4 minute read
Gardening for Wellness
The pursuit of wellness—social, physical, spiritual, mental, environmental, and so on—can take many forms over different phases of our lives. Here and now, Kathleen Leitner is contributing to wellness opportunities for herself and others in Camphill Ghent’s ever-changing vegetable garden.
“It’s not a surprise that I’m strong and healthy,” Kathleen said while picking weeds out of the berry beds. “Do you know that I make a gallon of juice about—well, I’d say every week and a half—a gallon and drink it?”
Her favorite are the red currants, partially because she experienced them vividly as a child.
“We were in Switzerland and we stopped for an American CocaCola for the kids, but we were given something else,” she said. “We were given currant juice with soda water. I nearly flipped. It was such a strong, wonderful flavor.”
Kathleen credits the garden at Camphill Ghent with turning her health around since she first arrived as one of the earliest members of our community more than 10 years ago.
Once greatly impacted by a number of illnesses affecting her joints, Kathleen is able to tend to the garden several hours a day throughout the growing season. Many marvel at her dedication and ability, and Kathleen is grateful for the raspberries.
“And currants and gooseberries; anything that is extremely good for arthritis and complications with arthritis and also physical health,” she said.
Kathleen says the success of our garden is a community-wide effort that wouldn’t be possible without dedication from others. Over time we’ve received donations of plants and seeds, and the garden is truly prolific because our friends and community members contribute in different ways.
“It sort of happens naturally,” said Kathleen. “Christina is starting plants inside, Tehilla is also starting plants inside and asked me to water her plants. She’s got babies. So you want to see them?”
Kathleen stepped into our hoophouse in the garden and walked between two rows of tomato vines to a germination table, where some deep green seedlings in a simple wooden box filled with soil were staying cool and moist under white cloth.
“These will be our winter kale, and there’s some leeks and I think spinach here, and I was asked to keep these damp,” she said, unveiling more seedlings. “And this box here, all through winter, houses a salad garden and a kale garden. And the tomatoes will be taken [out] and then other vegetables will be planted here all winter long.”
The garden brings a number of visitors throughout the day, including early morning harvesters, afternoon pollinators, children who are visiting grandparents, and patients who inspect our berry patch after leaving our nearby medical offices.
Lately, Christina Bould has been tending to a number of vegetables in a raised bed that was built by another community member. Her late August bed includes basil, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, and some spinach seeds that hadn’t germinated yet.
“At the moment I’m sort of taking stock of what is growing and what’s coming to an end,” she said, while Kathleen continued weeding berries nearby. “I’m still trying to plant some things for the fall.”The garden brings a number of visitors throughout the day, including early morning harvesters, afternoon pollinators, children who are visiting grandparents, and patients who inspect our berry patch after leaving our nearby medical offices.
She’s been studying Rudolf Steiner’s “Agriculture Course,” which is considered essential reading for those wishing to learn about biodynamic agriculture and Steiner’s methods of food production.
“It’s very interesting. You learn a lot—what to do and how it’s all interrelated, you know,” Christina said. “Everything has an effect on everything else.”
