[guitar music playing]
just three months ago this land was not
utilized by people. It had weeds so high
you couldn't walk through it, and today it
is a thriving, abundant garden where
black, indigenous, and people of color
can come together, grow community, and
grow food and medicine.
The community garden started in my dreams
a few years ago, and I was finally able to
realize it a couple months ago when we
broke ground on this property.
[guitar music playing]
The BIPOC Community Garden is a small
garden that I've put in right in my side
yard. It is a place for the BIPOC
community in my area to come and be able
to garden. Most of the beds are communal
beds, so we are growing a lot of
vegetables and herbs. Folks can come in,
they can help tend, they can harvest,
they can make medicine,
and then we have a few beds that are
individually stewarded. So folks who want
to have the whole experience of planting
the seed, planning the graden, tending it,
they have the opportunity to do that here
with a bed as well.
We have a community herb-drying shed.
It houses our tool lending library,
a lending library of books related to
herbalism, and a library of medicine-
making supplies. So if folks come to the
garden, and they do not have any tools,
or anything to make medicine with,
everything is in the shed for them.
It is also a place where folks can dry
herbs, so if they grow something in the
garden, such as a bunch of mint, and they
are like "oh, I would love to have this
over the winter so I can have tea," they
can harvest the mint here and put it on
the drying racks. It will dry beautifully
for them and then they can take it home
and have tea for the winter.
The garden is the
Jane Minor BIPOC Community Medicine Garden
and it is named after an amazing herbalist
and healer, Jane Minor, who was enslaved
in Virginia. In 1825, a fever epidemic
swept through Virginia. She was so skilled
that she not only healed other Black folks
but her enslaver enlisted her to heal
white folks as well. Because she was so
adept at that and so many people got
better where everywhere else folks were
dying, they granted her her freedom.
She did not stop there! She kept working
as an herbalist and healer, saved up her
money, and was able to purchase the
freedom of sixteen other enslaved folks.
The inspiration to create the garden was
to be able to have a space where BIPOC
folks could access the land.
That is a really big challenge for a lot
of folks nationwide but even in my
community where there is not a lot of free
land access. I also wanted to create
this space to be a safe spot for BIPOC
folks. I wanted this to be an outdoor
sanctuary where people can really feel
like themselves, feel safe, and be able to
connect with the earth.
The garden is just
such an amazing place of connection. It is
a place where folks can really reclaim
their connection to the earth. Lots of
folks have been disconnected from the
land. Just having a space where you can
put your hands in the earth, and get to
understand the cycles of the plants, and
the seasons and how the light changes as
we move through the year, that all just
helps to connect you to the land, to the
seasons, and I think to yourself. Your own
innate rhythms that we have been
disconnected from. It is also a beautiful
place of community connection. Folks are
coming out to garden together, and then
they make medicine together or go for a
swim together and it builds these
beautiful friendships. It is a way to tap
into something that is bigger than
yourself. Earth is the source of
everything. It is our life, it is our food
it is our medicine, it is our clothing, it
is our housing, so just being able to
touch that is really magical and I think
brings people home to themselves.
[guitar and piano music playing]
One thing that a lot of folks have
mentioned is that this is their happy
space, this is a place where they can
feel totally themselves and feel safe
because it is a sanctuary. It is a place
that was created by folks of color for
folks of color and that we are navigating
through a lot of white-dominated spaces in
our day-to-day life, and it is just nice
to be able to come to a space where it is
just your community. It helps us to
breathe a little bit. People also are
growing vegetables, so they are getting
good food to eat. They are growing plants
for medicine, so they are also able to
harvest and make medicine. 2020 has been
such an intense year, there has been so
much trauma and pain that we have all
experienced, and folks have been able to
come here and let go of that for a moment,
and that is such a gift. There is no
community garden without community.
Absolutely not. When I came here and I was
like "Oh, I have a yard, I can have a
garden! Oh great, I can grow this and I
can grow that! But wait... that feels like
something is missing. If I have this
opportunity, I want the community to have
this opportunity." And because I opened
up this space for other people, that also
opened up the community to want to
support it, so it has been a really
beautiful coming together.
In just three months it went from
six-foot-high overgrown brush
to all of these amazing beds
and really without a lot of work. We used
a tarp which was great so we did not have
to bring in machinery to cut things down
or to till a bunch of times. After the
tarp came up, the neighbor came in with
their tractor and they tilled just once,
and then I had a work party. Fifteen folks
came out and we got all the beds made
in a few hours. We planted the beds over
the next couple weeks and then we have
just been weeding and mulching.
[guitar music playing]
It is also I think really helpful for
folks to see the scale of this, to see
that "I could totally do this in my yard
as well. I do not have to have
a bunch of acres, I do not have to even
live in the country. You can
turn any plot of earth into a beautiful
abundant garden." It is all right there,
it is such a huge potential, we can not
continue to rely on big agriculture and
monocropping and the degenerative ways
in which food is grown. I feel like there
is so much potential and land that can be
turned into flourishing gardens for
community. Do not be intimidated! It is
something you can do just in a yard. You
can do it literally in just one bed if you
live in a city. Even if you have a porch,
you can have a community garden of potted
plants. There is no limit to where you can
do this, you can absolutely do this anywhere.
It is about community though, so make sure
you connect with your community, see
what is needed, see what is wanted, see
how a garden can serve folks, and then
just do it!
[music playing]
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