And just like that…the dream became a garden.
Yesterday we finished with Latifah’s garden, and I have to tell you, this one got me.
More than once during these last three days Latifah looked at me and said, “I could have never done this by myself.” She told me this was something she had been dreaming about, and now it was actually happening. I could feel her excitement.
And that right there made every bag of soil, every trip up those ridiculous steps, every sore muscle and every bucket of sweat worth it. 😅
Because this family was ready. Latifah already had the land and she owns her home. She already had the enclosure. She had the desire to grow food for her family and she was willing to put in the work.
What she needed was somebody to meet her where she was and help her turn that dream into something she could actually manage and grow from.
That is Grow It Forward-Johnstown.
We don’t have one garden that fits everybody. We look at the person, the family, the space they have, what they can manage and most importantly, what they actually like to eat.
Latifah is a vegetarian and loves just about everything, which makes her a gardener after my own heart. 💚 But she especially loves beets, so guess what? About a quarter of that big bed is beets!
That may sound like a little thing, but it taught me something important early on. There is no sense teaching somebody to grow a bunch of food their household doesn’t eat in the regular.
So, I when I first start a participant garden, we work with what I have available, what is seasonal and what makes sense for the space. Then I ask them to sit down as a family and make me a list. What do you really eat? What would you be excited to harvest? What would actually end up on your dinner table?
One family may want cucumbers and tomatoes because they love pickles and who doesn’t love a tomato samich?
Another participant may want corn and beans and that’s an easy do. Another may want greens and nothing but greens. And some families, like Latifah’s, may want a little bit of everything.
That list helps us plan what comes next.
And what comes next is much bigger than yesterday. Over the next 12 to 48 months, this family is going to learn how to grow their own food, how to choose what works for their space, how to sow their own seeds, how to save seeds, how to protect their plants and how to carry all of this forward themselves.
That is the goal. Not to hand somebody a garden and wish them luck. To teach them how to become gardeners. And then they become teachers in turn.
Experiencing Latifah working beside me was such a pleasure because she was completely engaged. She asked questions. She listened. She trusted the process.
Her boys were right there too. Her 13-year-old worked like an absolute champ, and thank goodness for him because this Secret Garden Gal’s body is not what it was ten years ago. 😂
And her littlest one and I had some very important conversations about bugs, spiders and worms. We talked about how spiders can help us by eating insects we don’t want on our plants, how pollinators help our garden produce food, and how if he finds a worm in the yard, he can gently move it into one of their raised beds and give it a new home. 🪱
He listened intently and that’s the stuff I really love. Watching the light bulb suddenly turn on.
By the time I left yesterday, food was in the ground, the garden was protected and nobody was burnt out. They were still excited.
And, that was the goal.
Breaking this build into three days turned out to be one of the smartest things I could have done from the beginning because now the hard part is behind them and the fun part begins.
They get to watch their garden grow.
And I get to watch them grow right along with it.
I cannot wait to see what this family does with their garden. 💚
If you’re curious about what Grow It Forward-Johnstown is about, feel free to follow along.
If you’ve thought about starting a garden, but don’t know where to begin, give us a shout, we just might be able to help you too.
