Helping at Sunroot Gardens – what to expect
Sunroot Gardens is comprised of a few dozen gardening plots and staple crop acreages in and around Southeast. From as “close in” as 13th & Clinton, to as “far out” as Carver (just outside the Urban Growth Boundary), there’s something growing somewhere, needing some kind of tending from time to time.
The day’s work is driven primarily by the weather. As such, “planning” for the day often doesn’t happen until that day. Over the summer, folks can find Farmer K pretty easily by calling 503.686.5557 or dropping by the Firepit Garden in the Hawthorne District.
The type of work varies widely and wildly: turning over earth, planting seeds, spreading soil amendments, weeding weeding weeding, transplanting, watering watering watering, cloche-building, tool sharpening/cleaning, harvesting harvesting harvesting, etc.etc.etc. On any given day, there are 100 things on the to-do list, waiting for the best set of circumstances and people to handle them. Prediction is tricky.
As far as I, Farmer K, am concerned, there is one reason and one reason only to come out to help with farm work, and that is to ENJOY YOURSELF. Elsewhere in the society one is expected to do things one doesn’t want to do because one feels one has to, etc., but that’s bullshit that’s dropped when you’re in Sunroot. In a garden, the plants don’t care about politics, philosophy, methodology, you, etc. Such worries are irrelevant in the garden. You can leave them behind. In fact, you must, in order to ENJOY YOURSELF, which is the whole point.
To “enjoy oneself” is not synonymous with “fun”. “Fun” is the flip side of the “Work” coin, and that’s a coin that I have tossed over my shoulder for luck. No, to “enjoy oneself” is something deeper than entertainment. It is actual presence in the action of the moment. Just being there with what you’re doing, without the mind wandering off and trying to take you with it. Any task, such as weeding, seed-sorting, chip-hauling, can be a source of “ENJOYMENT”, of bringing joy in.
When you are in a Sunroot garden, you can forget about “obligations”, “mistakes”, and the word, “SHOULD”. These are all vestiges of society, and the plants don’t care about them. Sunroot is a place in the physical structure of the City, but it is an oasis from the social structure of the City. You are invited to come join in whenever you’d like.