On September 25th a dozen attendees participated in the first Roslindale Edible Garden Stroll and Harvest Potluck. We enjoyed an afternoon together of music, food and garden visits.
As we ate home-prepared potluck meals made with local harvest, Kim Patch and Eric Smalley played live music on fiddle and bass. The delectables included kale salad, spicy sweet potatoes, tomatillo chipotle biscuits and poached pears. Country reels floated on the air as we enjoyed meeting new – and re-connecting with old – Roslindale neighbors.
After our sumptuous lunch, the group set out – many by bicycle – to visit six Roslindale produce-bearing gardens. The gardens reflected a mix of styles, sizes, influences, and produce. Our goal was to see the types of edibles gardeners were growing given the constraints and advantages of urban living, and to learn from their creative-problem solving.
The event was co-sponsored by the Community Garden Initiative of the Friends of Healy Field (FOHF) and GreeningRozzie. The Community Garden Initiative is organizing to gain neighborhood support for a Community Garden in a part of Healy Field that doesn't compete with current athletic uses of the field.
On the stroll we found a transplanted Mainer who eased homesickness by converting an entire front yard into a life-giving food oasis, producing peach trees and grape vines, tomatoes, kale and chard, among other vegetables. The garden is tended by parents and a young son.
An American family of Albanian and Greek descent on Belgrade Avenue re-sited their garden after observing urban run-off from their driveway leaching into their garden soil. A boundary line of fencing now resourcefully supports a profuse vertical garden of butternut squashes. Peppers, herbs, tomatoes, eggplants and grapes share garden space. Our hosts explained their pickling recipe and methods of preserving. A pining for the flavors of the mother country has nurtured a “thana” tree – a mildly sweet fruit tree native to Alabania. And a two-year old apple tree is yielding fruit for the first time. This garden is right along the commuter rail tracks and feeds four families! The elders of the family, whose English is limited, have handed down gardening knowledge and skills, demonstrating how three generations work together in their garden to harvest produce in an adopted new urban environment and country. We were reminded here that organic gardening is a wise, centuries-old practice.
Nearby, we discovered steep steps leading to a container garden “terraced” onto the pitched hillside. Here was creative adaptation to a challenging site.
Successful strawberries and herb crops abounded. One of these gardeners also tends a Community Garden plot on Cummings Highway in Roslindale. We were delighted to be invited to visit that plot on a future Edible Garden Stroll.
We found our next edible garden next to Healy Field the site of our hoped-for Community Garden in Roslindale. Here grass was completely removed to create a sanctuary of healing herbs, apple trees, vegetables, and flowers. We were shown how to make a “potato box” to grow this root crop, vertically increasing one gardener’s productive capacity.
On we went to a second-story dwelling where our intrepid host gardener had solved multiple urban garden challenges: situating a garden on a second-floor deck, getting soil to the second floor, and using ingenious container choices to house new vegetable crops. Barely six months old, this deck garden flourished, beckoning from the balcony’s wooden railing. We saw foot-long beans, green beans and sprouted beans. Our host talked about experimenting with container types and sizes for the profuse variety of green crops now popping forth on her porch. Recently relocated from Seattle, she said that having a garden was her first priority when settling in Roslindale. Now additional fall plantings of lettuces and greens are underway.
The most surprising garden of the day treated us to sub-tropical growing in Boston. Here we found an astonishing variety of mature container trees and plants: figs, bananas, coffee, guava, strawberries, limes, and much more – all bearing fruit! Tomatillos, bay leaf trees, expansive varieties of herbs and vegetables – many from the Dominican Republic and the Carribean - nestled next to each other in container upon container of healthy produce. Our host conveyed a deep self-taught knowledge of botany, organic methods, plant propagation, rotation for soil health, winterizing methods, and greenhouse skills. In the ground we spotted squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, and enormous pumpkins. Next to the garden, in a pristine koi pond, swim big healthy koi. Our gardener explained some of his propagation methods. For example, he takes one cutting from each of his plants before winter sets in to preserve the future of the plants in case any of the originals die during the cold season. Pepper plants are brought inside during the winter, seasoning the flavor and preserving the specimens.
Thanks to all our generous host gardeners, and to the participants who came to our first Edible Garden Stroll and Harvest Potluck. You made our day a success - one to look forward to again next year.
Interested in our 2012 Edible Garden Stroll and Potluck?
Contact: RozzieGrowsFood@gmail.com
Karen Kirchoff and Aviva Furman organized this event.
Watch for future GreeningRozzie events, and please join the Community Garden Initiative to plan for a community garden here in Roslindale.
