Earlier this year, Arsène DeLay joined the MaCCNO staff to create and run a program called Makin’ Gardens, with funding from the New Orleans Recreation and Culture Fund.
Hi! What is the Makin’ Gardens program?
It teaches people how to grow their own food and herbs, regardless of their access to land. Growing things in pots. It’s a crash course in gardening—really “urban farming,” but I stay away from that term because people find it intimidating. And it connects people who are interested in learning to cultivate with elders in the community who have already created community gardens. I’m not here to reinvent the wheel—I’m not a fan of reinventing wheels. I want to see what is already there, and figure out how it can be supported and expanded.
Cool! Why did you come up with Makin’ Gardens and why is it important?
Well, we are on the fast track to larger gaps in food insecurities, with everything going on. All of the supplemental food programs that stepped up in assistance during the pandemic, they’re gone or gutted—Culture Aid NOLA, much of Second Harvest, etc. Getting people access to food and herbs is more important than ever. And it’s all connected to a string of quality-of-life issues. I’m a certified Master Gardener with a background in green infrastructure and water management—making sure that plantings are tailored to the spaces and the needs of the people growing them. Makin’ Gardens grew from that world, making holistic improvements to people’s living spaces.
The needs are getting more acute, it’s so true. So how have you built the Makin’ Gardens program?
After several colleagues reached out expressing concern about people in their circles struggling to put food on the table… I started thinking about how to source food without access to capital, or very limited access to it. I visited several community gardens and asked their proprietors what their needs were, and what their satisfaction was regarding community engagement. After those talks, I built the program around those conversations. It’s a gardening bootcamp that also lays the foundation for collective stewardship. The gardens are where we’ll have in-field workshops, bringing in folks to do a work-learn while connecting them to the network that is the gardening community. Meeting Jeanette Bell [from] Garden on Mars1Arsène DeLay on Jeanette Bell and the Garden on Mars: “I have harvested 4 to 5 pounds of bay leaves (worth several grand at store prices! Between canning and the leaves, you can pull in $1,600 per pound). That’s keeping money in people’s pockets.” and witnessing the extraordinary amount of work she’s done without being supported, it was mindblowing. She needs some extra hands. Her garden was built to be a teaching garden, but no one is teaching. Doing our workshops will help keep the garden active and maintained.
And that’s just one example, but this is all rooted in New Orleans Black gardening culture. In the 7th Ward where I’m from, everyone grew something, and everyone shared. One person was good at growing bell peppers, someone had lots of rosemary, someone else had a bay leaf tree. Abundance is shared among the collective. I say that in present tense, because that muscle was enacted during the shutdown and throughout the pandemic. All sourced in the community, and then you know where your food is coming from, and you have all the basic ingredients you need. So Makin’ Gardens can address food insecurity while also saving people money and fostering stewardship. My goal is to rekindle and foster a relationship between the people and the land they walk on.
So the same 7th Ward that grew New Orleans’ cultural traditions was also a place of growing food. That seems important.
Yes! I was raised to not be concerned with what was on someone’s plate, only if they had enough to eat. My grandmother fed the neighborhood, all 10 of her children, and whomever came around with them. When I visit a community garden, I never leave empty-handed. I’ve worked with MaCCNO on multiple issues that culture needed to address, and we are in agreement that as safety nets and access to resources continue to be divested and dismantled, programs like Makin’ Gardens are systems that we can implement to address a big issue like food sovereignty and food safety. We focus on the culture first, because in times of crisis, the culture is who bears the severity of the blow.
Details of upcoming workshops?
Workshops start in November. Check Makin’ Gardens on MaCCNO’s site for details [maccno.com/makin-gardens] and reach out to me at makingardens@maccno.com with needs and questions, and we’ll connect!
What else is MaCCNO up to? Frenchmen Fridays—new content on the history of Frenchmen Street every week at Frenchmennotes.com, Mobile University education units for cultural practitioners, street performer support, cultural accountability for election candidates, “office hours” help for grant-writing, and more! Details at maccno.com.
Photo by Jeanette Bell: Arsène harvesting a cinnamon basil plant from Garden On Mars
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