Today at the garden

Today at the garden 11 garden members enjoyed lentil soup, salad and strawberries at our garden meeting. At our meeting we talked about things we wanted to work on, fix or celebrate in the garden. Below you can see some of the pictures of what else happened today:
Showing off a newly picked carrot.

Here is half of todays carrot harvest. We had a fun time checking out the different shapes and sizes.

This bed has brussel sprouts and spinach. They like shade, so we planted them under a big tree.

We planted some brussel sprouts.

Art & Stress Reduction

Today at the garden, 6 people who live on the streets or in SRO's participated in our art & stress reduction class. We talked about about different ways that people can deal with their frustrations in ways that won't get them in trouble in their building or won't cause someone to call the cops.

Here are some of the ideas shared in today's group:

• walk away
• write down your thoughts, then throw it away where you can't get in trouble
• draw a picture
• tear some paper slowly
• cry
• listen to music
• talk to a friend
• eat healthy food
• sit in a garden
• say a pray
• sing a song
• swear
• read a book
• think about others that have bigger problems, like natural disasters
• laugh
• look at your favorite color
• take a shower

Those who participated also pointed out that what feels like stress reduction to one person could be triggering and unhelpful for another, so you have to find the things that work for you.

Join us each Friday at 1pm for Art & Stress skill shares. Individuals receive a $10 Safeway Card the first time they attend a skill share or support group. After that, they receive an additional gift card after they get 6 attendance stamps.

Today at the garden

Today at the garden 4 individuals participated in the addiction recovery support group and 8 people helped with mural painting. Check out some of the photos from today's work at the garden: Mural designer, Ilyse paints the shed with some other volunteers.
After doing some watering, Joseph planted some spinich in a shady area of the garden.

More Mural Photos

Today at the garden I took some more photos of some of my favorite parts of the mural. The great thing about having different squares painted with individual designs means that there is always something new to discover. Below you will find some of the designs that caught my eye today. I hope you will join us on Wednesday from 1-4 pm as we finish up our painting and coat the shed with some weather protection.

Mural Painting Party!

Special thanks to the 32 volunteers that came out to participate in our mural painting party. We celebrated with popcorn and a test run of our bicycle powered smoothie machine. Check out some of the pictures from today's event (click on images to see a larger version):

Do the Homeless Really Volunteer in the Garden?

People often ask us if homeless individuals are really participating in our garden. Of course, this is mostly because people assume they can tell the housing status of a person by looking at their clothing or based on their mental health status.

It's sometimes hard to answer this question, since an individuals housing status can change during the time they are working with us in the garden. In fact, since we have a fantastic client advocate we hope that all individuals who are homeless or living in a shelter when they begin working in the garden will be able to move into more stable housing. Since it's important to let people keep their private information private, we don't often share with volunteers which of the individuals working beside them in the garden sleep on the streets, in shelters, in a single room occupancy (SRO) hotel room or in more stable housing in the neighborhood.

The word "homeless" itself provides a problem. Many people who live outdoors, in shelters or in a SRO do not consider themselves homeless, even though they meet the federal guidelines for homelessness. Some say that they don't need housing to have a home, because that is something they carry inside themselves. Others prefer to the terms "stable housing," "marginally housed" and "unstable housing."

Despite all the hiccups with language and stereotypes, it's interesting to see who is doing most of the work in our garden. Our goal was to create a safe place for homeless individuals, living in housing situations that leave them without access to a backyard, garden space or who have no place to relax and participate in the community around them. In order to see if we're meeting this goal, we'll use the federal understanding of homelessness (living outdoors, in shelters or SROs).

From March 1 - July 17, 2010 the Growing Home Community Garden has logged 1125.96 volunteer hours. This includes 213.5 volunteer hours from neighbors, 563.3 volunteer hours from homeless individuals and 185.66 volunteer hours from other volunteers. You'll note that the break down of hours is a little less that the total number of hours volunteered, this is because we haven't finished logging all the hours yet.

These volunteer numbers show that our garden is overwhelmingly taken care of by the homeless. So, the answer is: yes, the homeless really do volunteer in our garden.

We hope our garden will transform the false perception that homeless individuals are lazy or simply trying to live off the handouts of others. Inspired and led by both homeless and housed individuals, our garden is a space to grow food and provide a safe community for all who need it. Regardless of your housing status, we hope you will stop by the garden soon.

Garden Refections

While it would seem like in a garden there would be continual payoff, celebrating harvests, beautiful flowers and completed projects, I find that I sometimes have trouble celebrating the success in a garden when each time I visit I'm always finding weeds and more things that need attention.

Of course, this also echos what it has felt like for me to work with the homeless for the past 8 years in San Francisco. There has been so much life changing work that I've been a part of. Yet, despite all my efforts to celebrate the small moments of victory, the individuals that are now living indoors and addressing their mental health and addiction issues, I still find it hard to celebrate because homelessness in San Francisco is seemingly and unending crisis.

At each of our garden meetings we take time to celebrate the small improvements, successes and joys of the garden and of our lives. Today, I'm reflecting on the amazing things that we've been able to accomplish this summer at the garden.

