Items

• 
  2020-07-21

  I think I want to start a garden with you

  I decided to start a garden during the pandemic with my girlfriend at the time (now wife). It was my senior year of college and life changed drastically in the spring when the pandemic hit. My wife and I had somewhat recently started dating at this point and suddenly we had to go on lockdown together to avoid any potential spread to her family since we both were required to go in person for our jobs. We went from dating to living together in an instant and it made us grow even closer. Together we tried to find quarantine hobbies to bide our time originally thinking that quarantine would only last a few months. I remember one day suggesting we start a garden in the backyard. My yard in Lubbock got so much sun it was just perfect for a garden. We slowly built a garden adding various plants from cactus and aloe vera to hot peppers, bean sprouts, and sunflowers. I loved going out there and caring for all the plants with my wife it was a real bonding experience. It was beautiful watching the whole process of our plants transform from little seeds to baby sprouts. I remember the way the new sprouts smelled crisp as they became verdant green and leafy. When we would water them on a particularly hot day it had a scent that reminded me of rainy summer days in Dallas when it got humid. I enjoyed getting to start this hobby that I most likely wouldn't have picked up at the time if I kept to my usual college routine. It was also a good distraction for both of us from the worries and anxieties of the pandemic.
• 
  2022-03-18

  Finding a lighthouse in the storm

  Living through the Covid-19 pandemic has been stressful for everyone for so many reasons. Personally, it has made me really anxious and I have felt like I don’t have as much control over my surroundings or life. I knew I had to find things to help me get through and cope with this feeling, things ranging from trivial to life-changing. Five things, in no particular order, that have helped me survive the pandemic are: 1. Video games 2. Podcasts 3. Grocery store drive up and go services 4. Drive-in movie theater 5. Gardening Video games have been a good brief escape from reality. The games have changed over the course of the pandemic. At first, I was really excited about Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Then it changed to Gris, after that it was Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and now I have been focused on Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Okay, yes I know, all of these expect Gris are made with a younger audience in mind. There is something so nice and simple about it though that as an adult I enjoy. A sense of childlike wonder that occurs while building a village, or fighting goofy-looking monsters, or catching and documenting creatures has been really refreshing and calming. Similar to the temporary “escape” from the news and reality has been listening to podcasts. I’ve been listening to fun ones and more serious ones. Not being able to see many people in person, it has provided a feeling of conversation, even if it is one-sided. I’ve learned and laughed a lot. I know grocery pick-up services have been around before Covid, but I only started utilizing it once Covid hit. I seriously cannot believe that it isn’t something that I used before. It seems like such a small, or silly, thing but it’s prevented me from buying random things and being more intentional about meal planning. This has been an improvement for my health and my wallet. I’ve learned to use coupons more effectively and different rewards apps, so being able to save even a small amount of money compared to before has been great. Especially due to inflation and rising food prices, and changing jobs several times over the last two years. I had gone to a (not so local) drive-in movie theater a couple of times pre-pandemic, but it has become one of my favorite things to do during Covid. Being able to have a feeling of normal activities while being able to be safe in my own little bubble of my car has been a great experience. The one I go to always does a double feature, and they have a great selection of food, snacks, a small arcade, and even go-carts. The best part? It’s only $7 per person! For reference, it’s $15.25 for one adult ticket to see one movie at my local chain theater. So even if my partner and I only stay to watch the first of the two movies, it’s still a way better deal. Plus the added ability to talk through the movie and not disturb others. The last thing that has been a help to get through everything has been gardening. I started during the summer of 2020 and have been growing things ever since. It has been really rewarding. I’ve been learning a lot about what grows well in my zone and what doesn’t, what I can actually use, and what I can’t. Fun tip: don’t plant six zucchini plants, you will have more than you know what to do with and have to start just leaving them on your family and friends' doorsteps. I know I will continue to find new things as the end of the storm of covid passes over us. I believe that sharing the happy moments that we do have during such a time of uncertainty and a mess of feelings, it can remind others either now or in the future, that some light did persist. These things are some of my lighthouses in the storm.
• 
  2021-10-07

