09/08/2025
Plant Love and watch it grow 🫑🍅🌽🥕🥒
I am SO grateful to have been a member of the Good Seed Community Garden this year. I spent a good part of my twenties traveling and working/ volunteering on farms and, inspired, helped to found the first community garden in my hometown ( New Fairfield, CT- where's that?!?!?!) which is still in operation today.
Starting the gardening journey can be daunting. Prepping the bed; "is the soil right?!" Starting from seed or transplanting starts. The money, the time; "is there a freeze coming?!?!" I spent my entire May going twice a day to cover and uncover ONE tomato plant that I eventually had to retire because she was way too stunted!
But then, there is the moment that you become an artist of your own nourishment. A mother. A caregiver. A lover. You speak and sing to your plants and tell them they are doing great. You pull thistle and knot w**d and make room for their little roots to grow strong. You stake them and prune them and water at sunrise and sunset, careful not to spray the tomato leaves. You worry... well, at least I worry. Will they grow, are they happy, am I terrible at this, was it all for nothing?
Then, one day, you look around on a summer's eve, as the air is finally cooling, and you might as well be in the most beautiful place on earth. Bees and butterflies hover and flutter, birds chirp and dash, flowers are vibrant in the dim light. Everything is green and fruiting and thriving. Other gardeners give you a smile and a wave as they crouch down over their crop. There is an energy, a buzz you realize could be nothing other than the sound of life itself. Heart full, you tell your plants goodnight.
Thank you Carbondale, thank you Sopris, thank you Rocky Mountains. Thank you hard-working, dedicated, inclusive, caring community.
There are a million metaphors I could make for the ways that gardening is like life..... but what I will say, is that what we reap is what we sow..... what we plant is what will grow.
Plant love today. Grow Love.