Gardeners Sow Seeds of Partnership

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Four, Number One
September/October 1994

COMMON GROUND GARDENERS SOW SEEDS OF PARTNERSHIP

Sarah, a member of the Lakota Band, and Adele, an Ojibwe, are both 10 year old gardeners who this summer planted seeds and cultivated flowers and vegetables in their own section of the Common Ground Garden at the Minnesota Zoo. Three mornings a week the two friends meet at the Peacemakers Center in Phillips Neighborhood of Minneapolis, joining 28 other inner city children of color, aged 10 - 16, for a nutritious breakfast before boarding 2 vans for the half hour trip to the garden. Another group of about 30 children are the gardeners on alternate days. Most of these children have never experienced the country or gardening before.

The day starts with the Opening Circle, when all who wish it are smudged with sage and white cedar. The children talk about how different kinds of people can get along together and how they can help the garden. Project Director, Anna Barker, outlines tasks for each of the teams assigned to cultivate the six work areas of the acre and half garden — weeding the corn, putting compost on selected rows of vegetables, and wood chips around the newly planted sugar maples; weeding the flower bordered paths that separate the work areas.

Lunch arrives at 11:30, a welcome break for everyone in a shady corner of the garden. This is an occasion for naps, conversation, or volley ball. After finishing their tasks, the group gathers again at 2:15. Each person has a journal in which to write or draw reflections on the day — What was the weather like today? What was going on in nature around the garden? What sounds did you hear, outside and inside yourself? What did you do in your own area of the garden?

Back at the Peacemakers Center, the children pick up $5 of their $15 stipend to take home. The other $10 is kept in an account to be used to purchase school clothes and supplies at the end of the summer. Bonuses will be added from the sale of produce at the entrance of the Zoo.

Betty, one of three adult gardeners who live in the suburbs, and a member of the Evangelical Free Church, said "The Lord must want me here. My eyes have been opened to the different world of inner city kids."

"We are sowing the seeds of partnership between the inner city and the suburban churches." said Barker, an elder at Trinity Presbyterian Church in suburban Woodbury. "Trinity is beginning to make the connection. As an ecumenical environmentalist, I go to suburban Lutheran churches and offer the Common Ground Garden as a mission outreach project for their Confirmation classes."

This $50,000 intercultural project is made possible through the collaboration of the Minnesota Zoo which owns the land, the American Indian Peacemakers Center with a grant from the Pillsbury Company, The Twin Cities Area Presbytery, and the private Common Ground Foundation. Master gardener and teacher Anna Barker used her contacts in the environmental and educational networks to get donations for raspberries, a rototiller, non-hybrid "Seeds of Change", organic fertilizer, wood chips and Zoo compost.

"This generation is learning to get along with many different groups," Barker added. "I see the Common Ground garden, with its biological diversity, as a metaphor for human diversity and an opportunity to grow together in a variety of very important ways, such as peacemaking and respect for ourselves, each other and Mother Earth."