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In this episode, Dani fan-girls over her Garden, but also discusses knowledge that she brings with her when creating a Garden, as well as things that the Garden has taught her.
For recommendations and links, see full episode notes.
Dani is honest and refreshing in her takes on the world and society. Listen as she explains how she’s come to understand the world through kindness, both towards ourselves and everything else.
[0:00] Hello friends! Welcome to Understanding Kindness, a podcast hosted by me, Dani! I’m someone who approaches life by learning from everyone around me, and I’ve decided to write it all down and talk about it here with you. I’ve learned that in order to create change in this world, we need to understand ourselves and the world around us, all while infusing kindness into everything we do. If I can do it, you can do it, and we can do it together. Welcome to Understanding Kindness.
[0:30] Hey everybody! Today I’d like to talk about my Garden. This is not a euphemism, I’d actually like to talk about my actual Garden. We’ve got Vegetables, Fruits, Legumes, Herbs, Spices, and Flowers. Now, of course, I’m not just going to be fan-girling over my Plants, I’m going to discuss some things that I’ve learned from gardening and knowledge that I’ve applied to help take care of my Plants…and thus, my spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health. So, without further ado, let me take you through my Garden.
[1:06] For today’s Native segment, I want to shed light on and bring awareness to the case of George Barlow. George was brutalized to the point of hospitalization by Inyo County sheriffs Timothy Noonan and Ryan Cuthbert because he “fit the description”. George allegedly charged the officers after they approached him because he was “agitated and yelling” in a gas station parking lot (this account was taken from a community news source called KIBS/KBOV radio). During the brutalization, quickly-turned attempted murder, one of the officers shot and killed George’s beloved Dog companion. George was not the suspect that the officers were looking for, but he was beaten and hospitalized on life-support for fitting their description and standing in a parking lot. I first heard about this attack from the Instagram page @IndigenousWomenHike. There, Jolie Varela highlights her own Community members seeking justice and support. On the day of this attack, Varela posted video footage of the attack, and later a GoFundMe for her cousin, George, and his family. Obviously, since he has been hospitalized by the attempted murder, George and his family need help with the medical expenses and support for the traumatization. Although, the GoFundMe is set up because of this particular incident, this trauma inflicted upon them has not been the first or the only. Indigenous Peoples in the world have been genocided, assaulted, imprisoned, and trafficked for hundreds of years. This trauma isn’t new, but it is time that the systems that have perpetuated this trauma be dismantled, and the individuals in place who have inflicted this trauma be held accountable and torn from their positions. You can find out more about George Barlow and this particular attack by checking out Jolie’s Instagram page where she continues to post about how the incident is being handled by Inyo County, as well as numbers to call and email addresses to send letters to sharing your outrage and desire for justice for George. Timothy Noonan and Ryan Cuthbert need to be held accountable for attacking George and murdering his companion. No one has the right to end another’s life. These officers need to be stripped of their positions immediately. Check out @IndigenousWomenHike on Instagram to find those numbers and email addresses. Take a look at the GoFundMe for George Barlow, and donate if you can. If you’d like some more history on policing, listen to the Behind the Police podcast series for a good overall history of policing up to now. For some insight on the history of Indigenous Peoples in the US and with police, check out the book “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. I’ll link everything mentioned here in the episode notes.
[4:00] {Singing} *Shooouuuuut-Ooooouuuutttttsssssss*
Hey there Patrons! I appreciate you both so much and cannot thank you enough….hence why I continue to thank you every episode. Anyway, thank you both so so much! If you’d like to join our Patreon family, visit patreon.com/understandingkindnesspodcast.
[4:26] So now, my Garden. I guess I’ll let you know about my history as a gardener to show you how I ended up at this point currently. As a child, I remember my mom attempting to make a Garden in a corner of our backyard. There was always great intention, but with little time to actually care for the Garden (and only minimal help on little Dani’s part), the Garden never really became a source of food for us. Though I wasn’t much help with the Garden, I always loved Plants and the outdoors. My mom did have lots of indoor house Plants, but, again, took care of those without much help from me. So, I grew up around Plants in the house and went outside often so I was surrounded by Plants...just had no knowledge of how to care for them. As I grew older and went off to college, my mom downsized and moved so she needed a place for some of her Plants to go. I, and my roommates, took on a good 10-20 of her house Plants and I quickly figured out how to care for them. This was probably my first real experience taking care of Plants and trying to keep them alive.
