MEADOW MIND

Author
Genine Lentine & Alex Peterson (videographer) 

Decade

2010s 2020s

Tags

Community Gardening The Meadow Video Water

This film was shot over several days in August 2020. When I look at the meadow at this moment, almost six months into sheltering in place, it’s difficult to see the whole meadow a bit ragged after so many months without its customary steady care and activity.

Pulling back and seeing the meadow through the view that the video affords reminds me that while my own view tends to be very much on the ground, closely examining a tiny leaf, it’s wonderful to see the meadow from above, to see how this wide-open green space we’re so fortunate to have on the SFAI campus fits into the tapestry of this part of the city.

While it was at times excruciating to be away from the garden for these months, the garden itself was wholly underway and, in many ways, thriving. On occasional visits throughout spring, we found the plantings flourishing, birds nesting, the raised bed brimming with spring greens we planted in February, when we were just starting to hear faint rustlings of the virus that was coming our way, and that would bring into sharp focus the way we conduct every aspect of our lives.

Over these months, it has been instructive—and encouraging—to observe the life of a garden in the absence of gardeners, the intelligence of its cycles left to their own rhythms. And though some areas are quite overgrown, and parched from some unusually hot days, many of the more established plantings are still drawing on reserves of water in the soil, as well as on their own resilience and adaptation to this climate.

In late July, the elderberries were hanging heavy, ready to harvest for tinctures and preserves. Sweet peas, now dried out on their trellises, have dropped their seeds that will be in place for fall, and, yes, that tenacious bindweed is coiling its way through the herb beds.

To tend the garden, even from afar over these months—starting seedlings for some undetermined future planting—has been a source of solace and connection.

I’m encouraged, as we turn toward fall, that we can establish a more regular schedule of garden days in the coming months. The meadow easily allows several people to work safely, masked and at a distance from each other. I welcome anyone who would like to join us in tending this land, to participate in the unfolding history of this generative ground. If you’re interested in learning more about the meadow, in volunteering, or in supporting the garden in any way, please write to Genine Lentine at glentine@sfai.edu.

Thank you to Alex Peterson and Chris Paddock for their skill and vision, for their dedicated & nimble efforts in documenting this moment in the life of the SFAI meadow.

—Genine Lentine
San Francisco, August 2020

Student work (in order of appearance) by: Andrew Durgin-Barnes, unknown, Blythe Feeney, Anais DeLosSantos

 GL/AP