By Marge Pitts
Community GroundWorks

Gardening for Good (G4G) is a program at Troy Gardens that creates opportunities for people with developmental disabilities to discover gardening and to become part of their community. Their mantra is “everybody belongs, everybody contributes.”

Since it began in 2012, G4G has cast a wide net to engage individuals with disabilities living on the Northside to join in the fun of a shared community garden plot. At their Thursday evening sessions, G4G participants prove that when we spend time with our neighbors, joined together for a common reason like gardening, we get to know each other on a personal level, and suddenly our disabilities and differences don’t get in the way anymore.

G4G is a collaborative program funded by Dane County Human Services, Community GroundWorks and HyVee. The strength of this program resides in the generosity of core volunteers, workshop facilitators, participants and their support staff.

Gardening for Good Journal

We were entering the phase when the seedlings we tucked into their beds six weeks ago were rising up like grizzly bears, standing on two legs and roaring, “Thank you very much. Now get out of my way; I need to get bigger.”

I wondered where Sarah and Kate were as I looked over the garden. Surely they were here somewhere; our gatherings wouldn’t be the same without those reliable friends. Then Sarah’s head popped up in the pepper patch, like a pelican returning to the surface of the sea, with a handful of jalapenos instead of a pouch full of fish. In a moment, Kate’s head appeared near Sarah’s. Laughing and doing chores, Sarah and Kate, all is right with the world, I thought.

I eased into the garden, mentally saying “excuse me, excuse me” to the hip-high tomato plants I had to jostle through to get to a pile of grass mulch Rebecca wanted us to spread around the kale. I mulch on my knees, to reflect reverence for the living soil where the soul of the earth resides and because I enjoy crawling around in a garden. 

Crouching and mulching, I found an exquisite eggplant hidden at the base of its mother, just like an egg in a nest. The eggplant was perfectly ripe, if a bit small. I picked it and stood up in triumph. “Look,” I said, “an eggplant!” Jill said, “It looks just like an egg.” And sure enough, it did. It could have been a goose egg or turtle egg or dinosaur egg. Purple, yes, but unmistakably an egg. I examined it as I placed it on the table where we share the harvest. All is right with the world, I thought, when an eggplant looks like an egg.

Marge (one of us is “the other Marge”) came along with a bag of handmade yarn coasters. She was passing them out as gifts to the rest of us, very proudly, as she had made them herself without help. We sat down together, the two Marges. I admired the colorful rubber-band bracelets Marge was wearing. She promptly gave one of them to me. She had made them without help, too. I had a basket with words in it for our “pick-a-word” storytelling activity later. I picked a word at random and showed it to Marge. She surprised me by reading each letter of the word back to me, B-E-A-U-T-Y. All is right with the world when one Marge reveals beauty to the other Marge.

More people were starting to arrive at the garden, just in time for snacks and storytelling. Here came Edward — independently, confident stride, hip sunglasses, handsome smile. “All right, Edward’s here!” I hollered, applauding. Edward laughed and grinned at me as he joined the group and found a seat for himself. All is right with the world, I thought, when Edward realizes how perfectly he belongs in this happy place.

We played “pick-a-word,” where each of us picks a word from the basket and tells a story containing that word. Then we all applaud, and that storyteller chooses the next storyteller. Carol picked the word “mulch.” She told us how, this very day, she had accompanied Jojo and Todd up to the big lawn with a wheelbarrow to collect the grass clippings we used as mulch in the garden. “I feel that today I passed some kind of test with Jojo,” Carol said. “On the way back to the garden, he held my hand.” All is right with you, I thought, when Jojo holds your hand. And all is right with the world, when we applaud each other’s storytelling out of reverence for the soul that resides there.