Gardening 101

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist

The mix of rain and sunshine the past few days, along with the blanket of snow showing its dirt and mud-splotched patches, has me thinking about spring. I’ve lived in this area too many years to think it’s actually arriving; but, for many Idahoans, beyond prematurely daydreaming about dry ground, this pre-spring time of year also marks the beginning of a wellplanned growing season.

Experienced gardeners will be pulling out their seedling planters, honing in their transplant schedules and gridding out their seasonal plots, all while holding visions of the bountiful summer salads fresh on their menu in July.

Although I dabble in planted goods, I’m far from a master gardener, often planting things too soon, too late, in too much shade or in poor quality soil. But there are a few general rules of thumb, some Gardening 101 concepts, in which I am confident. Like, the seeds you plant are the plants that grow.

This concept, although seemingly obvious, could benefit many of our local and state decision makers of late.

For example, no matter how powerful the growing season, seeds of expanded roadways in the downtown area won’t grow into anything other than increased traffic in our downtown. By decreasing access to the arts district, removing a swath of public park and adding several additional lanes for pedestrians to cross when walking to the Farmers’ Market, out to breakfast or to their favorite downtown shops after grabbing a coffee, we’re doing nothing other than prioritizing semi traffic over the pedestrian. We lose the benefits of the “walking town” so proudly printed at each of Sandpoint’s entrances. It doesn’t matter if those seeds are labeled “the Curve,” “the Couplet,” “East-West Connection” or “semi thoroughfare.”

Similarly, if the seeds of loosely regulated development are planted, towering condominiums, sprawling storage unit complexes and subdivisions with neat rows of unaffordable housing will grow.

When selling the area’s rural character to the highest bidder, workforces will be pushed farther away from the jobs that need them; service-based businesses will struggle to find and keep employees; and second-, third- and fourth-homeowners will crop up in the place of people who want to live, participate in and contribute to the community.

What else could possibly grow from those seeds?

Another Gardening 101 concept in which I’m fairly confident is that what you put into your soil matters.

Like, if our state leaders continue to fertilize their legislation with hypocrisy — in one breath crying “First Amendment protections” to advocate for parading in the streets with weapons, while with the next screaming to restrict people’s freedom to parade in the streets in high heels and a feather boa — what grows will look a lot closer to hate and discrimination than the safety and wholesomeness they’re claiming to sow.

Comparably, if you douse your soil in a toxic mix of fear and punishment, criminalizing health care providers for meeting the basic needs of their female patients, and women for having concerns and making choices about their own bodies, how could a skilled, qualified medical workforce possibly survive, let alone grow? How must women and families weighing the now-increased risks of pregnancy feel about the prospect of and safety in putting down new roots?

The final Gardening 101 concept of which I’m pretty sure is that requiring a seedling to grow across your whole yard before letting it live in your garden, or plucking new growth just to prevent it from maturing, ensures very few (if any) plants will grow.

The Idaho Legislature’s proposed “solution” to ballot initiatives and referendums, SJR 101, seeks to increase the number of legislative districts requiring signature-designated support from 18 to 35 — closely resembles the pruning of public input and opinion to make way for the monolithic cover-crop of certain legislators’ own agendas.

Luckily, with gardening, there’s always course-correction within a growing season. We can sow fresh seeds of plants we know we want to grow. We can replenish depleted soil with the well-rounded nutrients of community and encourage its upkeep through our consistent participation. And we can prune, not only the weeds that inevitably crop up throughout a growing season, but the people from positions of power who have proven time and again that they have no business making decisions about our garden in the first place.