SEEDFOLKS: a book by Paul Heischman

The book Seedfolks by Paul Heischman is a story of one person making a difference. In this case, it is a little girl who inadvertently inspires a community garden in a vacant lot in inner-city Cleveland.

While everyone else is sleeping, this little girl tiptoes out of her apartment, armed with a water thermos and some lima beans, and bravely plants the beans in the trashed and vacant lot nearby.

A woman living above the lot witnesses this and tells her neighbor. The idea begins to spread, and other people start planting their own little plots between the trash.
Eventually the trash is removed, and the garden begins blossoming. It turns into a community.

The universality of gardening breaks through barriers and instead of lugging big buckets out to water the gardens, a little girl suggests that garbage cans could collect rainwater from the surrounding buildings' spouts.

"Seedfolks" is in fact "a hymn to the power of plants and people", as it is described on the front flap. I recommend it as it is an uplifting and quick read, vignettes of different gardeners. Though it is fiction, it is based on actual community gardens created from vacant lots.

The author explains, "We recognize that contact with nature can heal… This was the marvel of the community gardens I visited. They were oases in the urban landscape of fear, places where people could safely offer trust, helpfulness, charity, without need of an earthquake or hurricane. Television, I'm afraid, has isolated us more than race, class, or ethnicity. Community gardens are places where people rediscover not only generosity, but the pleasure of coming together. I salute all those who give their time and talents to rebuilding that sense of belonging. It's a potent seed. 'I have great faith in a seed," wrote Thoreau. "Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.'"