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gardening
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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. -
2020-04-23
A Succulent Story
This is a succulent that I received as a gift during September of 2019. I didn’t pay that much attention to it, though, because I was always busy with school, sports, and work. Then, when school shut down, I started taking better care of it, and it grew this interesting little sprout with yellow flowers on it. I took this picture to send to my grandpa, who loves plants, and asked him what it was. I think this succulent really illustrates life for me personally during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, I filled every single day up with activities from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed. And that was ok, I did well with that schedule, and I was able to grow in that environment. This succulent received little care and attention from me, and was still able to grow in that environment. Then, the pandemic came. It was an adjustment to not have to do anything, with the exception of online school. It was definitely not a schedule I was used to. But with time, I found the positive in spending time alone and doing things that I didn’t normally have time to do. I was still growing, but in a different way than what I was used to. I had to learn to spend time alone, and to occupy myself without school or work or sports. This succulent received more attention from me after the pandemic, and was able to grow with this new environment, but it resulted in a different kind of growth. Plus, it allowed me to have an opportunity to talk to my grandpa. We weren’t allowed to see them during quarantine, and I knew he would appreciate talking about something that he loved so sending him this picture allowed me to still keep in touch with him and talk about something that we both enjoyed. -
2020-06
Pandemic Gardening
While there were a lot of terrible things that happened as a result of Covid-19, I feel that one positive was humanity's return to nature. With so many places closed down, people were forced to go outside and enjoy forests, beaches, yards, etc. I was one of these people, and I discovered a talent for gardening. I enjoyed gardening before Covid-19, but the hobby really took off during the 2020 lockdowns. I grew potatoes, onions, flowers, herbs- anything that could be planted, I planted! -
2021-08-08
Green Tomato Pickles
Due to school closures because of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, I finally had time to start a vegetable garden. This was something that I had wanted to do for years, but by the time I was out of school in June and had the time, it was too late in the season to begin. As a side note, the fact that school buildings were closed in no way means we teachers were not working hard to try to continue the education process for our students. The pandemic did change how we taught, though, giving me more time to finally begin my vegetable garden. This story is specifically about my tomato plants and the green tomato pickles I made from them. I originally began my tomato plants from seeds on my kitchen windowsill in April. In mid-May, when they were about 8 inches tall, I transplanted them to a raised garden bed. This was my first experience growing a garden, so I overdid it with the number of vegetables I attempted to grow in my 4’ x 4’ space. Besides the tomatoes, I planted green beans, carrots, onions, beets, squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. The tomatoes and squash took over and that was all I got. For some unknown reason, the first set of blossoms on the tomato plants didn’t produce any fruit. Late in the summer, I finally started to see some fruit, and it was early September before I was able to harvest any. At that point, though, they exploded with fruit. I live in the high desert north of Los Angeles and our weather is not quite as mild as the rest of LA County. We go our first freeze in mid-October. At that point I harvested about 5 lbs. of green tomatoes. A friend of mine had the same issue and decided to make green tomato salsa. I decided to make green tomato pickles. I used a combination of recipes. I have a Little House on the Prairie Cookbook that I experiment with from time to time, but I modified some of the spices that recipe called for because I wanted dill pickles. So, I played around with it until I had what I wanted. They were excellent! Then I did one more thing that I had never done before. I experimented with hot water bath canning so that I could preserve them longer. I ended up with eight jars of green tomato dill pickles, some of which made their way into Christmas gift baskets for friends and family. All of this was because I had more time on my hands due to COVID-19 and California’s Stay at Home order. -
2020-04-19
Home gardening blooms around the world during coronavirus lockdowns
Gardening and growing one's own food is a major trend resulting from the pandemic. In Russia, the U.S., Singapore, and Great Britain, people are turning to gardening to combat fears of food shortages and going to grocery stores and to provide a fun activity for adults and children who are working or attending school at home. -
2021-04-28
Allison Oskar Oral History, 2021/04/28
