Project Posts

Body:

Laura’s Autobiography:

I walked up to a man: he was standing in front of a nice restaurant and bar and wearing a nice suit. I was wearing a pink dress. “Let me see some identification you all look way too young to be here” the man said. He was singling out the bachelorette, whose party we were going to, her two bridesmaids, and me. We were all old enough to enter this establishment, are ages range from 23-27, which he could see from our identifying cards, so we entered. The card says that my name is Malvina Laura Pingree, I live in Olympia, Washington, I have blue eyes, I weigh 130 pounds, I am five feet and five inches tall, I am a female, and I turned 21 January 3rd of the year 2005.

The card does not know everything. For instance, I have always been called Laura my whole life, with the exception of my Grandfather who named me Malvina. He died when he was 89 years old and I was 17. I am still struggling to figure out who I am and how I can make a living in a way that will help me grow mentally and not suppress my physical needs or hinder my plans for myself. In June I will graduate from Evergreen with a Bachelor’s degree in science, with a focus in Biology.

Upon graduating from the San Francisco Waldorf High School, I decided that I needed to gear up for a medical education. At the end of high school I had been searching for a college to attend and Evergreen was the only college that appealed to me. At that point in time I had lived my entire life in the Bay Area of California with relatively few trips outside. I needed to escape, and my older sister who has not escaped and still lives in the Bay Area, as well as my mom were very supportive in helping me devise a plan to leave.

I moved to Olympia Washington and lived with a friend of my older sister. For financial reasons I spent two years attending the South Puget Sound Community College. At South Puget Sound I took a Biology and Chemistry series as well as many other medical preparatory classes. Then came to Evergreen and took a program called Molecule to Organism, M to O. After which, I took the Fungal Kingdom and Marine Life which broadened my knowledge of the world at large and peoples impact on it, as well as its impact on people.

I am 23 years old and it has just hit me that I have roughly only ten years in which my body will be able to produce offspring, without it being too risky. Suddenly I am not sure about Graduate school even though I am aware that I need a good job and knowledge to impart to my offspring if I can work out and rationalize allowing myself to bear children. Regardless of my career or whether or not I take on the responsibility of raising a child, I think that this class will help me to determine my place in the world and help me to be a nurturing person. However, Healing Gardens will also help me in a medical career or it will help me in just being able to use the plants around me, which will help me in my life.

I have created a garden that is going to be very productive for both medicinal and culinary uses. Personally, I am attracted to plants that flower, as well as plants that are useful. Plants that are native to the area is a relatively new concern of mine, due to microorganism compatibility, as well as the growing concern that the earth is being poisoned and important native plants are being lost. I choose an area in the garden, which is on the property of the house that I rent with my roommates, which is a raised bed created by previous renters. Thus, this garden has a history and was added to with the intention of creating a garden bed full of medicinal and native plants, as well as plants with biodynamic purposes.

The soil in the garden is a black sandy soil mixed with some brown soil that has a good amount of clay in it. The brown soil I believe is the soil that was not introduced to the garden. The black soil I believe was purchased and added to the bed near the time of its construction. I also purchased and added some black organic soil both to the bed and around it. My roommates added steers manure to the top of the bed. Previous rents have added mint, lemon balm, oregano and sage to the bed. My boyfriend added potatoes to the bed and I have been adding garlic cloves that have budded. My roommate added a pansy plant.

In order to whip this garden into shape I stated by weeding the bed, removing the excessive amounts of lemon balm and then I began procuring plants to add to the bed. I also dug weeds out from around the bed, one and a half the two feet around the perimeter of the bed. In doing this I found a small tree which I was able to prop up using the back of an old chair and some string. I tied the string around the chair back to the wooden planter’s box with the tree being held between them. Then the soil mentioned above was added around the bed. Nasturtiums and calendula seeds, as well as some bleeding heart seeds, were added around three sides of the bed leaving the north end of the rectangular bed free. This was done because my roommate spontaneously decided she wanted to add a second planter’s box in order to expand the area where useful things could be planted.

The plants in the garden I have created now include: bronze fennel, sage, oregano, violets, arnica, calendula, nasturtium, chamomile, valerian, chervil, mint, catnip, lemon balm, garlic, chives, lettuce, potatoes, columbine and bleeding heart. All of these plants have both medicinal and culinary uses. The native plants include columbine and bleeding heart, as well as some of the species of violets introduced to the garden. The biodynamic plants include valerian and chamomile that are used in compost preparations. I will pay increasing attention to the phases of the moon, particularly whether it is waxing or waning, I intend to harvest roots on root days on a waning moon. The lettuce should have been planted on a waxing moon so that the head of lettuce will fill out. However, the lettuce is being tended, leafs are trimmed, on leaf days according to my friends biodynamic calendar which he says he will copy for me.

This garden is an ongoing project that my roommates have agreed to take on when I moved to Camp Colman this summer and start a new chapter of my life. I hope that I have started a garden that many renters living in the Conger house can enjoy and use for healing purposes.

Picures of Personal Garden: