The BIPOC Community Garden- Connecting Food and People through Gardening

[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]