When I first arrived to my house in
Immokalee, I saw that we had a garden in the backyard. My roommate, Vitina, told me that a volunteer
from last year, Dennis, had built the garden and that he taught her how to
garden last year. I was mildly interested, as I had helped my
dad in the garden growing up, but had no real experience gardening. One of our friends who moved down to
Immokalee around the same time as us, though, named Jake, was an avid gardener. When my roommates and I soon became too busy
with our volunteer sites, Jake took over the garden.
Soon, every
day when we came home from teaching around 5.15pm, we would see Jake’s truck in
our driveway. I would go out to the
garden and see Jake watering or planting.
I would talk to him about the silly and/or frustrating parts of my
afternoon with my kids and he would tell me about the challenges he was facing
working at The Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
He was always so happy to get away from his computer for a short period
of time to spend in nature working in the garden.
Recently,
Jake told me that he’s giving the garden to me.
It was funny because the garden is in our backyard, but it had really become
Jake’s. I’m apprehensive about it, but I’m
excited to take over the responsibilities.
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