My posts-- I am going to miss this!

I had trouble posting my blogs, so I finally figured it out and will post them all together to make sure they all make the blog. I had a great time in the garden and spending time with all of you, good luck with everything and keep in touch!

Day 1-- Today I joined Courtney, Sara, Emily Dickman and Katie for some quality weeding of one of the lots. I have weeded before, but was not expecting for the lot to be so overgrown with what looked like grass. I needed to brush up on my technique, so Courtney and helped me grab hold of a handful of weeds, and I pulled them out of the soil. This was going to be fun.

The group sat around the lot and we all began weeding. One of the best parts of weeding the lot was the conversation that existed. I think this is probably the benefit of gardening in a group. When I think of gardening I usually think of sitting alone and being one with your thoughts. This is very beneficial to those who know how to garden, but for the first time being at the lot, I am glad we worked as a group. We all chatted about things going on in each other’s lives, and it was nice to see how a community developed from an English class. This is surprising to me, because in most of my English classes, a bond rarely exists, besides befriending the students that sit next to you. Even though this was the first day of our voyage with the garden, I was already getting sentimental about the classroom and the friendships that have formed.

Day 2-- I have never been a serious gardener, but used to enjoy helping my mother with our garden, planting tomatoes, lettuce, or simply tending to the flowers. This is why I was so excited for Courtney’s idea for the final project. Though the weather has not permitted much time in the garden, and my schedule has left me missing two days of gardening with the group, I am really looking forward to what this afternoon holds. After spending an hour weeding last week, I am excited to finally be able to begin planting. One sad thing about this project is that I won’t be able to see the end result because I won’t be here this summer. However, if I do end up living in New York City, I plan on visiting Bethlehem many times this summer and next year and then will be able to see the progress of our garden.

I think I have a skewed perception of what the garden would look like when, or if I visit. What I am imagining is a flourishing garden of vegetables and flowers, and my peers who maintain the garden over the summer, benefiting from all that grows. After we start planting, I am sure I will get a better understanding of what the end result would actually look like.

Day 3-- Today we planted an assortment of vegetables and flowers. In one lot, from what I can remember, we plated beets, sunflowers, spring pees, carrots, and I believe kale. I think the second lot contained herbs and tomatoes, but I was not there when my peers planted in this lot, so I could be mistaken. This second lot with the herbs was already showing the tops of the plants. This past sentence proves that I am not the experienced gardener. From what I observed today, the leaves look green and the plants appear to be pretty healthy. The lots experienced a lot of rainfall from the night before, and this is clearly helped the plants.

Planting the seeds was a great experience. We divvied up the different seeds, and Emily Dickman and were ready to plant the beets. Surprisingly, our seeds looked the smallest, even though they were going to produce the biggest vegetable in the lot. We both kept laughing about this because you could barely even see the seeds when they were in our hands. Something that was also very educational about this process was that there are actual directions printed on the back of the seed packets. I loved this because it gave me a boost of confidence that I could pretend like I knew what I was doing. Emily and I followed the packet’s directions, while asking Will to double-check our work. We all marked our rows with sticks to remember where we planted our vegetables or flowers. The sad part of this whole experience was realizing it would take a long time for us to see the progress our specific plants made.

Day 4--Yesterday I planted beet seeds with Emily and today I kept thinking about the actually process of digging and planting the seeds, and how impressed I was with my peers.

When we first arrived to the garden, Will had already been at the garden for awhile. He was using a tool and scraping at the soil. When I asked him what he was doing, he said it was to help with the nitrates in the soil. Will’s knowledge on gardening is amazing. He was like our garden guru, and we always looked at him for help and suggestions.

Sitting aside Courtney, I watched her plant her sunflower seeds. It was evident that she knew what she was doing, so I just sat there for a second and watched her do her thing. After taking in her skills, Emily and I took charge and started making our row for our beet seeds. Once the row was dug to the right depth, we dropped our seeds in, following the directions on the back of the packet. We then covered our seeds with the remaining dirt.

Though this process was mechanical and required following directions, it was also very spiritual. Being a part of creating or at least helping something became a part of earth is an amazing feeling. Although we only put the seeds into the dirt, we were still giving the plant the opportunity to grow and therefore to continue to create.