  Positives of the pandemic

  This is a photo of a community garden at a park very close to me. Although this project existed before the pandemic, it has flourished much in this time to become a beautiful large garden with many different plants. I think this reflects some of the positive effects of the pandemic, as for some people, it gave them the chance to focus on things they might not normally have. Community engagement and connection in this way has provided hope for many people during this time.
• 2020-03-21

  Gardening During the Apocalypse

  I can't think of the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shut downs and lock-ins, the stay-at-home orders without thinking of my brief foray into gardening. My husband and I bought our house in northwest Baltimore in April 2019. Our little duplex sits near the end of an unbelievably picturesque street in a fairly affluent neighborhood known for its garden communities and HOA-hosted wine and cheese parties you have to pay to attend. The neighborhood is surrounded by much poorer neighborhoods and heavily-trafficked streets, the direct product of red-lining in Old Baltimore. While the Original Northwood neighborhood is much more diverse - demographically and economically - than it was when it was first established in the 1930s and 1940s, my husband and I, as some of the only residents under 40, still felt like we didn't necessarily fit in with our older, more well-to-do neighbors, despite absolutely adoring our little home, which had been lovingly renovated and reimagined by its previous tenants. Come March 2020, however, the noise from the crowded streets, the surrounding neighborhoods, and from our own neighborhood, died down substantially. Our streets and its surrounds have always been a great place to go for a walk, but now every day people were strolling by in ones and twos, sometimes in small family units. Everyone needed to get out of the houses they were now cooped up in, and I was no exception. Much to my mother's chagrin - and likely to my neighbors' embarrassment - I did not inherent my mother's green thumb. Because I am a millennial I found an app that identifies plants and set about rooting out weeds, pruning the flowers the previous tenants had not intended for me to neglect, picking up the endless stream of leaves from our several 100+ year old trees, digging up more weeds and debating with my husband about whether we should start an herb and vegetable garden or put in a patio in the little garden area that connects our front and back yards. I did not become proficient at gardening. I am much better than I was, however, at identifying the truly astonishing diversity of plants in my own garden and in my neighborhood by scent and even touch. I learned that the dried and withered allium stalks pull effortlessly out of the ground after they die, that African violets also give way to a gentle scooping from the earth, and that thistle, of course, will still try to prick you as it attempts to cling to the soil. I learned that those thin but tough shoots of elm and oak born from the seeds and acorns the squirrels missed not only grow rapidly, but are extraordinarily difficult to rip from the earth. And no matter how much seemingly-delicate clover one claws at, its roots will always remain beneath the surface, as virulent in a day or two as when one earlier tore at it in complete dismay of its sheer stubbornness. I did not become proficient at gardening. But I did relish the feeling of cool, damp earth underneath my hands, even in my fingernails, the crunch of dry leaves, the slick sliding of wet leaves, the red, angry weals left on my hands from those stubborn oaks. I felt accomplished as I pulled lovely, but ultimately threatening African violets and wild raspberry from underneath the spreading cover of the hostas, and as I pulled wild mint, lemon, and rosemary for tea and cooking. I told myself I'd use the ramps (a species of wild onion that smells and tastes sort of of like a combination between garlic and scallions) in a soup, as a college roommate of mine had done, but I forgot to harvest them in time. From what I recall, summertime is best, particularly late summertime. The other thing I remember about this time spent in my garden, hands in the dirt, sweat on my brow, bug bites inflaming every available inch of skin, is the new sense of connection I felt with my neighbors who stopped to wave hello, nod and smile at my gardening efforts. Neighbors who I hadn't gotten to know before the pandemic which now prevented us, due to fear of contamination from contact with other people, from truly getting to know each other still. But somehow, the simple act of being out in my garden, doing this simple, repetitive toil, made me feel like I was participating in a ritual, an activity that linked me to the less unsavory past of the community, and to neighbors who otherwise might have remained alien in a plague environment that seemed to bring a new apocalypse with every week.
• 
  2021-08-11

