It’s a balmy Spring Day in a downtown Reno neighborhood, and a small team of volunteers is starting to transform the quarter acre side yard of a rented house into a community garden, to grow healthy food and herbs for those in need, and also to offer a nurturing collective space.
Patricia Curtis-Ostler, 62, gets teary eyed when asked for an interview. She’s wearing heavy duty gloves and a gardening tee-shirt. She’s an experienced volunteer, helping other initiatives such as Reno Soup for the Soul, Reno Burrito Project, the Can Care Collective and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
“We've been tilling, we've been pulling weeds,” she said of her weekend morning in the garden. “We brought a bunch of tomato plants, peppers, all kinds of things. And I just think that it's all amazing that this group could pull together. There's just so few of us and we're really doing an amazing job so far.”
She says helping others and with positive projects keeps her healthy. “I get to live the life that I get to live and be 62 years old and healthy is because of the fact that I go out and I do things for others and truly love others,” she said.
During the pandemic, she used some of her other skills to sow 500 masks for those in need. “My heart's big, my soul's big and just being part of this wonderful, amazing community is great for me,” she said.
“This project came together by following a lot of instructions from Indigenous mentors and leaders that I've had in my life over the last couple of years. I spent a lot of time with the land here, praying with it, giving offerings to it and asking it for guidance and a lot of areas of my life, but specifically asking for permission and guidance on what to do with this land here. And what came through really, really clear was to create a communal garden that we can use to grow food and different herbs, to make plant medicines and to create crops, to cook meals, to serve our houseless communities,” explained one of the initiative’s organizers, Michael Carson (in foreground).
Work at the garden started with sharing the overall vision and initial designs, followed by digging rows and mixing in organic compost.
“Pretty soon here, we're going to start planning various plants and herbs,” one of the coordinators Michael Carson explained. Carson has also been involved in helping people displaced by recent police sweeps, and with food donations, and said the plan is to share the forthcoming crops with others.
“We have a mutual aid program set up where we offer fresh produce and canned goods to people to cook at their homes and then bring back to us. And we take that out to serve different encampments of people who are experiencing houselessness,” Carson said. “With my partner, Monica Jayne, we both feel … there's an opportunity to really shift our inner environments and create a new earth that the next generations can really thrive from. I am absolutely feeling a deep transition within myself and also seeing that manifest in the world outside of us and in our community, especially.”
The endeavor is open to other volunteers as well as donations such as irrigation supplies, more organic compost and portable fencing.
Our Town Reno Reporting, Spring 2021