More by: Lori

Gardening is punk and I can explain why.

Self-reliance and sustainability are amazing concepts, but I think we have a very long way to go to try to achieve them. I think that planting a garden that is as organic as you can make it, is one of many pretty good steps in the right direction. While ecological devastation persists through our addiction to fossil fuels, massive clear cuts being performed daily, and contamination of all fresh water, we still seem to forget that it’s OUR fault the Earth is crumbling and that it’s equally OUR obligation to stop it.

As the fumes from this greedy nation billow upward in the sky and then circulate back into our lungs, the need for change (and drastic change at that) is evident more so now than ever.

So here’s my take on it:

This ecological devastation can be ceased through social movements of focused people standing in strong solidarity with each other (and to give them credit these social movements already exist) taking action against the corporations and governmental policies that perpetuate it. This is one part. The other is living our lives in such a way that unhooks us from our addictions and reliance’s on this devastation. 

In our current culture it is impossible, or maybe I should say extremely difficult, to practice both of these parts in absolute. But maybe the point is that we hardly practice them and if we do already, we certainly can do it better and should strive to. I think gardening is an incredible tactic and right now is the perfect time to start if you live in West Michigan.

Here are some quick tips on how:

-       Start a compost pile with kitchen scraps, hair, coffee grounds and filters, strips of newspaper, grass clippings and leaves. You can compost anything vegan. Turn your pile with a shovel once a week (at a bare minimum) and you will notice dark rich matter in the center – this stuff is really good for your garden when you go to plant. You’ll probably have lots of worms and beetles too, they are great for getting air in the soil so leave them be.

-       Acquire vegetable plants (I got a flat of 36 tomato plants for 8 bucks) and/or seeds that you or others will actually eat and not just want to grow because they look neat. The farmer’s market is a great place to go if you can stomach tons of strollers and white yuppie folks with sunhats.

-       When you go to actually plant, make sure your soil is tilled up and loosened. If  your compost is good and decomposed, feel free to mix that in too. Just follow the directions on the seed package or plant label, and you should be fine. After that, make sure you water your plants everyday and immediately after planting. If you are going out of town, have a friend or someone water it for you and give them a tomato or something in exchange. DO NOT let more than two days go by without watering unless we’ve had rain.

-       When it comes time to harvest you will have vegetables that you grew yourself that you can dehydrate, can (speaking of which I think I will do a column on canning soon because it’s awesome), freeze, dry, or eat right away. How cool is that?

While I am trying to encourage gardening vegetables in backyards, city lots, or abandoned spaces, I totally understand where one might have some difficulty making that a reality. It does cost something to start one up, but hey, most of my plants were purchased with money from bottles and cans collected from the sidewalks and garbage cans of Eastown. Or if a full on vegetable garden is a tad ambitious, why not try growing herbs on your porch. Plants like basil, parsley, chives and rosemary are fragrant, beautiful and very simple to grow either from seed or plant. Herbs are truly amazing if you read up on them. I don’t know tons, but I have checked out some good books from the library on them. You can make teas, medicines, tinctures, and you can dry them either through hanging or sun baking to have all year round. While most herbs and spices are just about the easiest thing to swipe from the store, having fresh basil on hand compared to store bought (swiped) will not even compare. I promise you.

So I could clearly go on and on about the wonders of gardening, but I’d like to return to my original motives behind why I feel one should garden. I garden because it is one step I can take that is by nature sustainable and self-sufficient and helps me give back to the Earth I am helping to destroy.

Gardening is punk because it says “no way, we can feed ourselves” without fucking GMOs, mass produced crops harvested by people who work for shit wages, pesticides, and lab-grown produce. Garden punx for life, get hoe-ing!