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The Seed Vol. 43 October 20, 2010 A Giving Tree Gardens Newsletter
Photos by Russ Henry and Ellyot Stacy ©2010 ,
Text by Russ Henry
Breaking The Rules Class Video By Amy Waksmonski
©2010 by Giving Tree Gardens, all rights reserved.
Most of my heroes are outlaws.
My heroes are folks that are not afraid to stand up and defend what’s right, no matter the cost. My heroes are folks who are brave enough to live a life full of meaning and passion even when the rule-makers of the day demand banality and submission.
Rachel Corrie stood in front of those bulldozers with a force of will no army can stop. John Trudell still works for peace and justice even after his mother in-law, wife, and children were taken in a fire that was set to silence him. And good old Willie Nelson, no matter how many times the authorities bust him down for his choice in medicine, he keeps on touring ‘round the world raising money for struggling family farmers that the government has priced off the land. If they can do that, if they can all be so brave and free, then so can we.
Get ready for Growth with a
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Giving Tree Gardens.
We'll help you turn your yard into an
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Thinking of Going Green? Start by Growing Green!
These organizations can help residents, neighborhoods, and groups in Minneapolis and St. Paul learn to live and grow sustainably!
Mother Earth Gardens: The best plant selection, locally owned, and expert organic advice. One stop garden shop!
Midtown Farmers Market: Shop for locally grown organic foods, and meet your farmers and neighbors!
Diamond Stone Oriental Medicine: Your first wealth is health. Treat your body with love, care, and expertise!
Sister's Camelot provides free organic food to folks in need throughout the Twin Cities!
Kids learn to grow, cook, and sell food. Sharing skills that will sustain for a lifetime!
Offering on-site energy and sustainability consultations for families, businesses, and non-profits in Minnesota!
Rainwater is not only the best water for your gardens, but it's free! Don't let another drop go to waste!
As long as there's a few farmers out there, we'll keep fighting for them.
They keep makin’ ‘em, and we keep breakin’ ‘em!
When one of us stands up and breaks a bad rule alone, that person becomes an example to us all, a hero.
When all of us stand up and break bad rules together, those bad rules change!
Bad rules hold back our creative spirits, bad rules keep us from our true nature. Bad rules are made to be broken by good people, so let’s all prove our honor for this Earth that made us, let all good people band together now and break the rules till the rules are good once again.
These Rotten Rules Have
GOT TO GO!
Rotten Rule 1.
No Weeds:
Weeds are free food and medicine. Dandelion, purslane, lamb’s quarters, creeping charlie, nettle, and plantain are just a few examples of the weeds that the rule makers tell us are bad plants while in reality these plants provide us with the most nutritious and abundant source of locally produced food. This is a simple matter of access to health. Why pay doctors and food companies, if we have free healthy food and medicine at home? When I look at the shelves of any big box grocery store, I can tell that the rule-makers of today don’t care for our health as much as they care for their profit.
We can’t eat the grass they tell us to grow in our yards, but we can eat the weeds they tell us to kill. Now does that make sense to you?
“Let them eat grass” ring a bell for anyone?
Rotten Rule 2.
Yards Should Be Tidy:
Ever been to the jungle? How ‘bout the woods, prairie, or meadow? You really don’t see row plantings in nature. Rows are for folks who don’t believe in abundance. The natural world preaches abundance at every turn. Mother Nature eschews boring old rows in favor of filling every square inch of land with an ever-shifting variety of plants uniquely suited for their home environs. To plant the exact same corn or tomato in the exact same spot year after year is one practice nature never intended, it’s just too draining on the soils. We need to let our gardens grow us as much as we grow them, and have a long loving look at what the environment is trying to grow in our yards before we go tearing out everything that didn’t come with a price tag.
Rotten Rule 3.
Gardens Cost Money:
Really this rule is much more sinister then first glance would reveal. Gardening is a human tool by which we gain access to food, health, and beauty. Gardening also connects us with our earthen nature. If we go around telling ourselves that this amazing, connective, life supporting activity is only for the wealthy, we might as well go ahead and sign away our entire life’s labors in the pursuit of someone else’s happiness. As long as we’re working for the man, we’re not working for ourselves.
Join a garden club, connect with Comgar, talk with neighbors, friends, or family who garden, there’s no shortage of ways to connect yourself to a garden. Find some place that you can start getting your hands dirty in the pursuit of health.
