way of additional care. You can sow their seeds now, and then again in July and August for a fall garden — many will overwinter for harvest in early spring. Greens are arguably the most essential foods for health and immunity, and you can keep a constant supply by leaving them in the ground and harvesting the outer leaves as you need them.
Start growing an edible ecosystem. You might find that the greens you plant are actually happier for the long term among your peonies and red flowering currants than they would be lined up in rows by themselves. Like people, plants often do well with companions and are more likely to thrive in diverse communities. The more we learn from one another about how different plants, insects and soil microbes benefit and interact with one another, the less we need to rely on additional inputs to keep our gardens healthy.
Start and end your growing season with seeds. One of the most important skills to develop for resilience and resilient gardens is everything to do with seeds. Next year you might want to start your own seeds to accommodate our short growing season for warm-weather crops such as tomatoes. In the meantime, you can obtain starts from nurseries. Michelle Crawford at Pacific Potager can provide you with healthy seedlings, as well as advice and information about how to grow them in your garden. For seeds, you can sow directly (think greens and peas and beans), look for organic open-pollinated seeds so you can learn to collect them at the end of the season for next year’s garden or seed share. Jen Williams of Wild Dreams Farm led several invaluable seed saving workshops last year as part of the Vashon Seed Project and is planning, if possible, to repeat them later this year. Over the last year(s) we have all been hurled through unprecedented moments of crisis, but our local food network has remained steadfast and our gardens imbued with new significance. As we share learning, resources, tools and seeds for resilient gardens in our community, we are increasingly aware of their power to recalibrate unjust and out-of-control food systems. And as we learn practices that regenerate soil in our gardens, we are increasingly aware of their power to sequester carbon and stabilize the climate while providing us with food. On this Earth Day 2020, as we continue to adopt social distancing in our isolated gardens, we are increasingly aware of their power to act as spirit guides, leading us toward sustenance and health in a time of pandemic, and reconnecting us with a calmer, literally more grounded way of being.
