A community garden does more than just grow food. Whenever a group of people get together to garden, there is some great relationship building going on as well. As I’m the one to oversee the projects and activities, I can see some marvelous opportunities for growing people as well as growing food in the gardens. Take Tuesday a couple of weeks ago for instance. A group by the name of ‘Spiral’ introduced some of their people and their carers along for a tour of the gardens. The people in their care ranged in various degrees of being mentally challenged.
On their arrival we all sat around the picnic table having some morning tea. It was a wonderful opportunity to involve some of our regular volunteers to join in with these special visitors. A couple of the ladies joined us at the picnic table to chat with the people and what I observed really moved me. These two ladies showed me qualities of themselves that I had not noticed before. The way they interacted with these folk was one of great compassion and assertiveness. There was some real positive banter and relationship building going on. We all enjoyed ourselves!
We look forward to their next visit to the gardens where they will interact more with the volunteers and involve themselves with the garden activities.
Another observation I made was that of the attitudes of our younger people that work in the gardens. There was some demonstrative protesting amongst them at first but after their visit there was a change of attitude. The conversation certainly reflected it and we all realized how vulnerable we really are. Another conclusion that I can make from this experience is that we need to be our brothers’ keeper after all! If we can learn to truly care for others in the community, we can all help ourselves and the environment in the process.
