Weed it and Reap

Written by Ann-Margret Hovsepian

Someone has said: “It is not enough for a gardener to love flowers; he must also hate weeds.”

Tell me about it. Boy, do I hate those weeds in my garden. I see my poor, little flowers being choked and smothered and I just want to yank out those nasty weeds and shake them and . . . and . . . well, some of them are too hard so I just leave them there. It’s just too much effort. I guess I’ll have to settle for a less-than-perfect garden. Maybe if my flowers turn out really nice, people won’t notice my weeds.

Okay, I’m just joking. But sometimes it is easier to ignore the weeds. Because I’m new at gardening and not strong enough to pull out those deep roots, I actually have to break the soil and sort of dig out the weed (or ask my dad to pull it out!)

City of Toronto Workers Destroy Free Community Food Garden Amid Growing Food Crisis

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Occupy Gardens plants in Queens Park destroyed without harvesting food

Workers destroying Occupy Gardens at Queens Park

Activist Post
Amid a growing food crisis, this morning workers from the City of Toronto were ordered by City of Toronto

Parks Director Richard Ubbens demanded all live plants and food removed from the People's Peas Garden in Queens Park. They were ordered to take the plants and food to the dump and lay sod overtop of this most beautiful free community food garden, without warning, without a chance to remove the rare heirloom plant species or harvest the food.

The garden was planted by Occupy Gardens and allies on May 1st, in defense of local and global food security. While the garden has been growing undisturbed for nearly 5 months, with the help of hundreds in the community, the city deliberately decided to have it removed upon the eve of the Autumn Jam: A Harvest Party and celebration of sharing, community and free local food, which is happening tomorrow from 12-6pm at the garden in Queens Park (northwest section).

Garden of God

"And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land." —Isaiah 6:13

Rebecca Rupp, author of children’s and young adults’ books, recently wrote, “When our kids first started gardening, they wanted to grow doughnuts and bluebirds. If only we could, I thought.”

For young children – and maybe even for grizzled adults – gardening represents the potential for good in our world; it represents the hopes and dreams of people from all walks of life. This wonderful observation may shed light on Isaiah’s comparison, in this passage, between the Jewish people and a tree in the garden of God.

In his day, Isaiah spoke to a Jewish people threatened by an Assyrian empire at the height of its power. The Assyrian forces had conquered far and wide and had successfully exerted its power over much of the Middle East. It seemed then that Assyrian control over their world would never end.