• We installed drip irrigation on all of our garden beds. This decreased the volunteer time spent watering the garden from 8 hours a day to an half hour.
• We created vertical gardens to grow drought resistant succulents and block the wind. [see the photo progression of the vertical succulent pocket fence or read the DIY instructions about how to make your own]
• We harvested food and ate together at all of our garden meetings.
• We started regular skill share opportunities for individuals to learn about health, garden skills and addiction recovery.
• We hired 6 summer youth employees who need special help in high school or are a part of the foster care system. These youth were able to help with projects at the garden, participate in our health and garden skill shares and to keep our garden open to the public on a regular basis.
• We created a mural (still in progress) [see the photo progression of the mural]
• We hired 2 additional staff members: an office assistant and a garden educator
• We worked on our communication, decision making process and established a vision.
• We had a big planting day and created two beds in the garden dedicated to mental health care plants and for making teas.
• We began having conversations with the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance in order to build relationships and provide opportunities through the Seeding Resilience project.
• We obtained a bicycle powered smoothie machine!
• And the most important of all, but hardest to count, is the way that we were able to provide a safe environment for individuals who live on the streets, in shelters, single room occupancy hotel rooms or in the Hayes Valley Neighborhood to enjoy a green space, have some organic produce or just to escape the stress of the city for a bit. My favorite story is about how Don was able to get teeth.

What a list! While there will always be weeds and new cycles of harvesting and planting that we continue to work on in the garden, I truly believe that the community we have created at the garden is one to celebrate. I hope to see you at the garden soon, whether you volunteer, want to relax or to come enjoy some of the harvest. Also, please add comments here if there are things I've forgotten to celebrate.

Be well!

Megan.

Today at the Garden: More Mural Painting

Today at the garden we continued to work on the background of our mural. We were able to complete the entire front of the shed and part of the sides. To date our mural has only cost $40 for supplies, as we were able to almost all of the paint, brushes and other supplies donated or recycled from the dump. Check out the front of our mural at the end of the day:
Don't forget to join us on Saturday from 1-4 pm when folks of all ages and skill levels will be helping us finish our mural and plant some new produce crops.

Mural photo progresison

Watch the progress of our mural.

Mural Paining, Day 3

It's day three of mural painting. Check out the pictures and see our progress! Special thanks to the volunteers who came out to help today! We'll be do a little more painting on Wednesday and then have a big planting and painting day on Saturday the 21st (1-4pm).

Today at the garden

Today at our garden meeting Yonat and Donna let the group in a somatic (body) centered process to talk about what we are passionate about at the garden and how we want to move forward together. We learned more about each other, enjoyed the garden and we created this cool vision for our group:

This is our community garden, where motivated homeless and housed individuals share a safe space to grow, feed, educate and thrive.

We will be measure the outcomes of our vision by recording:

• the number of people who visit, volunteer and learn skills in the garden
• the number of meals served and produce harvested
• and in the narratives of people who share the space

Mural painting: day #2

Ilyse, our mural desinger shows off the progress we completed on the mural today. The photo story below will show you how we did it. Consider it the Do It Yourself (DIY) photos. (See what we did on day one)

First we finished painting the sides of the shed white.

Then we drew our mural design onto the shed with a charcoal pencil.

Then we began painting our diamond shapes different shades of green and brown. Then we filled in more and more diamonds. Here is what the shed looked like at the end of the day.

Mural painting: step #1

Today, I was able to get recycled paint, brushes, buckets and all the supplies we'll need for our mural including waterproof varnish to cover the final mural (which makes it easier to clean off graffiti, if needed). This means that we'll be able to paint our mural for free! A big thank you to the generous folk who donated supplies.

Since paint is a toxic substance you have to pay to take it to the landfill in San Francisco, so people were happy to get rid of their left over paint. And putting it on a building is better for the environment than putting it into the earth.

Today we painted the front of our shed white, to prime it. We used left over exterior house paint donated by a house painter who gave us a 20 gallon bucket.

Special thanks to our summer youth employees who helped us paint today.

Peer Led Support Groups

Today we had our first peer led support group at the garden, as a part of our Seeding Resilience Project. Henry, is leading a weekly addiction recovery group every Wednesday at 1pm. A harm reduction centered group, Henry shares information about his own recover and talks to individuals about what needs they have.

Soon we will be starting a trauma care group (Fridays at noon - start date to be announced) and on September 17th we will start a veterans group that will meet each Friday at 11am.

Individuals who participate in 6 skill shares or support groups and collect stamps at each are able to redeem them for a $10 Safeway gift card. You can get a card and stamps at the garden shed.

A picture story - Monday at the Garden

Our newest garden volunteer, Sophie, helped us add drip lines to another bed. A student at the nearby French-American School, Sophie wanted to create her own garden to help feed the homeless. We have the same hope, so we're glad Sophie is around to help us. She's already got a lot of ideas about how we can collect water and grow more plants.

On Monday, our youth employees helped us add 8 more succulent pockets to the fence. Neighbors continue to stop by and ask questions about how they can make some at home. Some have even asked us to try to get some extra potato sacks for them. Our garden is inspiring the neighborhood!

Every Monday at 1pm we share a nutritious lunch at the garden. With vegan soup from the Zen Center and salads and other sides harvest during the 12pm nutrition/cooking skill share, we have our weekly garden meeting during the meal.

6 pounds of fava harvested on Monday!

Take a peek at what else is in bloom at the garden:

Passion fruit

A white rose
The fourth round of strawberries.