the following article was published in the Lammazine :
Apr 9: Garden Passages
Tavis - Co-moderator of Environment, Politics & Development forum:
(Copyrights: all photos by Cindy Poon, except giant turnip by Jayne.Click any photo to enlarge.)
What's the Tai Peng Community Garden all about?
You might think it's all about growing juicy and delicious fresh organic veg. Yes and no – John has enjoyed a constant supply of greens to supply his healthy raw food diet. Geoff has had a tremendous crop of cherry tomatoes that never seems to stop giving. Jayne and her son Tai grew a turnip large enough to require VV truck assistance at harvest time.
But on the other hand there are many of us who remain undaunted by sparse harvests. Nancy's Mexican food fetish has prompted her to become our bean expert. But, her enthusiasm for bean growing seems to be growing faster than the beans themselves. She proudly informed me the other day that her efforts so far have yielded a small tin of beans – I forget the exact number something like 57 beans and counting! She's not alone in her story of somewhat modest vegetable gardening success. So, why do some of us vegetatively impaired gardeners keep coming back when the veg lure itself seems as small as a protected Roemer's Tree Frog and nearly as hard to find?
For one thing there are always the flowers; the path-side portion of the garden is just for flowers. You eat first with your eyes as you pass through it toward the vegetable gardens at the back. And for some, the flower garden fills their appetite enough. Skye is our Flora, our Goddess of Flowers, and she, along with a few others, has made the garden delightfully beautiful this year. I have heard local people passing by refer to our garden as the 'Tai Peng Fa Yuen' or Tai Peng Flower Garden.
For some, the garden is a great photo opportunity. Sendya has used her photographic magic to transform our few humble flowers, vegetables, and old furniture salvaged from the bins into an outdoor cathedral – colourful stain glass scenes depicting life, joy and laughter. For some the garden provides a much needed spiritual respite – a quiet place to meditate – a place to gaze up at the night sky and wonder at the falling of a star.
If you ask the children what the garden's all about, they'll tell you about the tadpoles and the catfish in the pond (and, unfortunately, exactly how best to catch them). They'll expound the delights of mud pies and birthday cake. (Last Sunday, Tristan, Avi, Jette, and Younas all had birthdays so we had a communal cake-making effort.) They'll tell you about blind snakes – they'll explain that bananas are actually plants and not trees, but mostly they'll tell you that the garden's a great place to play with their friends.
And I think that's perhaps the most important part of the garden; meeting friends, working together, learning how to make our differences more of a strength than an obstacle.
It is after all, not just a garden, but a community garden. In this way it's a laboratory, a playground - it's more than metaphor but a focused point of connection and learning that speaks to the bigger issues and the life of community that extends beyond that garden and through the busy streets of Lamma communities. It speaks to the community that includes not only human kind, but plants, trees, insects, amphibians, water and sky. It's a place to build and strengthen relationship among people and with nature. This garden is a place where we can learn what 'community' really means.
Tavis - Co-moderator of Environment, Politics & Development forum:
(Copyrights: all photos by Cindy Poon, except giant turnip by Jayne.Click any photo to enlarge.)
What's the Tai Peng Community Garden all about?
You might think it's all about growing juicy and delicious fresh organic veg. Yes and no – John has enjoyed a constant supply of greens to supply his healthy raw food diet. Geoff has had a tremendous crop of cherry tomatoes that never seems to stop giving. Jayne and her son Tai grew a turnip large enough to require VV truck assistance at harvest time.
But on the other hand there are many of us who remain undaunted by sparse harvests. Nancy's Mexican food fetish has prompted her to become our bean expert. But, her enthusiasm for bean growing seems to be growing faster than the beans themselves. She proudly informed me the other day that her efforts so far have yielded a small tin of beans – I forget the exact number something like 57 beans and counting! She's not alone in her story of somewhat modest vegetable gardening success. So, why do some of us vegetatively impaired gardeners keep coming back when the veg lure itself seems as small as a protected Roemer's Tree Frog and nearly as hard to find?
For one thing there are always the flowers; the path-side portion of the garden is just for flowers. You eat first with your eyes as you pass through it toward the vegetable gardens at the back. And for some, the flower garden fills their appetite enough. Skye is our Flora, our Goddess of Flowers, and she, along with a few others, has made the garden delightfully beautiful this year. I have heard local people passing by refer to our garden as the 'Tai Peng Fa Yuen' or Tai Peng Flower Garden.
For some, the garden is a great photo opportunity. Sendya has used her photographic magic to transform our few humble flowers, vegetables, and old furniture salvaged from the bins into an outdoor cathedral – colourful stain glass scenes depicting life, joy and laughter. For some the garden provides a much needed spiritual respite – a quiet place to meditate – a place to gaze up at the night sky and wonder at the falling of a star.
If you ask the children what the garden's all about, they'll tell you about the tadpoles and the catfish in the pond (and, unfortunately, exactly how best to catch them). They'll expound the delights of mud pies and birthday cake. (Last Sunday, Tristan, Avi, Jette, and Younas all had birthdays so we had a communal cake-making effort.) They'll tell you about blind snakes – they'll explain that bananas are actually plants and not trees, but mostly they'll tell you that the garden's a great place to play with their friends.
And I think that's perhaps the most important part of the garden; meeting friends, working together, learning how to make our differences more of a strength than an obstacle.
It is after all, not just a garden, but a community garden. In this way it's a laboratory, a playground - it's more than metaphor but a focused point of connection and learning that speaks to the bigger issues and the life of community that extends beyond that garden and through the busy streets of Lamma communities. It speaks to the community that includes not only human kind, but plants, trees, insects, amphibians, water and sky. It's a place to build and strengthen relationship among people and with nature. This garden is a place where we can learn what 'community' really means.
