My first garden was near a busy street in Washington, DC, a large plot in a community garden cooperative. I learned to grow tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, basil and Swiss chard that summer while writing my first book, on leave from my newspaper job. I loved the rhythm of writing inside and then digging and watering outside, trading vegetables with my fellow gardeners.
Two kids and many years later, I’ve now grown gardens in backyards in Washington, DC, Denver, and Madison, Wisconsin. I spend winter days reading seed catalogs and drawing maps of what I hope will grow. So when it became clear life was about to change in early March, as others overbought Clorox wipes and toilet paper, I ordered many (maybe too many) seeds. As any gardener knows, each season brings at least one glorious surprise and one stinging disappointment. So far, I was amazed to see the fragrant lemon thyme came up from last year, surviving the Wisconsin winter. And my idea to plant a spinach, lettuce and kale plot has worked so well I need to give some of it away. But my green beans, usually a reliable standby as they grow and climb up three tall trellises, are slow, or maybe not coming at all. Probably taken by a squirrel. Maybe they will show up as a surprise in someone else’s garden.
It all reminds me of the question we ask in this weekend’s show, “Who Owns Seeds?” Like many of our shows, the answer is complicated, suggesting none of us, and all of us owns seeds. In the show, you'll hear seed stories from botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer, founder of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault Cary Fowler, and organic farmer Bob Quinn. And you'll take a trip to Mexico with journalist Seth Jovaag, in search of the corn of the future.
Let me know what you’re planting at shannon.kleiber@wpr.org.
–Shannon