Written by Trelasa Baratta, Education and Curriculum Intern
On a symbolic and emotional level, Spring is an opportunity to experience a renewal of the soul, mind, body and life. On a literal level, Spring means it’s time to plant some seeds! Over the coming weeks gardeners across the Bay will be organizing their sheds, clearing out weeds, prepping their soil and setting up new planters and garden beds.
If the sounds of nature (or the hustle and bustle of the city for our urban gardener readers) provide enough ambiance for your daily garden grind, that’s cool. But if you find yourself in the mood for some sweet tunes, a rad podcast or a quality audiobook, we got your back.
Follow us on Spotify to keep track of what we’re listening to!
We’re celebrating the renewing vibrations of Spring with a fresh Spotify playlist. Not a Spotify user or still burning mixed CD’s? Dope. Here’s a little taste of our playlist for your listening pleasure:
- A Place to Start – White Denim
- Good Morning – Grouplove
- Rainbows and Waterfalls – Pretty Lights
- Everybody Loves the Sunshine – Roy Ayers Ubiquity
- Lovely Day – Bill Withers
- Hummingbird – Traveller
- Dandelions – Ruth B.
- Humbug Mountain Man – Fruit Bats
- Misty Mountain Hop – Led Zeppelin
- The Wild Life – Vacationer
- Don’t Forget Your Roots – SIX60
- Closer to the Sun – Slightly Stoopid
- Red Sky, Blue Mountain – Samantha Crain
- Bring the Sun – The Black Seeds
- Carolina Peach – The California Honeydrops
- Dooley’s Farm – Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway (feat. Billy Strings)
- Sunny – Bobby Hebb
- Order of the Golden Dawn – Daedelus
We’ve also gathered some of our favorite episodes from top podcasts and added them to our Spotify profile, organized by theme cuz we fancy like that. Below are a few highlights we’d suggest checking out right away!
Top 10 Things to Do Now to Prepare the Garden for Spring – The joe gardener Show
(You can also access his episodes and more on his website JoeGardener.com)
Joe Lamp’l makes creating your spring gardening to-do list super easy in this episode. He covers the basics, from pruning to composting to choosing the best gardening tools. In fact, if you want to skip the episode and quickly glance over his Top 10 list, you can do so here!
Nourishing the Spirit in Native California – The Native Seed Pod
(You can also access their episodes on their website NativeSeedPod.org)
What is Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)? This special episode gives listeners access to the deep wisdom of Sage LaPena, a Nomtipom Wintu medicinal herbalist and TEK-knowledge-y expert. Listen in on her 2018 public lecture at The Cultural Conservancy’s Spring Planting Gathering at the Indian Valley Organic Farm and Garden in Novato, California. We guarantee you will learn something new!
Discover True Freedom with “Gangsta Gardener” Ron Finley – Feeling Full with Mordechai(You gotta check out Finley’s website, too)
South LA is a community that faces extremely limited access to healthy, fresh foods. Ron Finley is what we at EGC would call a Food Hero, legalizing curbside gardens for community use in LA and applying his creativity and expertise in fashion (you read that right… fashion) to urban gardening. His passion for everything he does is not just admirable, but it is a breath of fresh air. He shows us how we do not need the establishment (especially an incredibly elitist establishment) to give us permission to survive. Even if you are not an urban gardener, you will listen to this episode on Feeling Full with Mordechai with relish (food pun intended). PLUS, there’s a TEDtalk featuring Ron. Enjoy.
Check our Gardening Resources page for more podcast suggestions!
We chose to use Amazon’s Audible as a platform for our audiobook recommendations, but hopefully these go-to’s are available on whatever platform you choose to listen to your audiobooks. If you do not have an Audible account and would like to create one, you can get a 30-day free trial, so why not use it to read one of these this month! And remember to check the local library for audiobooks on CD if your car still has a means to play those! Or utilize the Libby the library app, a mobile library connected to your library card and listen or read to books available at your local library on the go!
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
They say hindsight is 20/20, so why not read (or reread) this classic that first brought to our attention the devastating consequences of chemical use in agriculture and led to the ban of DDT.
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Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale
If you’ve already read and reread Silent Spring and are looking for a more modern take on the chemical degradation of our land and our health, start with this book. Plus if you’ve always wondered what organic even means, this is probably the book for you.
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Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy
Another critical read for any environmentalist, Tallamy really hits the nail on the head when he talks about the need for a diversity of native species and how non-native plants totally mess up our local ecosystems.
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| Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan Pollan takes us on a journey through his many lessons learned in gardening. Even though this is one of Pollan’s earlier books, he challenges his readers to reflect on our relationship with nature and to seriously rethink lawns. His stories are incredibly engaging and thought-provoking. Image source: 517oBCh7KNL.jpg |
| The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman We ought to include this iconic book on everything WATER. You’ll follow Fishman’s narrative through time and the universe to come to a very important realization… A water scarcity crisis has little to do with water and everything to do with our relationship to it. Image source: 51kBTpr4LgL.jpg |
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
We have featured this, but I just wanted to add that it would be just as great to listen to as it would be to read. Check that post out for our take on its wonderfulness!
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