Lukas Nelson performs “Turn off the news and build a garden” with Willie and Micah Nelson. Click this image to watch.

Occasionally the Great Algorithm gets me right, like with this video of Lukas, Micah and Willie Nelson performing “Turn of the News and Build a Garden.” It’s a message for now more than ever, but the italicized words about building gardens got me thinking.

I believe that every heart is kind
Some are just a little underused
Hatred is a symptom of the times
Lost in these uneducated blues

I just want to love you while I can
All these other thoughts have me confused
I don’t need to try and understand
Maybe I’ll get up, turn off the news

Turn off the news and build a garden
Just my neighborhood and me
We might feel a bit less hardened
We might feel a bit more free

Turn off the news and raise your kids
Give them something to believe in
Teach them how to be good people
Give them hope that they can see
Hope that they can see

Turn off the news and build a garden with me

Trust builds trust
All that negativity’s a bust
Trust builds trust
Don’t you wanna be happy?

Turn off the news and build a garden
Just my neighborhood and me
We might feel a bit less hardened
We might feel a bit more free

Turn off the news and raise the kids
Give them something to believe in
Teach them how to be good people
Give them hope that they can see
Hope that they can see

Turn off the news and build a garden with me
Turn off the news and build a garden with me

Thoughts on “building” a garden

Who uses “building” with “garden”?  Maybe landscape architects? Most gardeners talk about “making” or “creating” a garden. And the kind of gardens I create around my home are specially designed to accommodate one human in particular – me – and an occasional visitor. They’re all about getting ME in the garden and, in recent years, the critters I hope to see there. 

This was my favorite spot to sit and enjoy the view of my former garden in 2010.  I LOVE Adirondack chairs – for their style and the flat arms that serve as tables. My first Adirondacks were made of white pine and didn’t last long. These are made of recycled plastic and will live forever, I guess.

In my current garden, the patio and chairs beckon me even from my living room window on a late November day.  And plants that attract pollinators are close enough for me to watch from the patio.

Oh they’re singing about a neighborhood garden?

But here I’ll admit that I do less of what the Nelsons are encouraging us all to do – “Build a garden just my neighborhood and me” and “Turn off the news and build a garden with me.”  They don’t mean building a private little oasis for one or two. For them it’s a WE thing!

And now that I think of it, I do a bit of neighborhood gardening – like fixing up a neglected yet prominent public garden and I love that kind of garden-making, too, just for different reasons.

In another case a group project turned into a solo project of mine – the make-over of the garden in front of my co-op’s offices – as I became increasingly obsessed with it and I got to make all the plant choice and design decisions alone! In my defense, I AM doing all the work, though honestly I could have been calling for volunteers to help all these years. But then I’d have to coordinate with other people, and probably garden at the times of day and conditions of weather not of my choosing.  Going alone means missing out on team spirit and maybe the chance to do some teaching, but it works great for me in this garden that’s been my passion since 2017.  

In Greenbelt, Maryland, Shaymar Higgs show visitors the new DIY pond in his garden plot, where he does a lot of teaching.

But I wonder if the Nelsons are really singing about THIS kind of garden – a community garden with plots for vegetables and a small pond for critters and kids. 

SO many ways to garden

The blank “before” view of a neighborhood garden coming to life next spring.

Lastly, here’s another type of neighborhood garden and it may be exactly what the Nelsons have in mind. Just across the street from me is this unused all-lawn area that six of us are turning into a mostly-pollinator garden with paths, seating, and hopefully a shade structure for the enjoyment of the gardeners and other neighbors. Very exciting! 

Maybe best of all for me personally, this new garden is someone ELSE’s dream, not mine. So someone else is doing most of the work and organizing neighbors for help. So far I’ve helped get the project approved by our co-op and next year I’ll be stopping by to do a bit of weeding and chatting – about anything BUT the news – with the gardeners and passersby. Oh, and showing off the progress on GardenRant.