May Challenge: Grow

This month, as spring settles in, it’s the perfect time to connect with the natural world. Even if you’re staring at the same yard or walking the same street, if you pay attention, you can see things changing every day. And while I love observing, you can take your relationship to a whole new level once you get some dirt under your fingernails. When I started gardening, my love of plants went from star to supernova.

Plus, gardening in whatever form is available to you is a great eco intervention. Even a tiny houseplant is useful, not because of any magical air filtering (which sadly looks to be not a thing), but because it’s an opportunity to practice stewardship and connect to other living organisms. We are, after all, not separate from nature; we are nature. If you can plant outside, in pots or in the ground, you can do far more: you could grow some of your own food (avoiding massive supply-chain food waste and emissions, packaging, and exploitative labour and environmental practices), or grow perennials that store carbon and support biodiversity.

You likely know that gardening is my greatest joy (except, maybe, diving into a cool summer lake, or when the cat sleeps with his paw over his eyes) and it’s one I expect to last a lifetime. I want everyone to get a little of the pride, wonder, surprise, and satisfaction that comes with taking responsibility for some growing things. Plus, we’ll fight hardest for what we love, so there’s no better time to connect to the roots and shoots all around us.

Before we get into this month’s challenges, some background reading chock full of all the facts and solutions you love:

• Grow for victory

• Trees, please

• The butterfly effect

Now here’s your checklist for the month:

Get your hands dirty.

Put something in soil: a houseplant, seeds, seedlings you bought at the nursery — whatever. The mission this month is simply to become a steward to something green and growing. Choose a plant that’s right for your conditions (amount of sun being the most important), and you’re halfway to success. Look up what your plant needs to survive. If you’re growing indoors, don’t overwater — the #1 killer of houseplants.

Part two of the exercise is to lavish a little loving attention on your plant: photograph it, draw it, jot down how it changes over time or throughout the day. This may seem a little silly, but spending time with plants and in natural spaces can reduce stress and anxiety, enhance creativity, productivity, and memory retention.

Divide or propagate, then share.

Some plants reproduce in obvious ways, making pups or self-seeding, and others need a little encouragement, but so many plants are made for sharing. Easy-care houseplants like spider plants, aloe, and pilea practically offer up their pups on a platter, and others like pothos take extremely well to rooting in water. Outdoors, annuals may have self-sown, and perennials may be dividable. I’m organizing a seed and plant giveaway for my neighbourhood this weekend, and have hundreds of packs of seeds and plenty of yarrow, garlic chives, kale, lettuce, and goldenrod to share (and I’ve propagated a few houseplants too). Offer some of your plant abundance to a friend, or offer it up for free online. You won’t have to hold on to them for long.

Try sprouting.

Even if you don’t have a window, soil, or a pot, you can grow nutritious microgreens to eat. Some grocery store seeds can be sprouted (like peas, mung beans, or chia seeds), but I buy designated sprouting seeds ($3-5 a bag at your local hippie/natural foods retailer). To sprout, you need a clean jar, some kind of mesh (I use a mesh produce bag or a bit of tulle I saved from a wedding favour), an elastic band, and another container to prop your jar in. Here’s what you do:

1. Put a tablespoon of seeds in your jar.

2. Fill jar halfway with water.

3. Place mesh over jar opening, secure with rubber band.

4. Let seeds soak for 4 to 8 hours (or as package indicates).

5. Pour out water and prop jar, mesh side down, inside the other container, so it’s at an angle and air can circulate.

6. Rinse your seeds twice a day. This is important to make sure no nasty bacteria enter the mix.

7. After a few days, you’ll have sprouts! Place them in a resealable container in your fridge (I often line mine with a bit of paper takeout napkin, which somehow ends up in my house). They’ll last for about a week.

You too can have your own tower o’ microgreens! This is about 1.5 tbsp of seeds in a 500 ml jar.

You can also sprout in soil on a windowsill, which is a great option if you want bigger shoots of things like sunflower or pea. (And if your cat likes cat grass, a few cents of buckwheat from the local bulk section will give your kitty a pot of greens in a week or two.) When seed shopping, note that there are a few seeds that don’t do well with this jar method, including chia and arugula. They grow best in soil or on terracotta (think: Chia Pet!) and in my experience are more trouble that they’re worth.

Sprouting is an ideal activity for kids. Sprouts are great on a sandwich or burger, avocado toast, or in a salad.

Let’s get structural!

Gardening is, unfortunately, a privilege — one that requires time, access to outdoor space and growing supplies, and enough safety and stability to see something through its growing process. A donation to Black Creek Community Farm funds opportunities to grow and access local food in a densely populated urban area. They also do loads of programming with kids to fill those important gaps in garden education. You can also look for community garden or food sovereignty programs near you.

I love this Indigenous seed sovereignty project, a collective growing and distributing ancestral seed varieties to Indigenous individuals and organizations.

And while we’re talking about growing food, a donation to the Migrant Workers Alliance supports the rights and well-being of the international workers who do the hard labour of growing and harvesting most of the food in this country.

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Wins of the Week

“Is art resistance? Can you plant a garden to stop a war? It depends how you think about time. It depends what you think a seed does, if it’s tossed into fertile soil. But it seems to me that whatever else you do, it’s worth tending to paradise, however you define it and wherever it arises.” — Olivia Lang, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency

Like Santa, I am always watching for good behaviour. Here are a few excellent eco actions on my radar this week:

• Sarah Joy and her daughter went hunting for invasive garlic mustard in the local ravines. They uprooted what they found and turned it into pesto! (Once you can ID garlic mustard, you will see it everywhere and be highly tempted to rip it out of people’s yards.)

• Ashley is challenging herself to not buy any clothes or shoes in 2021 unless she specifically needs them (and found some great hiking footwear at the thrift store).

• With the help of her mother-in-law, Melissa revitalized my grandmother’s cast-iron pan, and it looks brand new! Cast iron truly can last a lifetime, and even something that is rusted can be revived. (Anne Marie Bonneau has a great cast-iron revival tutorial.)

I love being the eco town crier, so please do share your wins with me, by leaving a comment, hitting, reply, or posting them in our Facebook group. Also if you want to talk about gardening at any time, I am 100% here for it. Happy growing!

xo

Jen

P.S. Some farewell inspiration . . .

I have this print on my wall. Words by Gayla Trail, art by Gavin Risk. These two are losing the garden they’ve cultivated for a decade and being forced to move at an especially precarious time. If you’re inclined, you can buy a print here, or find it in Gayla’s book Grow Curious.

Five Minutes for Planet is written by me, Jen Knoch, and edited by Crissy Calhoun. Opening photo by Francesco Gallarotti on Unsplash.