This oral history focused on how smaller communities tackled the COVID-19 pandemic. The interview discusses how hospitals tackled the pandemic, and it goes into depth about what it was like to work for a hospital during this time. Also discussed were the ways in which the pandemic affected mental health and how it proved to be beneficial in some ways. There was a large focus on the ways in which COVID-19 affected the 'work life' balance of the interviewee. -
2021-04-18
Gardening: Feeding the Planet and Ourselves
Gardening is something I learned I loved in the spring of 2019, and I noticed many differences during the pandemic. The garden centers were always busy, much busier than the year before. And often, they would be sold out of things such as vegetables. The article I have shared here I found while researching food insecurity. I have long thought that growing your own food is something that should be more widespread, especially among places of poverty. Of course, this article does not mention the fact that people living in extreme poverty barely have enough water to survive, let alone grow crops with. Regardless, this article makes good points about our soil, our diets, and the future of our planet and species. I think one good consequence of the pandemic is more people will turn to gardening, which opens up many more aspects of life. -
2021-03-01
Jjewish Melbourne
It's easy just to say last year was a long boring time and to move on but I think it's a good idea to jot down some thoughts and reflections, which provide some relevant perspective. This should show us that many aspects of our normal lives should not be taken for granted. -
02/23/2021
Bonnie Brainard Oral History, 2021/02/23
I recorded a mini oral history with my former professor Dr. Beverly Van Note. -
02/11/2021
Tracey Kole Oral History, 2021/02/11
I recorded a mini oral history with my mom about silver linings. -
2021-02-07
Brussel Sprout Failure
I have been growing Brussel Sprouts for a few years now. I love growing, eating, and cooking with them! I was looking forward to my harvest of Brussel Sprouts during the 2020 season, especially with the Covid lockdowns and all of the stress involved. It was terrible to see that pests ruined all of my Brussel Sprouts plants so I had none. It was the biggest failure of my garden this year and was made all the more disappointing with the Covid situation going on. Here's to the 2021 season and hoping that I can harvest delicious sprouts! -
2020-12-01
Growth in Quarantine
The week before the national quarantine guidelines were announced, I was on a choir trip to the Southern Division ACDA competition in Alabama. This trip was the beginning of my final high school plans, the beginning of the end. I was expecting to come home and tell my friends all about it, to plan for my next choir trip to New York City in a few short weeks, to soak up my last moments of high school, and, of course, to finally walk across the stage and graduate. It is kind of ironic that I was dreading the spotlight on me when I was handed my diploma and doing the awkward tassel flip, but now I wish I could have anything close to that experience. When I left that day for Alabama, I did not expect to never see a majority of those people from school ever again. The feelings of hopelessness and of worthlessness were shared among many globally, including myself, leaving me in a state of prolonged stagnance. Immediately after I got off the bus home from Alabama, I was sent on a train to my dad’s new house in rural upstate New York. I did not get to go home and get my things or say hi to my family. The next few months of my life consisted of my duffel bag packed for one week, random Amazon orders, and an endless forest. At first, I still had school to keep me occupied and feel normal, but eventually, that ended and I had nothing to fill up the days. My dad was barely home, as he had just started a new job, and there was no other human within several miles, not that I could talk to them anyway, but the thought would have been nice. I was completely isolated. I tried painting, baking, video games, and dying my hair, but nothing filled the emptiness I was feeling. I felt extremely unproductive, like I was just wasting away where no one could find me. Eventually, I decided to take advantage of the nothingness surrounding me. I ventured into the woods and saw a whole world that kept continuing amidst the pandemic. I was reminded that life kept going, and while it seemed like mine was completely frozen, that it would start up again one day. I started spending more and more time in the woods, watching saplings develop, the fawns growing older, and the stream carve its way through the rough earth. In order to keep a piece of that life closer to home, I created biospheres in glass jars so that I could feel the hope for life when I didn’t want to go outside. Through those months, I did a lot of reflection on the pandemic and what it meant for myself and others. I realized that my life will continue, I will continue to live one day, but some people will not if we are not in isolation, so suddenly all the pain of the things I missed was worth it. Eventually, I had to leave New York and come to Washington. I moved into my mom’s two bedroom apartment shared by her boyfriend and my little brother a few months prior to school starting. I began to experience those same things I did when in New York at first, but the difference was that here, I did not have a vast forest to walk into. I had approximately 1,200 square feet and a shared bedroom with a five year old boy to wander around. I had to learn to cope all over again. I turned to one of my favorite things, even before the pandemic: plants. A simple succulent