A Guest Post on Gardening

My dear friend and life-long neighbor, Christy Freriks, is a journalist and lawyer and a damn good gardener. Since many of my readers are now in full fledged spring I thought it’d be fun to post something for you guys about gardening. Nice idea, but I’m in the throws of rain and mud and leaves strewn about everywhere. So, I asked Christy to write something. And of course, it made me cry.

See you on Monday when we talk about … Hearing from God.

Much Love,

Tina

Companion Plants by Christy Freriks

I am a lifelong hobby gardener. However, my gardening skill and ability isn’t particularly amazing. Let’s just say that I am glad that my family doesn’t depend on my skills to eat. However, in a good year we have jam and spaghetti sauce to carry us through the winter. It allows me to teach my boys one way of connecting with the earth.

Recently I started to read more about companion gardening. It sounds like something I should embrace since my garden is short on square footage. It is an ancient concept that was often overlooked when fertilizers and pesticides came into easy reach.

The Farmer’s Almanac states that “plant companions ensure a happy garden—and gardener.” The concept is quite simple; some plants make each other healthier by either providing a scent that wards off pets or by supplementing nutrients that another needs.

The most well known example of companion plantings is called the Three Sisters Garden. You plant corn, pole beans, and squash together. The corn provides support for the pole beans and the beans enrich the soil. The squash then provides shade for the feet of the corn and the beans and slows water evaporation. The three work together each using strength to minimize another’s weakness.

Is the same not true with people? As we age, the hope is that we grow with the wisdom to attach ourselves to the people that bolster the things we are lacking.

Certain people often challenge us as individuals and this helps to provide the foundation that we need to grow taller, stronger and more confident. Others shade us in those times where we need to hunker down and send our energy to our roots so we can rise another day. Some people simply provide the nutrient we need no matter the situation. They pray with us and for us and help us to shine a little brighter. Somehow, simply being around that person makes us a little better, a little healthier.

Carrots hate coriander and dill. Sometimes we plant ourselves near someone in the hopes that the relationship will bear fruit. Instead we find ourselves surrounded by pests, drama, and conflict. Eventually, the relationship withers or we decide to uproot and move along to healthier pastures. In the case of coriander and dill, they put off excretions harmful to carrots and are actively destructive to each other.

A third type of planting is one like beans and carrots. Carrots love tomatoes in a mutually beneficial relationship. However, the relationship between carrots and beans is unrequited. Beans are helpful in fixing nitrogen but carrots don’t need a lot of nitrogen. The carrots help the beans grow and the beans don’t do much in return.

The other day I sat in my garden about to move my new bean seedlings out into the garden. I contemplated paring them the carrot seeds I just got in the mail from my new favorite seed company (The Seattle Seed Co). What to do? I planted them together.

I guess at the end of the day I think that there is a time and a place for non-reciprocal relationships. Sometimes it is our job to step in and lift someone else up even when it is unlikely that you will get something out of the relationship. I figure that for every time I have been the carrot, there are at least 10 more where I have been the bean.  In gardening terms, I don’t have a lot of space and it made logistical sense to let them hang out for a season.

There also are times when companions are hanging out together and it still doesn’t work. The soil is too wet and the roots just rot. It should work but it just doesn’t. This happens to people as well. We pick our church, our neighborhood, our school and our friendships carefully and thoughtfully and try to force it. Sometimes we just have to accept that there are many different reasons that relationships work.

I also am happy to know that companion plants can thrive even when they aren’t near each other. I spent many years gardening and my carrots and tomatoes had to gaze adoringly at each other from vast distances. Despite that complication, each one managed to survive and provide something to harvest in the season. Many of my closest friendships are with companions that are spread far and wide. Although mountains and seas separate us, the bond remains strong and does not falter. Just like companion plants, some relationships are a gift that stand the test of time because what they bring is something that we cannot do without.

Companion Plants (information from the Old Farmer’s Almanac):

Asparagus Friends: Dill, Coriander, Carrots, and Tomatoes. Avoid: Onions, Garlic and Potatoes.

Beans – Friends: Cucumbers, Corn, Squash, Strawberries, and Tomatoes Foe: Garlic, Onions, Peppers and Sunflowers

Lettuce: Friends: Asparagus, Beets, Cabbage, Carrots, Corn, and Cucumbers Foe: Broccoli

Peppers: Basil, Onions, Spinach, and Tomatoes Foe: Beans and Kohlrabi

Tomatoes: Carrots, Peppers, Spinach, Asparagus and Thyme Foe: Broccoli, Cabbage, Corn and Potatoes