  Hobbies and Quarantine

  I have been lucky in this pandemic. My partner was able to keep his job and with the pause on student loan payments, we were able to save enough money to put a downpayment on a house. Quarantine and working from home have allowed the both of us to explore hobbies we have always wanted to have but couldn't because of the time spent commuting or lack of space because we were renting. I was able to start my own herb garden and it flourished. I have learned a lot about myself during the pandemic, and one of those things is that I love gardening and working with plants. I know we have been so much luckier than so many people and that often creates feelings of guilt in me. I don't like sharing my happy stories because so many people are having a hard time right now. I do think the good stories are just as important as the stories of hardship. I don't take what I have for granted and my partner and I still try to donate and help out where we can, but nothing has brought me happiness like my herb garden.
• 
  2021-08-20

  My Food Supply

  Since the pandemic we couldn’t go out to town that much. We made our farm/garden bigger. We got our chickens. There were about 12 of them and we started working on the garden. Everything in our yard at that time was edible. Then when a dog jumped our fence we started to build an enclosure. It took us about a year to get it done, but we still have a few more fences to drill on. For the entire summer of 2020 we had something to eat from the pandemic straight from our garden. Which is something we usually don’t do since we don’t have the time.
• 
  2021-08-06

  Covid Gardening Story and Okra Recipe

  I chose to focus on my garden and our chickens that we began right before the pandemic hit. I never realized how lucky I was to live in a rural environment until Spring 2020, when living in the country meant having a bit more freedom than in the city. Our garden and chickens provided us with foods that sometimes were out of stock in our small, local store. However, we also faced other things in our community that made the psychological aspects of the pandemic really hard, such as living with those who deny the reality of the disease and mitigation efforts that people like my husband promoted, as an ER physician. I suppose this story is a bit of a love letter to our little property out in the country, despite the differences in values that we have with our town.
• 
  2020-10-07

  Pandemic gardening: More than half of Canadians were growing their own food at home this year, study shows

  Gardening and growing one's own food became more widespread during the pandemic, led by worries about food shortages and prices along with the desire to engage in new hobbies during the pandemic. This article discusses a study done by Dalhousie University regarding Canadians' growing their own food during the pandemic and compares the current gardening trend with the victory gardens prevalent during World War II.
• 
  2020-06-24

  Rediscovering a Family Passion

  In the pandemic, Kimry reached back to her roots and decided to create a garden. When asked by friends on Facebook what did she put into the ground to make it so fertile? She replied "I put love into my ground, I put hope into my ground, I put patience into my ground and I put heart and soul into my ground. In life you can try and put this into people and yield no love back, no real friendship, and no real kindness. But, I tell you, Mother Earth will show you, that you deserve all that you put into her and more. God's time can be so quiet, calming, and so peaceful."
• 
  2020-06-04