One of the easiest ways to break this rule is to start composting! Compost is wealth pulled from waste, and you’ll never find a bigger return on investment in health then your time spent composting!
Rotten Rule 4.
Illegal Animals:
I live in a city that has a rich heritage of back yard farming. One of the most common man-made objects I come across while excavating city soils are horse shoes. This city used to have cows, pigs, sheep, horses, goats and chickens as common in back yards as lawnmowers are today. We used to gather our own fresh milk and eggs every morning from the barn out back and saddle up the horse to go to work. This city is no different then any other in America in this aspect. Animal husbandry is a rich and important part of the cultural heritage of a majority of the folks now living here. Unfortunately, we are now denied the freedom to practice our heritage by the City of Minneapolis, Animal Control Department.
Lets go down the list, Horses, Cows, Pigs, Sheep, Goats and Roosters…. All Illeagal.
Chickens, Ducks, Turkeys, and Bees…. Legal but unreasonable and cost prohibitive licensing required, less rule breakers face up to $2,000 in fines.
Why do they have these bad rules in place? If I had my guess it’s so that wealthier folks in mixed income neighborhoods can spare their eyes and noses from the real life sights and smells of people living as people should.
Why should we pay fees to the city just so we can care for our own basic needs? Seems to me like the sheriff of Nottingham no longer wishes to be paid off in eggs and mead, but would like our silver instead. Avast ye scoundrels! Let the good people be free!!
Rotten Rule 5.
Illegal Plants:
Marijuana is also an easy to grow plant that can be sold for between one and four thousand dollars per pound depending on the variety and quality.
Now if you’re an urban Minneapolis farmer who is really trying to make a go of it selling tomatoes for a dollar and a quarter per pound or potatoes for sixtynine cents per pound while rent is already too expensive and taxes are on the rise, you might just look over the fence at your compatriot urban farming friends in Denver or Detroit and deduce that medicinal Mary Jane is an urban farmers best friend.
Medicinal marijuana in Minnesota is a must if we are to keep urban farmers from going bust. The only reason they keep this weed illegal anywhere is to line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies instead of farmers. That’s the kind of BS that I’d like to see turned into compost!
Imagine a city filled with farms and gardens that provided affordable organic food and medicine for its citizens. Legalizing medicinal marijuana is the only way we are going to make this wonderful pipe dream a green reality.
To all the rulebreakers, to all the rebels, to all tomorrows heros, I tell you, you are not alone.
Dare to dream, dare to live, and inspire those near you to dare to be free!
We should be inspired by people... who show that human beings can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong-even in the most difficult circumstances.
We don't run, We don't compromise, We don't quit,
We never do. We look for love, We find it in the eyes, The eyes of me, the eyes of you.
"No matter what they ever do to us, we must always act for the love of our people and the earth. We must not react out of hatred against those who have no sense."
Right now the world could use some garden outlaws. Gardens hold the potential to heal what ails us in so many ways, from reducing global carbon emissions, to providing people with affordable healthy meals, to securing local economies, to growing community health and cultural wealth. With all this potential at our fingertips, we can’t let the rules hold back or working hands any longer. We need to stand in the way of the march of industry, plant our plants, and sing our songs, and cultivate our culture so that we can grow a healthy planet once again. Read below to find out how you can be a garden rebel, and a outlaw hero in your own back yard!
Winter's coming, Don't get stuck in the snow!
Giving Tree Gardens offers high quality residential and commercial
For the greater Minneapolis area!
Good Guys
Break Bad Rules
The eagle is a living symbol of freedom.
This eagle survives in the same habitat that we all share and live from, the eagle is also a symbol of our own well being.
The fight for freedom and health in America is far from over, my friends. Complying with rules and rule makers that persuade us to destroy habitat, sells the foundation of freedom out from under our feet.
Without the freedom to live in a healthy environment, we have no freedom at all!
Freedom isn't a gift handed down from the king, freedom is a jewel stolen by the peasants!
Rise up, break the rules and steal back your freedom!
Gardens don't need to cost the farm!
Let your friends help, collect seeds, grow your compost pile from garbage, and throw a garden party to share the fun!
This rooster's on the lam. While chickens are allowed in the city, Johny Law finds roosters to be a feather too foul.
Until recently beekeeping was illegal in Minneapolis, and even today the tax man wants a cut just for a resident to get a beekeeping permit. Ask old Friar Tuck, no one should come between a man and his mead! Free The Bees!
I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?
~Willie Nelson