[5:33] Once college ended, and I was back living with my mom, I had much more free time. I was watching lots of videos on YouTube about gardening and Plants. My favorite channels were Fairly Local Life and Rob Greenfield, if you’re interested. I learned a lot about gardening and foraging and edible plants from watching these channels. I quickly wanted to try growing something myself. I found that I could plant old, sprouting Ginger and Garlic bulbs that I had gotten from the store and grow more food with them! This was amazing to me so I decided to try it out. I didn’t do much research on best times to plant or how to care for them, I just planted them, watered them, and watched to see what happened. At about that same time, I also found out that the plastic loofah I was using in the shower has a natural cousin (that I’m assuming that plastic version was based off of)- the Loofah plant! Loofahs are actually Gourds, much like Zucchini or Cucumber. Once it’s grown, you let them dry and then they become like a spongy Loofah on the inside. Great for scrubbin’ up in the shower or washing dishes. I wanted to try that out, since there was a lot of cognitive dissonance for me around using so much plastic, especially of the use-and-toss fashion, in my life. I purchased some Loofah Seeds and planted some in a pot. Then, to round out my first little Garden, one of my clients gifted me a couple of their spare Bean Plants. I transferred those to roomier pots and watched my Garden begin to grown.
[7:09] The Ginger and the Garlic began sprouting little Shoots straight up into the air. The Beans really began taking off with the extra room they had to spread their Roots. And the Loofah sprouted these 2 huge, thick Leaves rather quickly. I watered my little Garden about everyday in the Summer. I began watching as things really began to take off. Ginger and Garlic are both root Spices so I couldn’t see the actual food growing, but the Shoots above the Soil really began taking off, growing close to 2 feet tall. The Loofah began crawling up the trellis I stood near the pot, while the Beans began sprouting little Pods. I watched as my daily care for my Plants resulted in their growth. Throughout the season I was able to pick some Bean Pods that grew, which were tasty to snack on. The Ginger and Garlic continued growing straight upwards. And the Loofah continued its journey along the trellis.
[8:05] Towards the end of the season in August, my mom and I found out that we had to move so, I transferred my potted Garden, along with all my other things, to Jorge’s. His family had been growing a potted Garden as well with lots of Tomatoes and Chilis. I added my pots to the collection. The Beans didn’t produce much after the move and the Loofah continued crawling, but never produced any Fruits. I waited as the Ginger and Garlic continued on during the end of the season, and harvested the Ginger as the Shoots began to wither. The Garlic never made it, as I later found out that Garlic has a Spring harvest. Despite the overall small harvest I got from my first little Garden, I was ecstatic! I loved caring for and watching these plants grow and produce food that I could eat! I knew I wanted to do it again next year, and now that I was living with Jorge and his family in a place with a large yard, I was very excited!
[9:00] Throughout the Winter, Jorge and I would discuss our plans for the Garden in the coming Spring. We weren’t sure exactly how it would go, or what we would plant, but we knew we wanted to grow a lot of food so we could buy less at the grocery store and share with our family and community. Once the single slightest glimpse of Spring came, we began. We went to a local shop to purchase Seeds and some soil to start off. I planted the Seeds in a little egg carton to start off the Seedlings. They began growing and I quickly realized that we’d need to transplant them soon. So, I started mixing the old potting soil leftover from last year with some new soil we bought. Getting my hands in that Soil felt amazing. To know that I was preparing to plant food into this Soil added an additional amazing factor. I really felt like I was connecting with my food, and I was so excited to watch it begin to grow. Jorge’s parents were excited too and they began buying little Seedlings for us to plant. Quickly, the amount of Plants we’d be caring for was growing. I began planting the Seedlings outside sometime in March, I believe. I quickly learned that in our area, this was a little early. We were still seeing frost cover the ground on some mornings and I was worried for our little Plants. Jorge’s dad helped me cover them up every evening to prevent the frost from killing our precious Seedlings.