  Guerrilla Gardening in the Time of COVID-19

  The operation will take only a few minutes. I don my mask and slip the gloves and pruning shears into my back pocket and take to the streets. Walking briskly, I pass a row of 1900s brownstones, each with a small garden plot in front. On this block the specialty is roses, and every home seems to have a different variety growing. Towards the corner, there is a house with its iron gate ajar, and an overstuffed mailbox by the front door. I had already removed two small bags of garbage and moldering cardboard and a crushed toy fire helmet from the front yard, and also ripped out a row of mugwort that was blocking the big rosebush. I don’t know what variety they are – a peach-colored hybrid, with massive blooms that bent the rose stalks down. I deadhead the big old roses and the stalks spring up, attempting to gash my face. One does nick my arm, and I wipe the blood off on my mask, not thinking that I have left a red splotch of blood in its center, like a tiny pair of lips. Pretty soon I have collected about thirty roses – all massive and past their prime and bring them home in a plastic bag I brought with me. I don’t think anyone would mind, and I am sure the person who planted these roses doesn’t mind. A hybrid rose plant like this needs a lot of tending, but the blooms are enormous. As part of my quarantine routine, I take walks in the early morning. After a while, I got tired of seeing weeds hiding the “nice” plants and began reflexively pulling them. It was fun! Especially after a rainfall, when the weeds pulled out so effortlessly. After a few minutes work I would have a sheaf of shepherd’s purse, lambsquarter and mugwort under my arm. Fortunately, there is always an empty construction yard in our rapidly developing neighborhood, and that’s where most of my weeding crop ends up, lobbed over the green construction fence. Nobody has ever bothered me, except for the times older women will ask if I eat the weeds. Since the trees planted by the city have little tags on them that give tips on how to take care of them, including one that instructs citizens to keep the tree pits free of weeds, I consider that my carte blanche. “I work for Bette Midler!” I want to tell somebody, but nobody asks. Some houses show evidence that they were owned by gardeners that took a lot of pride in their plants but abandoned them this year. I see mugwort and lambsquarter cropping up in beds of well-tended plants –gardens that might have received some care earlier in the season but, for some reason, have been untouched these past few months. I reach over and – yank –problem solved. I know they would do it, if they were able. One home I pass by regularly had an infestation of mugwort that covered some nice lilies and other shrubs. After a few days I had cleared all the mugwort out, and stopped by every so often to rip the tiny mugwort sprouts that persisted – some of the roots are tough, baseball-sized clumps that live for years, and you often find odd things wound up in them like bottle caps and corks. This past week, our local news had the notice of the death a Haitian doctor in our neighborhood of longstanding repute, who had died of COVID-19. For the obituary, they showed not a photo of the man, but of his doctor’s office, which was the old house where I had been waging my war against mugwort. So many have died in our neighborhood – so many gentle people who once sunned themselves in front of their houses and apartment buildings and maintained the cheery tradition of saying hello to all neighbors. When they moved here, Flatbush was cheap, and a family from Trinidad or Guyana could buy decent homes for an affordable price, in what was then a highly unfashionable neighborhood. The untended gardens of my older neighbors are hard to miss, when you know what to look for. “Maybe they just went out of state, you don’t know,” say my kids, when I showed them the peach-colored rose bush I had been surreptitiously tending. They were horrified, and nervous that I was breaking a law. My daughter even closed and latched the small iron gate, while sternly looking at me, warning that I could get arrested, or worse. But I’ll be back. Those roses need me.
• 
  2021-04

  Masked Faces Through Foliage

  Ever since the pandemic started, I’ve been spending a lot of time outdoors in parks and public gardens. While outdoors, I often take photographs. Recently I was looking through my photos and noticed that many of the ones taken in March and April 2021 showed masked faces through foliage. Somehow this seemed like a good way to remember Spring 2021.
• 
  2021-04-15

  Victory Garden

  A photo of the garden I have started - the pandemic has given me more time at home to tend to something like a garden.
• 
  02/20/2021

  Peg Spangler Oral History, 2021/02/20

  I recorded a mini oral history with Peg about silver linings and positives during the pandemic.
• 
  2020-08-09

  First Potato Harvest

  I have been a home gardener for a few years now, and love to cook using the things from my garden. When Covid started to hit the US in late February/early March, the resulting panic resulted in widespread shortages in the grocery stores for many common items of American households. News reports consistently told us that food supply networks were in jeapordy. I had never grown potatoes before (though I have grown sweet potatoes), but I decided that for its nutritional value to space ratio, it would be worth growing potatoes this year. Thankfully, the media had seemingly overblown the shortage problem (at least in my area), but that didn't matter because I enjoyed growing potatoes and had a great harvest. My first dish I made with my homegrown potatoes (and homegrown carrots) was a delishous pot roast. I was able to include a glass of y homebrewed beer to complete the meal. Sitting down for this meal was certainly a bright spot during the pandemic and was the culmination of several months of labor and enjoyment.
• 
  2021-01-13

  Pandemic Hacks

  At the beginning of the pandemic, it seemed for a bit of time that the infrastructure of the world was on shakey ground. Thankfully, our food supplies and economy did not collapse. However, the experience and extra-time during the pandemic led to me trying to become more self-sufficient in my livelihood. I have had a vegetable garden for years, but I started to grow different things this year than before. The picture above was my sweet potato harvest experiment, which I was pleased with and had a good amount of nutritious sweet potatoes. I had similar results with things like beans and regular potatoes (very nutritious and filling). On top of these things, I also tried to learn how to make products that I used regularly (even if these were more luxury items than necessities). Growing various herbs and spices, I began to make my own salad dressings, marinades, sauces, and pestos. Additionally, as a fan of craft beer, I enjoy drinking new and exciting beers but do not enjoy paying premium prices. During the lock down, I learned how to brew my own delicious beer for less than half of the cost from the store. All of these projects were fun to do, diminished boredom, and are skills which I can use to enrich my life moving forward.
• 
  2020-08-06

  Getting really excited that I'm actually growing edible food in the garden!