now carried so much more weight than before, reminding me of life, similar to the forest in New York. I have since expanded my plant collection in my dorm room, reminding myself everyday that even when it doesn’t feel like it, I am continuing to grow and one day life will be back to normal. Once the pandemic ends, I will continue to care for and expand my collection of plants. I think that one day it will be cool to show people my “pandemic plants.” It will be a symbol of my growth through quarantine, a symbol that I made it. I never thought that something so simple would make such a big difference in my life. Everyone lost something during this time, but I believe everyone gained something too, and I gained some very valuable life lessons and insight. While the pandemic is still blazing forward and so many things are changing, I will try my best to stay inspired by life and inspire those around me as well. -
2020-06-02
Farmers Market returns to Stevensville
This article offers an insight into a small Ontario town and how their farmers market dealt with the COVID-19 restrictions. -
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. -
2020-11-25
New Covid restrictions announced today in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
This photo includes two plants, and the caption describe the new restrictions enforced for Albertan residents. This post offers an individual view into how Canadians, particularly city dwellers, grew plants in the midst of COVID-19. -
2020-04-03
Some Canadians are turning to their yards to grow their food during the COVID-19 pandemic
Canada's garden industry exploded during lockdown as citizens searched for new ways to remain productive. This article explores one woman's experiences gardening in Ontario and how she extended her garden's life throughout lockdown. This article will provide additional context to the role gardening had in Canada and the many benefits people reaped from a socially distanced activity. -
2020-10-08
Over half of Canadians embracing the joy of pandemic gardening
One study from Dalhousie University reported that "pandemic gardens" became a thing this past summer as thousands of Canadians across the country spent more time outside growing their own food. This article also reveals the reasoning behind why people took to gardening as one of their main sources of entertainment during lockdown and even afterwards. The study shows that Canadians gardened for a multitude of purposes. Not only did they want to spend more time outside, but some were also concerned about food affordability due to the shortage of produce. This article will further illuminate how Canadians viewed gardening as one of their favourite pastimes during COVID-19 through an informative survey. -
2020-12-02
Sonja Carlson - MY COVID STORY
This is a short COVID-19 reflection on the experience of Sonja Carlson, a semi-retired craft guru. The story is written as a Word Doc. -
0020-10-16
Revitalizing Cultural Gardening
When the stay at home order hit, I was in a tailspin wondering what to do at home. I couldn’t imagine working from home and teaching my children might last from March to September. Something amazing happened. For over ten years, I talked and dreamed of gardening. I recalled my grandmother gardening when I was a child. She taught all of her grandchildren her indigenous knowledge of growing food from the land. Working from home and homeschooling during the day, allowed us to take breaks and walk to our yard for gardening. The location of our garden in relation to home, work, and school was very convenient. Gardening allowed me to learn the different smells of dirt. The clay and muddy kind of dirt needed to be mixed with finer sand, manure and topsoil. The soil on my land was not sufficient for growing the plants I wanted. We worked early in the morning until the heat became too much to bear. Then we returned in the evening as the sun disappeared from the horizon. Our work included turning the soil, hauling in bags of manure and topsoil, and transporting finer dirt from areas around our home. Once the dirt and seeds were ready, the watering began. I never believed water smells different at different times of the day and months. In the morning, the cool crisp water smells light and pure. During the hotter times of the day, the water smells musky and not as refreshing. It led me to wake up early in the morning and come out late in the evening to water my plants. The smell of the damp earth will forever remind me of the journey of revitalizing cultural gardening techniques taught by my grandmother. -
2020-10-15
The Magic Golden Pothos
This is a Golden Pothos. It is one of many that I have in my home. This Pothos, though, is unique because I propagated and replanted it all during quarantine. Way back in March, I snipped a leaf off one of my other Pothos. Dropped it in a glass of water and waited for it to begin to sprout roots. Nothing incredible or out of the ordinary about this Pothos from all the other Pothos. But, I created this Pothos. I watered it, made sure it got enough, but not too much sun. I patiently sat by and watched this small little plant grow, undisturbed by the outside world. This small common little houseplant has, in essence, helped to keep me grounded during these challenging, unpredictable times. Every week as I watered my Pothos, I would be reminded that although so much has changed in everyone's daily lives and continues to change at an unfathomable rate, certain things will continue to be undisturbed. My little Pothos being one of them. By holding on to this way of thinking that there are things that are within my control that will move forward regardless of the outside world, I continue to find hope in today and, more importantly, tomorrow. There is no denying that this event has shaken every institution worldwide, doing irreparable damage to an untold amount of lives, families, cultures that will never be forgotten. But, there is always hope when there is life. I feel like these times a breeding ground for nihilistic thought, which can be very destructive. So, I have this daily reminder, through my Pothos, that there is still hope. Cheesy, I know. But, sometimes cheesy works (I know cheesy again) -
