Twenty five people from the Commons’ North, South, Namaste and Dragon (seniors) allotment gardens, plus the Commons farm team, sat down for a potluck supper on the Commons lawn on Sunday, Sept. 8th. They shared a meal of dishes sourced from what they’d grown in their gardens. They visited with each other and got to know people from other allotment gardens. And they shared what they’d learned from this gardening season, particularly with the challenges presented by a leak in the Commons irrigation system.
The merits of good mulching were apparent in the discussion of that topic. Everything from wool and straw to weathered hay and tree mulch was used, to good effect. In fact, this way of retaining moisture allowed people to leave their gardens unwatered for many days even during times of extended heat.
One person talked about using upturned plastic bottles with the bottom cut off as a budget version of drip watering. Another person mentioned how useful it was to have a moisture meter…
The conversation was rich and inclusive, a wonderful version of the kind of sharing or “commoning” of knowledge that was a hallmark of the historical commons, which was grounded in an oral culture and direct relations with the shared common land.
Two things emerged for further thought and discussion:
First, how the allotment gardeners that are on the Commons grounds itself might create a team or ad-hoc cooperative to share crop the growing of things like squash and potatoes in the “Little Field” between where the North and Dragon gardens and the South Gardens are located.
Second: how the allotment gardeners might effectively fulfill their responsibility to contribute to the Commons as a whole. This was part of the understanding associated with some of the Commons lands being set aside for individual allotment gardens, though knowledge of this has faded somewhat.
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