  This post about a Canadian nutritionist reveals an individual's experience gardening this past summer during the pandemic. The caption includes how this person picked up gardening as a new hobby during lockdown and found how rewarding it was. This post will serve as a valuable story in how gardening became a popular activity for Canadians and offer one person's journey, including challenges, in starting a garden.
• 
  12/01/2020

  Scott Campbell Oral History, 2020/12/01

  Scott Campbell was born in Panama to military parents. He and his family moved to Colorado when he was young, living close to his father's family, where his interest in a sort of do-it-yourself lifestyle was awakened. After high school, he moved to central Alabama, working several retail jobs before landing his job at FIS Financial Solutions. After buying his own property, he began gardening and doing a bit of homesteading on his own in Alabama. Scott now spends his days editing financial programs and his down time taking care of various projects and plants around his home.
• 
  2020-11-06

  Gardening During Quarantine

  I, like most people, took up new hobbies to help pass the time. I built this raised garden from random pieces of wood laying around my backyard and even began to compost. I planted two tomato plants that have since grown very well and all of a sudden there were these plants growing from my compost. It's been nice having this small project to help pass the time. When I need a break from online school/work I come to my backyard and check up on it. It's essentially a source of calmness and relief in the world right now.
• 
  2020-09-06

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 09/06-09/12/2020 by Railroad Underground

  These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person utilizing a contraband cell phone to let the outside world know about prison conditions during the pandemic. This week he talks about how Sunday's are the hardest for him because he missed spending time with his family, spending Labor Day in a melting cage, is he in a California or west coast prison where they are experiencing raging wild fires or is it just hot there, convict leasing is still happening, including many of the firefighters used to battle the wildfires in California, those in county jails learning sign language to be able to communicate from their cells because they spent little time outside their cells, the lack of vegetables in prison made them plant "secret gardens" both inside and out, rehabilitation in spite of toxic conditions, mentorship, his many family members that are/were incarcerated and how incarceration tears apart families.
• 
  2020-09-24

  Watching the Plants Grow

  I spent the summer working on a farm and tending to a little garden with my mom at home (to be fair it was her garden...I just helped out a bit)! It was a privilege to get to escape into the outdoors and work until I was tired on things that I thought were meaningful.
• 2020-07-27

  Being Known

  As a Grandma in rural Wisconsin, I spend hours each week in my garden. After a particularly grueling day, these thoughts came... about weeds, Covid, politics and their relationships. I don’t know how to upload, so am just going to put my poem into the next box.
• 
  April 6, 2020

  Preparing Plots for Gardens 04/06/2020

  More documentation about preparing to live off our own land in the summer of 2020.My father plowed this plot of land for our garden. My parents and I have been preparing 30 different plants. Many people on our street have done the same.
• 
  2020-04-12

  Jewish Melbourne - The Year Without A Garden

  I love to garden. And especially our community garden. We started small and watched it grow year by year. The friendships grew too. It was also a place where neighbor's walking their dogs or just out for a stroll could pause, admire the colors and aromas - a bit of peace in an increasingly stressful world. This year, restrictions governing social distancing and community gatherings prohibited us from working on our garden. The pandemic had taken yet another joy from our lives.
• 
  2020-03-17