2020-07-27
My desert garden
Living in New Mexico, it can be hard to have grass or many plants due to the heat and dry ground. Between my dogs running around, the water needed, and the time it takes to have grass in the backyard we hadn’t grown any in a few years. When the quarantine had been happening for a while, my mom devised a plan of how to set up a sprinkler system to water they back yard and have grass and plants instead of dirt. The idea for a sprinkler system was one idea of many my family came up with. She ordered all of the parts online and researched ways to set up and successfully put a sprinkler system and dripline in. After receiving all the parts in the mail, my mom set off to home depot to get a ground trencher so we could put the piping underground. We had to lift and drop the trencher so the large dirt blade would create a path. She was supposed to get a small single-person trencher but came back with a giant and extremely heavy one. Since many people had the same idea of doing yard work during quarantine, the other trencher was being used by someone else. The trencher weighed so much and was so hard to move through the house into the backyard. We finished trenching by the end of the day and were ready to lay down piping. The hard part was getting the trencher lifted into the back of our car again, it was unbelievably heavy and it took all 4 of my family members to lift it into the car. We took some time and faced some more challenges when trying to grow a yard, but in the end, it ended up working out. Our yard now has a layer of grass and a drip line system to water other plants around the yard. -
2020-08-10
Growth, Gratitude, and Green Babies
Teddy Roosevelt said, "The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future." As the pandemic and panic seemed to spread wildly across the globe, I found myself turning to my relatives for answers and advice. When specifically in their lifetime did they remember a time of uncertainty? What did they do to maintain a sense of direction, clarity to make decisions, a sense of well being and safety when each day's events are unfathomable? My mother responded with stories of her mother. My grandmother has always been the most resourceful person I know. Growing up in the Great Depression planted seeds of ingenuity and self sufficiency in her, which she continued to cultivate along with priceless experience and knowledge. She recalled people taking responsibility for their situations and security, and doing their best to make the most of what they had, which at the time wasn't much at all. I will never understand the scarcity she faced in that era, but I did experience the eerie alarm that washed over my fiancé and I entering a nearly empty produce section of our local grocery store, then another store, then another store. Almost every store in our small town of Lewes, Delaware had been almost completely panic-bought out of produce, meat, cleaning products, and hygiene products. It was at that time we decided to take a life lesson from Grandma, gain some grit, and get our hands dirty. Early June, we began a basic herb garden to get the hang of being "new parents to green babies" as we expressed it to our friends and family. We soon adopted a couple of tomato plants, bell peppers, red lunchbox sweet peppers, and as of recently, sunflowers. August brought our efforts to fruition when tiny peppers and tomatoes started to develop and today we plucked our first ready to eat hamburger tomato along with a few green bell peppers and scarlet red sweet peppers. Tending our garden has grown more than just invigorating herbs and veggies, but it has cultivated therapeutic peacefulness and tranquility while watering, cleaning, and caring for these little forms of life. We learned first hand the valuable lesson of just how giving and selfless nature is, ex. planting one seed and getting three pieces of fruit in return from that one plant, or planting one bulb which springs forth four blossoms. Giving life and helping maintain that life in something smaller than you grows a beautiful relationship between humanity and nature, a relationship which has become more and more distant. Growing a garden reconnected us to the knowledge, innovation, and self reliance, of our grandparents. It reconnected us to getting outdoors, getting our hands dirty, and getting into a flow state of mental clarity and caring for another living being apart from human kind. It reconnected us to nature, to the valuable lesson Mother Nature can teach us about selflessly giving and sharing, and a reminder of the respect she so deserves and is so lacking in the current state of the environment. I hope our story of our little backyard garden will encourage you to plant seeds of your own, to look to the priceless knowledge and experience of your relatives for advice in facing an uncertain future, and to share your lessons and stories of how COVID-19 impacted your life as well. -