[10:25] I continued planting the remaining Seedlings as the weather continued to get warmer. I started a compost pile at around this time too. I had watched a video on the Going Zero Waste YouTube channel on making a compost pile so I knew the ratios and generally how to care for it, but I wasn’t sure exactly how long it would take to create fresh Compost. I was especially excited for this compost pile because I had tried to make one in the past without success. Last time, I hadn’t drilled holes for drainage in the bottom of the bin I used, so it soon became a smelly, soupy mess. This time around, I knew better though. I started our compost bin around March or April. The Compost did alright in the colder temperatures in the evening, but the Plants were beginning to look pretty dismal. Jorge and I worried as we began seeing our little Plants yellow and droop. We were very nervous and thought they might not make it. We tried to figure out what was happening. We thought, perhaps it was the cold and that the Plants were done for. The weather was warming up each day though and nothing was changing with our Plants. Soon, Jorge’s parents bought some fertilizers that we tried to no avail. One day, while tidying up the house, Jorge found some epsom salt, which advertised itself as a Plant fertilizer on the bag. So, we then tried that and soon began seeing our Plants perk up. Whether it was because of a warming in the weather or the application of the epsom salt, didn’t matter to us. Our Plants were finally taking off! This was a great morale booster.
[12:01] As we began watching our Plants really start to grow, Jorge and I wanted to expand even more. We looked for spare wood around the house and yard that we could make planter boxes with. We used an old cabinet with the doors and back removed to plant our Onions in. We found an old door and some spare planks of wood, and Jorge and his dad made a raised bed out of those pieces. There I started a 3 Sisters Garden, which I’d heard about from Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. So, there we have Corn, Squash, and Beans growing together. This planter box, in particular, I was very excited to start because I would be using Indigenous ancestral ways of growing food. I felt like I was really connecting with the Land that I’m occupying. This was very exciting and it made my excitement continue to grow as we found more things around the house to use for planting. We used an old storage bin for our Potatoes. And used any container we could find to plant more Tomatoes, Chilis, Carrots, Lettuce, Ginger, Sage, Peppermint, Cilantro, and Chives in. I started some Spinach in a few containers, with very little knowledge of how to care for the Plant. We quickly learned, after all of them bolted, that Spinach is a cooler weather Plant. So, it produced a lot in the beginning, but then quickly bolted and became inedible. One of our neighbors gifted us some Tomatillos, which we planted in some spare buckets, and some Cucumbers, which we planted in an old garbage bin. When I say that we used anything we could find, I really mean it. And everything is doing wonderfully now!
[13:42] I take care of the Garden every day. It’s a daily job. I get my hands dirty from checking the Soil, touching the Leaves and Fruits, mixing the Compost. I get my feet dirtied and wet from taking my shoes off and grounding myself while working in the Garden. Everyday involves lots of learning, and care, and listening. I learned up a bit on the Plants we are taking care of before planting, but ultimately just bought the Seeds or Plants and planted them, watered them and just watched to see what happened. Some days I’d think that they would be okay without Water, only to see that the next day they were drooping and begging for it. I’d water them and within an hour they’d be perking back up. I listened to them. I observed their signals to me and took action to care for them in the way they were telling me they needed. I go out and check the Garden every day. Looking for signs of how everyone is doing, signs for what everyone needs. A few weeks ago, we had Bunnies coming to visit the yard. They began eating our Carrot Greens, Lettuce, and Chilis. We quickly began devising ways to prevent them from eating our Plants. We put up some fencing around the whole area and I thought to put some of Ghost’s fur around the Plants, hoping to deter them. Whichever it was, it worked and the Bunnies now leave the Garden alone.
