There are all sorts of reasons to farm food in the cities–reduction of the heat island effect, local food production, keeping storm water out of the waterways. But something happened to me the other day as a result of growing vegetables in my new garden plot that I wasn’t counting on.
It’s been a dark winter and a pretty rainy spring. I’ve been waiting for the sun. And still the rain comes.
When I was little, when it rained, my grandmother would always say, “Well, it’s good for the farmers.” And I would give lip service and say, “That’s true,” and then I’d feel bad about the fact that I really didn’t care about the farmers. I just wanted sun.
For thirty years, I pretty much just wanted sun.
But the other day, when it rained, I wasn’t disappointed. I’d seen the difference to my new community garden plot after watering with a hose versus a soaking with a good rain. One keeps it alive. The other makes it thrive.
Living in the city, we don’t have as much connection to nature as we should. But keeping my new vegetable plot at Laguardia Community Gardens, the thing I wasn’t counting on was that I suddenly discovered a new gratitude for the cycles of nature. I was grateful for how the world works. I was grateful for the rain.