2020-07-20
The Driveway Project -Life in Lock down Photo series by Sandy Scheltema
The Driveway Project - Life in Lockdown , aims to document life during these unprecedented times of social distancing due to the Corona Virus. It is a way to document history in Trentham and surrounds during this time of staying at home, and a way of helping families feel connected with others in the community. Photography can capture history by recording our changed circumstances during these difficult times. The project is photographing families who are in lockdown and working, studying, and doing remote schooling at home. Participants are asked to come out in their driveway as a family unit with items that represent what they have been doing in lockdown, and the photographer is documenting them outside their residence. -
2020-04-23
Humans of Covid-19 AU: Tracy Barnes
“I lost my job as a cook straight away. Since then I've been able to do heaps more work in the garden. We make our own bread, and wine, and now we are experimenting with making stuff that we didn’t have time for before. If we could perhaps not rush back into resuming where we left off that would be fantastic. We have reset back to things that are a little more basic, like human interaction. We don't need a lot of external, materialistic things. This pandemic has shown that we can shut the world down if we need to, which in regards to climate change, was apparently a thing that was too hard. This situation has totally reaffirmed the importance of gardening and self-sufficiency. We have been able to provide for others around us. We have a chance to take a breath in history. Hopefully it can be a turning point that where we were going isn’t the way we had to go and we can look back and say ‘Wow, we actually changed the direction we were heading’”. Instagram post on Tracy Barnes, cook & gardener, and her experience during the pandemic, which was created by a psychology student living in Melbourne who was interested to hear about how COVID-19 was impacting on different peoples’ lives. -
2020-06-22
Alberta farmers donate potato seeds to Northwest Territories in effort to promote food security
Article discussing the donation of 50,000 pounds of potato seeds from Sunnycrest Farms near Red Deer., Alta., to the Northern Farm Training Institute to attempt to increase food security among northern residents, a long term issue exacerbated by the food shortages and supply chain problems brought on by the pandemic "Ms. Milne said the pandemic has underscored the need for everyone to take food shortages seriously. "'We need to make sure that the place where we live has the ability to meet our core needs so that we’re not completely dependent on imports,' she said. 'Imports should be a supplement, not a dependency.' "Ms. Milne adds that potatoes in particular are great for first-time gardeners and are easy to protect, as well as being one of the highest food-producing vegetables a square foot." -
2020-06-08
Darn squirrels!: School-at-home project lets Ottawa kids grow their own veggies
News article discussing a program providing seeds and gardening supplies to school children to provide fresh produce at home during quarantine, especially for those in underprivileged circumstances, and to allow for online group lessons on subjects such as horticulture, cooking, ecology. A particular and amusing challenge they are learning to face is the healthy local squirrel population eating their crops! -
2020-03-18
Toilet paper seed starter
This is a common way to start avocado plants but in a time when toilet paper cannot be found anywhere someone thought it would be funny to suggest we could all grow our own toilet paper using this method. -
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 -
2020-05-08
Cherokee tobacco plants growing on their own into a heart shape during the pandemic in New Orleans, taken May 8, 2020 in my home with view of Hotel Ponchetrain in background. Love for each other and our city.
I was in my condo throughout the shelter-in-place for the pandemic alone except for my cat and the plants. While it was a hard time, I had a beautiful view and took care of the plants. One day, I noticed one had grown into a heart shape on its own. It made me really happy. I love this city and have been praying for everyone during the pandemic. So I feel it's representative of the love and prayers we have for one another, and have needed during this pandemic. -
2020-04-11
Customers at Mahoney's Garden Center in Winchester, MA observe physical distancing while waiting to pick up compost, mulch, and other garden supplies.
Confined to their homes, residents of Greater Boston have been seeking solace in their own space by gardening more than ever. The town of Brookline began to pick up yard waste weeks earlier than it usually does as a result of popular demand, garden centers across the city are now delivering supplies and plants to customers, and at Mahoney's a popular garden center in the Boston subrub of Winchester, the line to pick up supplies was hundreds of feet long. Yet the space still felt empty, as pickups were carefully scheduled and masked customers observed physical distancing. -
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 -
2020-04-28
Spring Roses
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. -
2020-04-01
Lockdown Diary week 1
A daily diary of lockdown in a flat in London, UK