Design

I love how they've expanded the community garden plots at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Asheville, NC. Potato, herb, and onion beds to the left! These are devoted folks to growing (but more importantly harvesting - that's the hard work) fresh vegetables for our local regional food bank (Manna) here in the mountains of Western North Carolina. They've added these nice hay bale-surrounded herb and potato growing plots, in addition to their regular row crops. What fun!

I've been reading about gardening in a time of climate change recently, not a particularly uplifting topic. So I've been thinking about what it will mean for our native plants, the plants we can grow in our gardens, wherever we are, and how weather unpredictability will affect the plants (native or not) that we love. But gardening as restoration (of place and spirit) is an excellent antidote to environmental worries. What I do understand is the essential ability of gardens to restore patches of earth to support wildlife, and everything associated with a diverse array of plants. I know that we can transform barren spaces to areas that are both lovely and life-sustaining, and that communities, towns, and cities can 'green' themselves by planting a diversity of trees, shrubs, and perennials and encourage gardening for food and wildlife, and become living spaces in the process. This is a perspective that has grown on me, as a plant ecologist interested in the natural wo...