  A French Pandemic Diary

  This is a diary of the COVID lockdown in France.
• 
  2020-05-30

  A Garden Grows in Danville

  At the start of the Bay Area's shelter-in-place orders, there was a lot of uncertainty about the food supply chain. Given that we live with a couple of high-risk individuals, we wanted to ensure that we had access to fresh food without risking exposure to COVID-19. We quickly got to work and planted squash, tomato, pumpkin, peppers and pea plants. We involved our children from the beginning and have had a lot of fun gardening as a family as it has brought us comfort and has been incredibly therapeutic during these trying and uncertain times. Preparing Garden Soil: March 28, 2020. Plants Begin to Sprout: April 15, 2020. A Garden Grows in Danville: May 30, 2020.
• 
  2020-02-06

  The way Chinese government face the virus

  That is Chinese government how to sovle the virus in school. They protect the garden, playground and some public areas so that forbidden the entrance so that no one can enter in the area and reduce the possibility of the virus
• 
  2020-06-02

  Quarantine Vegetable Garden

  During quarantine, my family decided to liven up our backyard with a nice vegetable garden. We couldn't do anything else, so not grow our own vegetables!
• 
  2020-05-27

  New Beginnings Church Community Garden Started Amid COVID-19

  Sharon Annesley of Blanchard, Oklahoma tells the story of her rural church starting a community garden amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Her text document story chronicles how the church received the land and how they decided to create a garden that not only served their congregation but anyone in the community that wanted access. Sharon details what members contributed to the maintenance and what vegetables were growing there. She also articulates concerns that members expressed about potential food shortages and a garden's ability to address those concerns. Text document authored by Sharon Annesley, Member of New Beginnings Church - Blanchard. The story is titled under the heading "NEW BEGINNINGS CHURCH COMMUNITY GARDEN STARTED AMID COVID-19" (May 27, 2020) The story features photographs of the church garden. Sharon Annesley hand-submitted the physical copy of this document for submission to Clinton P. Roberts for the #ruralvoices collection. Contributed by Clinton P. Roberts, curatorial intern for Arizona State University, HST 580.
• 
  05/01/2020

  Planting seedlings

  I took this photo after planting about a hundred seedlings in a newly fenced and prepared veggie patch at my Dad’s old place south of Hobart. Our veggie patch has three tiered beds so far. The other half is shadowed by the fence in winter, so we won’t plant anything on that side until the sun gets higher in spring. We turned through our composted food scraps and manure from roadside stalls to prepare the soil and added straw mulch after planting the seedlings. Before lockdown, I only came down here for a couple of nights each week and it wouldn’t have been practical to put in a veggie patch, with all the tending it requires. But after a couple of weeks settling into the place in lockdown my boyfriend and I got a permacultural itch. We got the seedlings from a local place called Dave’s Organic Seedlings. Dave had been under the pump since lockdown started, and so our assortment of seedlings was whatever he had left (may have an excessive amount of cabbages). I think lots of people had the same idea as us. In fact, it felt more like an urge than idea. Something primal in us needed to work with the soil, and to feel more self-sufficient. At the same time, not knowing how long lockdown would last, planting the seedlings made me feel even more locked down, like we’d bound ourselves to this patch (getting three chooks probably didn’t help either). But for now, it’s comforting to watch them grow.
• 
  04/06/2020

  Pasuaha Yang Oral History, 2020/04/06

  I did a podcast based on my journey through the Coronavirus of the struggle I was dealing with my schoolwork. The whole process was complicated, I had some time where I was struggling with being motivated with my schoolwork. But I pushed through it. The podcast was beneficial because I was able to reflect on my day and talk freely about how I feel. Overall, it was a great experience.
• 2020-05-19

  Life in a Crisis

• 
  05/17/2020

  Urban Front Yard Victory Garden

  As worry about the food supply grows and money is more of a worry for the average person, unemployment is at rates so high it is hard for the average person to comprehend, many people have resurrected the World War II tradition of the Victory Garden. This is the garden my partner has started in the front of our home, the sunniest patch on the whole property. My partner lost his job as a direct result of the pandemic and so finds himself with less money and more time. He decided it was a perfect opportunity to try to grow our own food especially since we have already experienced shortages of various items and have no reason to believe that will change any time soon. He is planning on adding several more buckets and though the buckets themselves come from the Home Depot we are endeavoring to shop for plants, soil etc at local nurseries whenever possible so that we keep what money we are spending circulating within our own community. Photo by Ash Macnamara, Garden by David Herrick
• 
  2020-05-16

