The Ground Beneath Our Feet
By Tim Barbera, CGC Volunteer
It’s hard not to feel like the world is coming apart at the seams these days. The past months have provided no shortage of stomach-churning headlines, and the barrage of bad news can feel overwhelming at times. What can a single person possibly do when there is so much going wrong…and going wrong at such speed?
I’ve been asking myself those questions for the better part of the last decade. I strongly believe that the feeling of fragmentation is a product of a frenetic digital media environment whose pace and scale is not compatible with our primate hardwiring. We cannot begin to heal as individuals or communities until we readjust. We are adapted to the rhythms of the earth. Apples alerted us to their presence with texture and smell for ages before they did so with vibration and sound.
And we are SO lucky. We have this place, the Civic Garden Center (CGC), which invites us to slow down, to caress the dirt and to build fellowship with our neighbors. And from these opportunities, one can even begin to feel a little bit of hope about the future.
Don’t believe me? Let me tell you about my September.
Fall Native Plant Festival
At the start of the month, I got to be a greeter at the CGC’s Fall Native Plant Festival. On a gorgeous day, the members of our community arrived in droves, seeking to nurture their own little pockets of nature. I would argue that their presence expressed two beautiful things: curiosity and a desire to do things better. Many different people have heard about native plants and their importance to a healthy ecosystem, but these people took the time, money and effort to acquire and cultivate those plants themselves. That means they want to learn about this ecosystem and to be a part of its flourishing.
And the CGC was eager to oblige. The entire production was a massive undertaking. It required coordination of vendors bringing their plants and expertise from across the area. Not to mention all those tables that we had to wipe down with a couple of rags and stack into a truck! You don’t even have to know all that went into the festival, you just had to see the staff’s look of exhaustion and relief after it was over.
Game Night
The following week, I attended Game Night in the Garden. Many attended, some arriving as strangers, most departing as friends—but not all. Like any good game night, some grudges were born. One such grudge sprung from the world’s first ever six-person game of Euchre. A reader might wonder how that is possible. Well, I’ll tell you. Brandon being the social butterfly and magnanimous host that he is, he had to frequently suspend the game so that he could appropriately welcome the most recent arrivals to the festivities. This resulted in not one but two of his partners having to depart the game for other pressing obligations.
With such diverted attention, you might think that Brandon would be sure to lose. And like me, you would be sorely disappointed. He stormed back, erasing a five-point deficit and snatching victory from the jaws of the barn, WHICH I WAS IN. The worst part is, he won’t let me forget about it. So yeah, I made some new friends and one new enemy. Game Night done right.
In the Garden Jazz Concert
A couple weeks later saw the first-ever In the Garden jazz event. The effort was led by Romel Sims and Colin Palmieri, two College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) graduates who electrified the crowd with their jazz arrangements. The garden held the crowd in its embrace, the trees clutched the late summer air close and the sounds of music reverberated between plants and humans alike. Toes tapped, heads bobbed and notes sizzled like leaves in a compost pile. The music and the setting aligned in perfect harmony so that when the band played the melody to “summertime and the living is easy,” the air was already thick with the soul of those words.
Hands On at Hauck
Last but not least, getting down and dirty at Friday workdays. September was a bad month to be a weed in Hauck Botanic Garden. We were issued soil knives and there was a BOLO out for invasive plants. In the Sedge Garden, you didn’t want to be seen looking like anything but a sedge. If you didn’t have that tussled, easygoing grassy look... you were easy picking for our ruthless crew. And don’t even get me started on ragweed. Didn’t stand a chance. Ragweed in Hauck was like a wiener dog on the Fourth of July...in grave danger.
However, Hands On at Hauck provides insight to all phases of the circle of life, so uprooting weeds was accompanied by planting a tree. Jack gave a masterclass in tough love. He sawed every root that was even hinting at getting back with its ex...and its ex was a pot that was too dang small! Next time you feel like you need to make a big, painful change but you’re scared, come by the CGC to see why it may be time to act. There is now a beautiful English/White Oak sapling rising high into the Cincinnati skyline. (Watch out, Great American Tower.)
Finally, we received exclusive access to goods which only the most refined palates can appreciate. Aged in a wire and mesh cask for over a year, this vintage of black gold compost is the hottest commodity in the city. Guided by our in-house soil-melier, the distillation process involved volunteers passing the pristine soil through wire-mesh sifters in order to refine the product, painstakingly reducing the piles to only the purest ingredients.
So that was my September! Returning to where I began this article, I really do believe that this is where positive change starts: working side-by-side with others, getting to know each other, laughing together and applying some attention and tenderness to the ground beneath our feet. In the abstract, it can feel like a small drop in the bucket. But if you have your doubts, come on out, give it a try and tell me you don’t feel like the world is just a little bit better.
At the CGC, we strive to make space for as many positive experiences as possible. When you support our work financially, you’re helping make more plant festivals, social events, concerts and volunteer workdays possible for our community—and facilitating more stories like Tim’s!