Grow Memphis Day 7

 Some of the group went to the midnight showing of Hunger Games Thursday night but I ended up staying back to get some extra sleep. We didn’t wake up as early as usual but ended up getting to the site on time, or so we thought. We pulled up to a house and were unable to get in contact with the man in charge of the garden, Doc. It turns out that he is older and messed up the dates so we were unable to work with him and his garden. We contacted Chris, the head of Grow Memphis, and made plans to work in the greenhouse instead. We went to our new favorite coffee shop, Outlanders, which we had been to now three times. We drove over to the greenhouse to meet with Chris. We did the same thing that we did on Monday afternoon, transplanting seedlings. Half of us worked on filling up cups with compost and the other half separated seedlings and planted them into the cups filled with compost.

After our time in the greenhouse, we thanked Chris for allowing us to work with Grow Memphis. We made our way back to the church for lunch and to get ready for the afternoon. We drove down to the National Civil Rights Museum. It is located where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. It was filled with so much history—some that I was familiar with and some that I had never heard about. The museum was very powerful and opened my eyes up to how far our country has progressed but also showed me how much we still need to grow. After the museum, we went down to the Peabody Hotel to see their famous ducks proceed to the rooftop of the hotel. Sarah K. made curry for us for dinner, it was great! We then went to Patrick’s again to watch the game. It was packed! There were lots of alumni along with students driving through from spring break. Thankfully we won! This morning we got up and went out for breakfast at the best breakfast restaurant in Memphis. Now, we’re on our way home to Lawrence.

I really enjoyed working with Grow Memphis this week. I have always enjoyed gardening—with my dad as a kid starting my first tomato garden or working in the annuals and perennials department of a garden store back home. I have only been familiar with gardening in my backyard though, not out in open lots or with a community. This experience has exposed me to the concept of urban gardening, but also community gardening. I feel that this trip has shown me that gardening is a way for a community to come together from beginning, middle, to end through starting the garden, planting seeds, watching the vegetables grow, and being able to eat those vegetables. The trip has also given me an idea of something to do at the summer camp that I will be working at this summer. I’m going to suggest starting a garden at camp so that the girls at camp can learn how important it is to understand where their food comes from.

I’m really glad that I was able to participate on this alternative spring break. Although at times I was frustrated and tired, I really enjoyed spending my spring break with a group of people that I didn’t know outside of our class.