“What that kind of attitude and approach is saying over and over again is that gardening is not for you; you don’t belong here.”
I met up with Teresa Cheng a few weeks ago for lunch at my favourite long-time local eatery, Cafe Bernate for an in-person interview to talk about urban gardening, growing food, and sustainability. We popped back to my place after the interview to take some quick snaps and of course I sent her off with some extra tomato and anise-hyssop seedlings I had kicking around. I have a tendency to unload plants or herbs onto visitors. I may be a terrible sales person but I know how to “sell” a plant.
The result of that conversation can be found on the Taste T.O site, Talking the Green Revolution with Gayla Trail.
Loved the article – great interview! I meet so many people who would love to garden but are so intimidated by all the supposedly needed equipment and gadgets.
Gayla, you are one cool cucumber. This world needs more people in it with your kind of passion and enthusiasm for sustainable (and easily attainable) gardening. I’m a gardening newbie myself, and find your approach and philosophy on gardening like a breath of fresh air. THANKS! :)
I’m glad that you were able to get that last point into that article. Anyone who’s only getting a cursory exposure to gardening, through huge media like HGTV, Better Homes and Gardens and other behemoths, has to think, “I can’t afford this.”
Our culture in general is about amassing “stuff” and gardeners are as guilty as the next guy. There’s always something else to buy. The pleasure of creating your own food (even if it’s just a little pot of parsley) should be within the reach of everyone.
One of our Regina Community Garden plots benefitted from the North Central Dream Team of volunteers. What a great group! As we staked & netted another row of peas, I was giving my usual sermon from the mound of how peas sprawl in a pile on the ground, clinging onto one another. But give them a strong support and guide the tendrils to grab onto it, and they’ll grow tall and strong! A proud young man in the group chimed in: “Just like the Métis!” WOW I thought in agreement – how astute! Yet another metaphor for gardening and life! Some in the Aboriginal cultures have lost what their families knew, we’re trying to re-introduce it in the middle of the city.