  Flowers in front of a closed real estate agency

  On a trip through Pickens, SC my partner and I happened to pull into the parking lot of what appeared to be a very closed real estate agent with beautiful flowering garden running wild in front of it. I don't know if the business is closed because of the Coronavirus or just because it is Saturday but this picture made me think about how little nature cares about our business, even the nature we think we control. Even though we might have planted them there those flowers will keep growing beautifully with or without us.
• 
  05/15/2020

  my garden

  this image shows that it was super sunny outside and super war, but since we were not alloys to leave the house we decided to start a garden and so far it looks really good.
• 
  2020-04-22

  Bringing Photography Back to My Life

  The image is of a white flowering tree in a family member's garden, that has a ray of light in the corner of the photo. This was taken during a social distancing visit with family, and in way made me realize that I would like to bring photography back into the forefront of my professional career and don't want to be stuck in an office all day.
• 
  2020-04-30

  Gardening to keep busy

  My mom has been gardening as a hobby for as long as I could remember. Since we're in quarantine together, I have been helping her with her gardening recently. It's been a good way to keep busy and not feel like we're locked in all day. The image attached is a sunflower that recently bloomed. #REL101
• 
  2020-04-30

  Gardening

  My mom has been gardening as a hobby for as long as I could remember. Since we've been in quarantine together, I've been spending more time with her helping her with her gardening. It's been a good way to keep busy and not feel like we're trapped inside all day. The image attached is a sunflower that recently bloomed. #REL101
• 
  2020-04-30

  So much yard work gets done in quarantine!

  Since we have been in lockdown my partner and I have transformed our previously unused backyard into a little urban oasis with tiny shrines and a path to the cow pasture at the back of the property. The hard work has kept our minds busy and the beautiful results are a pleasure to spend time in when the work is done.
• 
  2020-04-17

  Neighborhood Garden, Lafitte Greenway, New Orleans, LA

  Neighborhood gardens continue to thrive and provide healthy food like this one along the Lafitte Greenway, New Orleans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 
  2020-04-18

  One of my rose bushes

  This is one of my rose bushes that is in bloom during this quarantine. I believe it is important to find solace during these unusual times. Gardening comforts me and it is important for others to find something that comforts them.
• 
  2020-04-12

  Rock Garden in Fresno, CA's Fig Garden Neighborhood

  A community project that invites passers by to find a rock, take it home to paint, and bring it back as a contribution to a neighborhood rock garden. This is just one of many instances I've seen in which people are creating safe ways to connect with others. The result is actually a greater sense of community as we invent ways to reach out to each other during a crisis.
• 
  2020-04-16

  A Quilter's Masks in a Church Garden

  My friend Diane, who lives on my street in Washington Heights, Manhattan, is a quilter. I met her at her Lutheran church, a beautiful old stone building on our street, with a vegetable garden on one side. I’m Jewish, but the church has arts events, and we met that way. When I read that quilting cotton is the best material for homemade masks, I asked Diane if she could make two for me because I have asthma, which puts me at high risk for Covid complications. She said yes immediately because she was already making masks, and she invited me to the church garden, where I could retrieve them from a bench without getting close to her. The next day, with spring in all its glory, I found her sitting there with a mask on. With my face covered as well, I stood across the garden and had the first face-to-face conversation I’d had with anyone in several weeks, which was such a relief. And Diane said that because of her quilting, “I felt called to make masks.” With her generosity and those six words, what a surprise and consolation: Life in its richness had blossomed again, under the sun and flowering trees. Thank you, Diane.
• 
  03/18/2020

  The Garden is closed  through April 30

  Notifying public that all gardens, grounds, and buildings are closed, as well as all programs, classes, and events scheduled through April 30 are cancelled.
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  March 14, 2020

  Cheery Lemurs

  This picture of cheery lemurs at the Desert Botanical Garden in Arizona came across my Instagram feed. I could not help but be grateful to my friend for brightening my day.