Pandemic Gardening And The #Asyncarts Project

It’s been a year since the pandemic began to drastically alter our lives. Somethings are back to, “normal,” while others will never be the same.

As we collectively reflect I wanted to write about a small positive project that has been going on where I am. It feels insignificant in light of the losses so many have experienced and continue to experience, but significant in that a small community managed to make new continually growing connections through art, food, writing, and more during such a difficult time.

At some point last spring I received an email about a group of folks in my area wanting to do an ongoing art project called AsyncArts. Generally the goal was to create artistic experiences that could be made and appreciated while everyone was apart. I was busy with school and just trying to get through life but I knew I wanted to do something related to gardening as it can be both practical and beautiful.

I have walked by a random raised bed in a parking lot for years and it was always overgrown with weeds. Since there wasn’t a whole lot else going on I finally made the effort and ripped out the weeds this past spring. I brought in multiple buckets of compost plus two bags of soil. (if anyone wants to contribute a new bag of organic potting soil for this year, let me know or send cash via paypal or @SaraELynchArt on venmo)

Here’s how it looked to start. Those vines growing down the side all got ripped out but they kept coming back and trying to strangle everything I planted.

In secession I planted sunflowers, peas, carrots, squash, brussle sprouts, kale, beans, and a wild flower mix.

Unfortunately we had a drought which was really hard on the seedlings. Something kept eating the sunflower shoots and little vines kept strangling all the plants. I tried some creative solutions with the sunflowers that only kind of worked. The parking lot was really windy at times and people would throw trash in the planter.

I lugged buckets of water there every night to water in the dark to try and counteract the drought and heat from the pavement.

I have no idea what happened to the squash, the peas shriveled in the heat, there was maybe one carrot, the brussle sprouts came out tiny, and the kale and beans never really made it.

Instead I got prolific tomatillos and tomatoes that I didn't plant. 🤷‍♀️ I made green chili with tomatillos and eventually the strongest of the sunflowers opened and could be enjoyed by people passing by in cars.

This was in no way a practical project but it was still worth while. I loved chatting with people walking by while I was weeding and saw people I hadn’t seen in years who all responded with some variation of, “Oh it’s YOU who did this 😊”

Currently I need to clean out the remains of the sad little brussle sprouts but I’m looking forward to starting new plants soon.