Respect for the Nature of A Plant

Kew Gardens we are not.  Instead of horticulture on a grand Victorian scale, our small plot at the Community Day Center is based on a humble but eternal logic.  (Actually, thanks to Healthy Waltham and our volunteers from Bandies University, and board and guests of the Day Center, we can boast of a main vegetable garden, a spiral shaped herb garden, a raspberry patch and a small annex of edible

flower plantings. The same optimism can be said of what drives our work at the Day Center; it is the belief in the human spirit.

 

That is, if we understand and respect the nature of a plant and act accordingly, then it will grow and thrive on its own.  Indelibly, the nature of any species of plant is defined by its particular preference for sunlight, soil, temperature or moisture.  Some might say:  Location, Location, and Location.   Nina, our collaborator from Healthy Waltham, said that “we don’t grow the plants, nature does.” 

We have the same respect for our Day Center guests. We accept every guest who comes through our doors. Some guests come to the Center to be with people; some come for a warm meal and sleep in a safe place; and others come for case management and help with job and housing searches.  Through the trusting rapport developed through daily interactions between staff and guests, we help our guests tap their strengths and identify resources so they can get back on their feet.

On April 6, we, the human partner and caretaker of plants, sowed some peas along the eastern fence of our garden.   For, we have learned that peas require cold moisture before their seeds will germinate.  And, the cold nights of last week set the perfect stage for planting.   We sowed them next to the fence, so they can climb, once germinated.  Locating peas on the eastern side of the garden also means that as they grow and as the season progress, the pea plants can cast some shade on the leafy cool weather vegetables we planted on our first foray into venture – radish, collard greens, spinach and Swiss Chard – so they are less likely to bolt on when season beings to warm (see layout of garden below).  

 

If our society is a large, magnificent garden, then what plants would we want to grow?  In many cities, plants have been reduced to their ornamental value such as flowering cherries that are genetically altered to not produce fruit or seeds.   Chamaedorea elegans, a tropical plant, became the ubiquitous Victoria parlor palms because they alone can endure the curtained twilight of human dwelling.   We celebrate Christmas with Amaryllis in full bloom because we have mastered “forcing” – how honest an expression – it to do so, despite that it natural habit of blooming in the spring and going dormant in the winter.    

If our society values plants that are lost to the belief that “above all: to thine ownself be true” (Shakespeare, Hamlet Act I Scene 3), then what about the weeds?  The columnist Doug Larson wrote that:  A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.   What a poignant description of the guests we receive at the Community Day Center – Guests who have mastered every survival skill yet are undervalued and under-appreciated by society simply because they refusal to “grow in rows.”

At the Community Day Center, we reject the ideas that people, like plants, must be re-engineered to please our tastes and preferences. We assist the guests in a “holistic” manner, to help them manage the day-to-day struggles of life when they do not have a stable and safe home to call their own. For example, we need to ensure that our guests are staying on medication treatment programs, accessing health care, maintaining sobriety, bringing a domestic abuser to justice, clearing up outstanding warrants, or reuniting with their children/family, to name a few possible scenarios.  Once there is stability in their lives, they can move forward. Stated differently, the services we provide stem from the same logic as our garden --if we understand and respect the fundamental dignity of our guests and act accordingly, they will grow and thrive on their own.

Post script:  OK.  We confess, we did ask leave of nature to plant some potatoes in 2 large bags.  For all the good intention to be true to nature, we simply can't resist the promise of a shortcut that we can harvest the potatoes by simply tipping their bags over.