[15:06] The compost bin has been doing wonderfully as well! This project takes a lot of listening too. In a compost pile there needs to be a specific ratio of Nitrogen to Carbon. Kitchen scraps and green lawn clippings make up the Nitrogen content, while dead Leaves, brown paper, and dry yard “waste” create the Carbon filter needed in the decomposition process. Generally, there needs to be more Carbon than Nitrogen in a compost pile or bin. So, it’s essential that you check the pile and listen to what it needs. By “listening” here, I mostly mean smelling. The compost pile should smell like Earth, not like garbage. If it begins smelling yucky, add some more Carbon-rich materials, and make sure you have ensured proper drainage. Stir it around often so that everything can get in on that decomposition action. In 9-12 months you’ll have some wonderful nutrient-dense Compost to use for your Plants next season! Adding Earth Worms will help speed up this process. Everything works together, and it all teaches me how to listen and learn.
[16:16] It may seem like there’s a lot of knowledge needed in order to plant a Garden, but I, and my Garden, are living proof that little knowledge is needed to just start. Beginning to grow a Garden starts with a willingness to listen and learn. Obviously we need to know some basics, but most of the learning takes place along the way, with trial and error. Every day when I walk out into that Garden, I have no idea what I’ll find. It’s always full of at least one surprise for me. I spend time with each Plant, seeing how they’re doing, looking for signs of different types of care needed. When I open the lid to the compost bin, I’m always looking and listening for signs of how it needs to be cared for. Both the compost pile and the Garden are living beings. It humbles me to walk out there every day and not know what I’ll need to do to care for them, I know I need to listen. And each day, the more I listen, the more I learn. Gardening and composting has brought me such peace. Connecting with my food and the Soil grounds me to Earth and to my existence. I’m creating connection with the food that keeps me alive, keeps me breathing. It helps my spiritual health, my mental health, my emotional health, and in turn, my physical health. I’ve come a long way from my four little potted Plants on the back porch of a town house. Our Garden fills up half the yard now and it’s producing food for us to eat and to share. It’s liberating! It’s exciting! And it’s all because I chose to walk in listening.
[17:59] {Singing} *Recommendaaaationsssss*
Well then, we’re onto the recommendations. There are quite a few that I threw at ya today. There’s Fairly Local Life and Rob Greenfield on YouTube for some starter gardening tips and cool footage of some spectacular Gardens. There’s also the Going Zero Waste video on creating a compost pile. So, check that one out if you’re looking to start your own. And finally, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. This book is so beautiful and shares so much about, well, “Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants”. I’d recommend this one to anyone starting a Garden or just looking to learn more about the world.
To learn more about the history of policing, check out Behind the Police. To read up on some history of Indigenous Peoples in the US, take a look at “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. If you’d like to support Indigenous Communities, @IndigenousWomenHike is a fantastic Instagram page to follow as Jolie highlights members of her Community who need support and justice. If you’d like to support George Barlow and his family, numbers to call and email addresses to send letters to are strewn throughout posts on the @IndigenousWomenHike page. You can also send support financially to George and his family via the GoFundMe set up by his cousin.
I’d like to throw in a random recommendation here. Fantastic Fungi on Netflix is an incredible documentary on Fungi and Mushrooms and their mysteriousness. The film tells us about the enigmatic world below our feet of the Mycelium, or Root-like structure and communication system of Fungi. So little research has been done on all of the uses of Mushroom and Fungi that we hardly know a fraction of their usefulness to us and all Life on Earth. I can’t stress how beautiful and mind-expanding this documentary is and cannot recommend it enough.
As always, everything will be linked in the episode notes.
[20:13] If you enjoyed this episode, help support the podcast! All this content is free and I’d love to make it my job one day, so if you’re financially able join our patreon or send a one-time or recurring donation through paypal! You can also share an episode with family or friends, and give UK a kind rating and review!
Check out UnderstandingKindness.com for all episodes, transcripts, and blog posts. And why not take a listen to my other podcast, Better When Awkward, co-hosted by my childhood best friend Jasmine!
Get in touch with me by emailing UnderstandingKindness@protonmail.com, or through social media. You can find all links in the episode notes.
For now, be kind, be compassionate, be understanding, and question everything. I’ll be here. Thank you for listening to this episode of Understanding Kindness. [End transcript]