Our hosts check in on urban raised-bed gardening to unearth some surprising facts and philosophies behind the practice, especially in light of our extraordinary #COVID19 time of isolation and quarantine. (Bonus: Dr. Teri shares tips for creating your own small-mammal farmshare.)
This novel coronavirus pandemic notwithstanding, Spring has sprung, and shoots and blooms are breaking soil's surface as they have for eons.
Spring's arrival alone should fill our hearts with hope.
It's the hope that feeds Dr. Teri's passion for gardening. You can't garden without hope. You need hope to appreciate how the seeds you sow so gingerly into your fingertip-formed trenches will germinate, grow, and bear the delicious fruit and vegetables you'll harvest and enjoy a month or more later.
"There's a certain vulnerability to planting seeds," explains Dr. Teri. "Digging up the soil, understanding the soil, adding some manure or whatever the soil needs to be optimum for whatever I'm putting in...thinking about what the dirt needs, instead of thinking about what I need, what I want."
For urban dwellers especially, gardening offers the ultimate feel-good diversion from the isolation blues.
Seeds of Diversity
What's going into the garden this year? Lots of heirloom seeds.
Dr. Teri sees heirloom seeds as a fulfillment of the Bodhisattva Vows. "An heirloom seed is something that's not been hybridized or manipulated or genetically modified. We left it alone. We let it do what it does. Instead of forcing it to be something else – for us – we are listening to it and saying, 'what kind of plant are you? What do you do? Why are you here?' Working on the assumption that everything's supposed to work together."
On the list this year:
● orange beets
● purple carrots
● purple lettuce
● bok choy
● French dandelions
● purple basil
● Asian basil
● Mizuna greens
● stinging nettle
Wild Things at the Welcome Table
In keeping with her Buddhist values, Dr. Teri plans to share her bounty with others...including the community of small mammals with whom she shares her ecosystem!
"My neighbors were like, 'oh, that's a lot of work! The bunnies are gonna get it. They're gonna eat all your lettuce.' And I...don't care," says Dr. Teri with a shrug. In addition to rabbits, she welcomes local families of raccoons and skunks. As with most of us, when it came to food, Dr. Teri used to draw a line between humans and other species. But this changed after local wildlife got into her garbage cans repeatedly to feast on pungent cheese rinds, and subsequently strewing trash across the neighborhood. "I decided to stop doing that. I yielded to them, and started putting French cheese crusts out on the back patio on this metal tray."
She draws parallels between her small mammal smörgåsbord and the Hindu-Buddhist tradition of leaving offerings after feasts. "There are Buddhist rituals where we have a feast and the leftovers of the feast end up going out in the backyard, for the animals. Beyond that, in the name of ecosystem balance, if they want my cheese crust...I don't want my cheese crust. They've been here for generations before I ever was, before this house was here. Why would I put it in the garbage? It started to not compute anymore."
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