Day 5--Visiting the garden alone was a different experience. Today, there were children playing on the play structure next to the garden, so it was not very quiet, but I was still alone and able to think about my day. The garden offered me serenity in a way that I haven’t really had before. With the normal noise coming from the playful children, I was put in a place where I was able to think inward, while also being aware of my surroundings. This was the first time I visited the garden without my classmates, and I cannot decide if I preferred today, or being there with the class. Comparing the two is difficult, because I was not planting or doing anything with any immediate interaction with the soil and our plants. Instead, I was simply at the garden to look and admire the lots. What was interesting about today’s visit however was how two completely different environments can be so close to another and coexist so perfectly. What I mean is, this busy plastic and metal playground sits a few feet away from the marked of garden. As a class we decided to garden to show our appreciation for organic and local foods, but it amazing to me that toxic materials used for the playground that give people such enjoyment, is right next to a garden which has the same effect.

Day 6--Today there were no children at the playground and everything around me was quiet. As a sat down next to the lot where I planted beets, I began to realize how serene and personal gardening really is. This was the first time I had visited the garden when there was nothing distracting happening around me, and this forced me to just sit and think. I am not saying that the quiet forced me to be there, but rather it required me to understand that this quiet was good and in some way humbled me. Day to day we are obsessed with technology, checking our cell phones, going online on our laptops, doing anything that helps us connect to the outside world. Being in the garden, though, helped me realize that stepping away from this technology and simply admiring your surroundings and the quiet that is present is probably the best way to feel connected to the world.  When everything was quiet around me, I was not worried about who was texting me, but was actually content on sitting on the wet ground and feeling comfortable looking at the plants. This brief period where I was disconnected with technology and was simply able to think my own thoughts, reflect on my day, and admire what was around me was amazingly relaxing. I am assuming this is the benefit people find of gardening and why they find it so relaxing and beneficial.

 Day 7-- I brought my friend Chloe to the garden today because I wanted to show her what we had done as a class. Of course nothing was really there to show for our planted vegetables and flowers, but it was still nice to know that our class planted the little seeds under the soil, and that we had made some small difference to the community. 

My friend Chloe lived on Birkel last year, which is about two blocks over from where the garden is. Chloe had no idea that this garden existed, and she really wishes she had known. South Bethlehem is not the most attractive place to live. There is trash and broken bottles everywhere and it can feel very unsafe. Having a simple garden a few feet from your house somehow changed the scary atmosphere. A garden, to me, represents safety; a garden is a sanctuary. Although this garden is not flourishing with plants or flowers, there is still some kind of an aura around it. Gardens give off a sense of comfort, and this garden makes me feel especially safe because I have contributed to it.

Visiting the garden with a friend was a new way to experience it because Chloe was not in the class, and though had heard many stories, it was great to be able to show her everything I had told her about. This gardening project was something very different for me, and I was excited to show off my hard work to my close friend.

Last Day--Today was the last day I visited the garden. It was not a quiet day, but there were not children around. Cars were driving by, which prevented me from fully immersing in a trans-like state at the garden, like I did the day no one was there and it was very quiet. What was nice about the surroundings today was that the serenity of the garden and the chirping birds, were combined with the outside distractions of cars driving by, and people chatting in the distance. Today was really the epitome of what the garden stands as- a combination of nature and everything involved in the outside world. I enjoyed the garden for what it was today, but also became very sentimental about our English class, and graduating. Time flew by this semester, and seeing the plants have not made much progress makes me wish even more that I was staying another semester to see the final product. Hopefully I will be on the east coast and will be able to make many frequent visits to campus, but today, sitting in the garden, I realized how real graduation has become. I tend to push things off and think they are far from happening, choosing to ignore the fact that this big period in my life is coming to an end, but sitting along in the garden, I realized it is actually upon me. The garden offered clarity and let me come to terms with this. Being stuck in the library all week, time seems to go by slowly, but quickly at the same time because all you are doing is working. Changing your surroundings and visiting the garden, though, offered me the chance to come to terms with the fact that college has ended. I am really going to miss Lehigh, and our English class. Hopefully when I come back to visit, I will be able to visit our garden and have moments to myself, like the ones I am so thankful I had the opportunity to enjoy these past we