Gardening was an important part of my grandparents’ life on their farmstead in western Iowa where my father grew up and also where I grew up. Originally the area around the house was bare of plants but with time Grandpa Henry and Grandma Olga planted numerous trees, bushes, flowers and a lawn around the home. […]
I come from many gardens. My parents used to have a long strip of red clay in the Hickory Flats, and I remember picking peas from it in the summer, covered in sweat and bees. In fall, we would shuck an acre of corn and the cows would wait on the fence line, ready to […]
The Ancestral Roots Community Garden is in Chattanooga’s Menlo Park Neighborhood. The garden plantings and design are inspired by traditional Southern African American yards and home gardens. Greens, beans, okra, muscadine, herbs, corn, watermelons and squash are all growing in the garden. Also included are a row of fruit trees and flowering plants. The garden […]
Each summer, we grow herbs, flowers and a specific corn from our tribal community (the Eastern Shawnee) or my Grandfather’s tribal heritage, the Myaamia. We live in the suburbs, so we don’t have lots of room to garden and since corn easily cross-pollinates, we want to keep the corn seed true and connect with our […]