By Kate Heiber-Cobb

Spring is slowing making her way here. I know the deep snow cover can fool you, but the willows have been yellowing for weeks, the cardinals are singing their morning song, and the daylight is so much longer!

Those avid gardeners among us have received many seed catalogs for weeks and have been drooling over the pictures, varieties and possibilities for a new season. As a permaculturist and sustainability advocate I also think about seeds in more complex ways.  Who owns the seed company? Are the seeds genetically modified or treated with herbicides? Is it a plant that will feed me, feed wildlife, pollinators or the soil? As more and more variety of seeds are patented by companies such as Monsanto, I have become a seed saver. True food security lies in not giving up the “ownership” of seeds to such corporations.

I will begin starting my seeds very soon. I have a wonderfully cheap grow system with Shop Lighting from Menards with full spectrum bulbs put in. It works just fine.  I am starting some plants very early this year and experimenting with hooping them in a south facing side of our screened in porch as they get bigger. The hardy cold loving plants will do fine with that. Every year is an experiment, an adventure.

I have been involved in one capacity or the other with the two Monona Community Gardens in the last few years. Monona’s first community garden is located at St. Stephens Lutheran Church on Pheasant Hill Drive. This spring will begin its third season, and it has grown and become a beautiful garden with the honor of also being a pilot project for Sustainable Water Use with a three tiered Rain Garden emptying into a 120 foot swale and berm just above the garden plots. The berm was planted with edible and medicinal plants, shrubs and trees. This project is holding and using thousands of gallons of rain water, and keeping it out of our storm sewer system. It was designed using a previous Eagle Scout Project as the overflow runoff when the rain comes fast and hard. Within the first season of its creation in 2009 it was beautiful. This was all created with the cooperation of the St. Stephens CG, the church and the Madison Area Permaculture Guild. Check it out this summer!

The other wonderful Community Garden in Monona is at the First United Methodist Church on Nichols Rd. The Spring of 2009 was its beginning and with much church participation, it turned into a beautiful garden with some hand-built entrance growing structures that make it pop and invite you right in.  This is community at its best!

Another garden in our fine city is the beds at the Community Center which were started this year through the The Natural Step Monona Project Team with myself as leader.  Native plants put in by community volunteers with some educational opportunities included as part of its creation. The library also has been doing some community planting and nurturing at its property.

Another group that began in our urban area is the Madison Fruits & Nuts group. Working to bring fruit and nut trees and shrubs into urban landscaping and public spaces is its purpose.  Seems like we in Monona could get something going here too!  How about all of those empty school yards and park spaces that aren’t used for soccer, Frisbee and the like?

I encourage people to become involved with community gardening, the sharing of seeds and plants with your neighbors and filling our city with sustainable, edible landscaping that will make us a leader in resiliency and creative land use.