The Community Garden Music Project aims to support the activities of community gardens in the area, through events featuring musicians and their original works, and giving a portion of the proceeds from the event to a community garden. This project started around the time that the song ‘Seeds Of Life’ was born.
THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG ‘SEEDS OF LIFE’ (in Lisa’s own words)
From December 2009 till May 2011, before I got married and moved to the Oakland side of the border, I volunteered at a local community garden in Berkeley run by a non-profit called Friends of Kenney Cottage Garden (FKCOG). My daughter and I had moved into an apartment a few blocks away, and I wished for a space to grow my own vegetables and fruit. I started raising tomatoes and strawberries in pots on the balcony, but once I started planting seeds my need for a bigger space became like a GPS device that directed me to the nearest community garden.
Since I lived in an apartment with no backyard and within the garden’s zone, I met the criteria to join, and got myself a plot. I grew spinach, snap peas and red onions. It was an intensely fulfilling experience: sticking the plants in the soil, caring for them, seeing them mature, harvesting them, sharing them, and taking the ripe vegetables to my kitchen and making a meal. I felt close to the earth, to life’s creator.
THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG ‘SEEDS OF LIFE’ (in Lisa’s own words)
From December 2009 till May 2011, before I got married and moved to the Oakland side of the border, I volunteered at a local community garden in Berkeley run by a non-profit called Friends of Kenney Cottage Garden (FKCOG). My daughter and I had moved into an apartment a few blocks away, and I wished for a space to grow my own vegetables and fruit. I started raising tomatoes and strawberries in pots on the balcony, but once I started planting seeds my need for a bigger space became like a GPS device that directed me to the nearest community garden.
Since I lived in an apartment with no backyard and within the garden’s zone, I met the criteria to join, and got myself a plot. I grew spinach, snap peas and red onions. It was an intensely fulfilling experience: sticking the plants in the soil, caring for them, seeing them mature, harvesting them, sharing them, and taking the ripe vegetables to my kitchen and making a meal. I felt close to the earth, to life’s creator.
At the garden I met Gary Cromp, who tended the neighboring plot. Somehow he became President and I became Garden Coordinator of FKCOG. Gary and I organized work at the garden, and reached out to local people and businesses, establishing a weekly event ‘Busking for Beds’ at Berkeley’s 4th Street shopping district. I played my guitar and sang my songs, and Gary answered questions about the garden. We put out a donation jar and at the end of the day drove to stores such as Ashby Lumber, American Soil And Stone and The Urban Farmer Store with the dollar bills we collected, and bought materials for things like grow benches and accessible table beds for disabled gardeners.
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It was around this time that I started singing my song ‘Seeds Of Life’, track 6 from my album of the same name. The song reflects the sentiment of growing your own food in harmony with the cycles of nature, and preparing a meal straight from garden to table. Read an article and watch a video of past garden event below:
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2011/06/24/accessible-beds-help-kenny-cottage-gardens-thrive/
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2011/06/24/accessible-beds-help-kenny-cottage-gardens-thrive/