My mornings are spent on the track, doing my laps, enjoying the peace of each day’s beginning. I typically have the space to myself, with one notable exception–the Bishop. He comes out early to give water and love to the plants he’s cultivating in the Thomson camp community garden. At present, he is the only one.
One penny at a time, my mom taught me the value of getting dirt under my fingernails. She paid a penny a piece for weeds. I’d pull and pull until I had earned what seemed to me at the time to be a nice chunk of change. Then I’d hop on my bike and head to Woolworth’s for candy. Those were great days. Years later when I purchased my own home and undertook a complete overhaul of my property’s landscaping, I learned that I had absorbed some of my mom’s talent for making spaces beautiful. What had started as a chore became a passion.
There are a number of BOP facilities across the country that have community gardening programs. Thomson didn’t have one when I first arrived, so I proposed it to my staff supervisor in Recreation. He was in favor, but it took a while to get tentative approval. When that initial yes came, we moved quickly.
I easily recruited ten guys from diverse backgrounds to be the first cohort and got the class going. Participants had to watch a video series on horticulture and landscaping before receiving their plot in the garden, which had not been built yet. We gathered weekly over the winter to watch the videos and the consensus was that they were fascinating. Our group included a guy who ran a commercial nursery, a couple of farmers, one who worked in a landscaping business, and amateur enthusiasts like myself, and we geeked out on soil science and plant selection together. We couldn’t wait for spring to arrive.
By the time the weather was favorable enough to build the garden, the program had run into bureaucratic snags as different department heads tussled over approval authority. We waited and waited as the days got warmer.
Word finally came from our Rec officer that we had the green light to build the garden, and that he was working on approval for a greenhouse. He said, “You better build it fast before they change their minds again.” Within 24 hours, our crew scavenged materials and constructed the raised garden I designed with space for at least ten plots and a gravel central access path. It looked great, and we were ready for the seeds and go-ahead to plant.
Two years later, that approval has still not come. The legal department got involved with concerns about liability associated with growing and eating our own food. I lobbied the administration and offered to gather waivers from the participants. Due to the turmoil of the prison closing in the wake of revelations surrounding abuse, then reopening and refilling with low security residents, and changing administrations, we lost momentum and I was told to take no further action until further notice. We have subsequently had three new Rec officers and I ask each one to restart the program. They express interest and nothing happens. That is often how it goes at Thomson.
While I have been given a directive to stay out the garden that I honor, other guys have heard no such orders and a few have taken it upon themselves to grow vegetables from the seeds they gather from vegetables we are served in meals. I quietly applaud the guerrilla gardening when I see a guy tending a tomato or pepper plant. I understand the connection.
That is why it didn’t surprise me when Bishop became a regular in the garden. In addition to being a member of the clergy, he is a farmer at home and a developer of urban farms in disadvantaged neighborhoods in his hometown. He knows the value of having dirt under his fingernails, as well as the importance of creating sources of fresh, healthy food in communities that are currently in food deserts.
My hope is that the administration at Thomson stabilizes to the point that we can finally restart the camp gardening program. The benefits to the campers of having the growth experience of growing plants can be taken back to their homes and community gardens, aiding their reintegration into society. I’ll keep asking for permission to make the program official from anyone who’ll listen. In the meantime, as I trot by each morning, I’m enjoying the grassroots feel of the Bishop’s Garden.
