How To Build Community

Lesson #1: Dig up your front yard.

In our lawn-centric culture, you might expect to get a few guffaws, or at least bewildered looks from your neighbors when you set out to tear up the neatly manicured green grass of your front yard. "Are you making another flower bed?", "Getting ready to lay some sod?" I have to admit our yard could have used some sod. We have some pretty tenacious weeds that if left untreated (and I mean mowed here, not doused with chemicals), could take over the yard in a matter of days. But the truth was, we were breaking ground for another vegetable garden. Sure, we already had 2 plots out back, big enough to ensure at least a healthy yield of summer tomatoes, peppers, and whatever else we wanted to plant. But, we wanted more space. And, if we planted another bed, we felt sure at least some of our plants might make it. I guess when you are trying to eat locally, you begin to look at your yard differently. Every square inch of dirt has the potential to give us food.

So how is digging up your front yard a lesson in community-building? Well, the hum of the rototiller might as well be a siren-song for curious neighbors. We found that people wanted to stop and chat to find out what we were doing. We took a break from our efforts to talk with Michael - the son of one of our neighbors - who as it turned out had a couple of acres in Holt, and sold some of his surplus vegetables at the Tuscaloosa Farmers Market whenever he could muster up the strength to get down there at 5am. We told him about our project, as a way of further explaining our impetus to make a front yard garden plot. He immediately offered us some of his vegetables, and next thing we know he'd gone back to his Mom's house down the road to snag a couple of Mason jars of green beans and field peas. To me, this encounter was a reminder of how seldom we talk to our neighbors and how disconnected we've become to our immediate communities. I also pondered this disconnect on the level of our project. With our detachment from food comes a detachment from the people who grow it, and maybe even from the people we share it with.

I came away from the conversation with a new perspective on neighborly banter, and having learned a little something about growing and canning. And, what's more, Michael came back about ten minutes later asking us if we wanted any catfish!