If you have never started an Umoja Unity Garden, or any garden, before, here is a brief eight-step guide to help you get started with a minimum of fuss.

1. INVITE PEOPLE TO PARTNER WITH YOU: So much of modern society is about a rugged, competitive individualism that leaves us “bowling alone,” as one popular book put it. Compared to this trend, Umoja Unity Gardens are spaces that have only one starting requirement, that each one begin as a cooperative rather than individual effort. So, the first task is to find a friend or group of friends with whom to start your garden – the perfect excuse to grow friendships as much as a place grow vegetables, herbs, and flowers.
   
   
2. FIND A PLACE FOR YOUR GARDEN: Before you decide where you might like to plant your garden, you will need to pick a size for your garden. If this is your first garden, I would suggest starting small rather than large. A size of approximately 10’×14’ is a great size to start with. It will leave you with enough room for variety and experimentation without becoming unmanageable. If you are a teacher, you might prefer an indoor garden small enough to fit on a table in your room. A group of experienced gardeners might prefer something larger. Whatever the case, pick a size that fits your needs.
   
   Then make a list of spaces where you might be able to plant your garden. A quick Google search will often reveal nearby community gardens with available space. Churches, commemorative parks, 4H Clubs, Colleges and many more places will surface as possibilities once you begin to consider the matter.
   
   Finally, place your possibilities in order of preference from first to last. See what, if any, application process is required, then approach the proprietor or owner of the space with your proposal. You will likely be as surprised as I was how receptive people are to supporting projects that aim at building unity rather than division.
   
   
3. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO PLANT: If you are a first-time gardener like I was, you may imagine that gardens can be started only in the spring. Actually, they can be started in several windows of time throughout the year, depending on what you would like to plant and how much effort you would like to expend.
   
   For an outdoor garden, early spring is the easiest time of the year to plant and will allow the greatest variety of crop possibilities. Mid-June also provides possibilities, but will require more effort in watering, weeding, and pest-control. The fall is also a great time to plant because many excellent crops require the winter to germinate, something that was probably the biggest surprise to me as a first-time gardener.
   
   You may also decide on an indoor garden of some kind, which will give you more flexibility with planting time.
   
   Regarding what to plant, here are links to what we planted in our garden; for crops that are best to plant in spring, summer, and fall; for the symbolism of Umoja Unity Gardens that will help guide you in your choices; for some of the background history associated with slave gardens.

4. PREPARE YOUR GARDEN: If you are lucky, you will be planting in a garden space that has been somewhat maintained from the prior season. If not and if you are planting outdoors, you will likely need to clear and weed your garden. Clearing is fairly easy if you have a hedge trimmer or weedwhacker. But weeding can be a real chore, especially if you try and do it alone. I recommend throwing a weeding party and getting the job done together. It is a great bonding experience, both human-to-human and human-to-land. After I was finished, I belonged to the land as much as it belonged to me.
   
   Depending on the type of soil you will be planting in, you may also need to till it to ensure that the ground is lose enough for your plants to grow easily. Tilling also helps ensure that any remaining weed roots will be buried deep enough to inhibit future growth.
   
   
5. PLANT YOUR GARDEN:
   a. Plan the layout of your garden: Try to incorporate as many of the seven symbolic elements of an Umoja Unity Garden as you can. But especially if this is your first garden, less is more. If you try to crowd too many plants into too small of a space, the garden will become an unproductive, joyless mess. Better to leave plenty of space for your crops to find the sun and for you to walk as you water.
   
   b. Purchase your seeds or starter plants a few weeks in advance from a reputable provider like Burpee.com. The seed packets that arrive will have planting directions. And a quick Google search will help with any other questions.
   
   c. Create a planting ceremony for the first or final day of planting. For building fond memories and a deep bond to the garden and your fellow planters, it’s hard to beat[?] the meaningfulness of your own planting ceremony. My wife and I planted most of our first garden, then we invited friends to a ceremony to help us plant the last few plants of each crop. But if you have more-experienced or committed gardeners, you may feel comfortable planting as a group and holding the ceremony over the course of planting together. Including food always makes the ceremony that much better.
   
   
6. TEND YOUR GARDEN: Tending our garden has become one of the great pleasures of my day. I hope it will become one of the favorite parts of your day as well. The first ten to fifteen days after a garden is planted are the most work intensive. How much work depends on how well the weeding was done, if you are getting regular rain, and if you notice any pest or animals making a meal of your sprouting plants.
   
   Personally, I was afraid to weed our garden until the seeds had fully sprouted. I could not tell the difference between newly sprouting weeds and newly sprouting crops until they were larger. Our 10’x14’ garden took between twenty to thirty minutes for a single person to tend to if there was no weeding. Weeding the garden a third at a time added another half an hour several times a week.
   
   But on any given day, before you do anything else to your garden, you should simply walk around and look at it. Look at the leaves of various plants to see if they look healthy. Look to see if there are any new sprouts. Look for bugs, for fresh animal tracks, for the level of soil dampness. Take a moment to enjoy the miracle of watching your first crops almost magically sprout as they spring forth from small seeds planted only a few short days prior.
   
   This act of becoming attuned to something beyond myself – its nuances, beauty, and needs required forgetting whatever the most-pressing problems of my day were, for at least a moment. You will find taking the time to do so is almost a meditative act, where, in nurturing your garden, you will likely find that it is nurturing you in return.

7. USING YOUR GARDEN TO BUILD UNITY: The traditional Jewish Passover Seder is a time for telling stories so that the past and the lessons it has to teach us are not forgotten. Gathering around a Umoja Unity Garden is also a time for telling stories of remembrance, but stories in surround sound – the parallel experiences of two or more races, two or more religions, two or more immigrant journeys, two or more periods of oppression . . . It is a place for telling stories that foster connection, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, and hope. Feel free to fashion your own rituals, ceremonies, and traditions or borrow from traditions with which you’re already familiar. Tell stories that are honest, vulnerable, humorous, and/or hopeful rather than blameful, arrogant, spiteful, hopeless, or hateful.
   
   
8. HARVESTING AND DONATING FROM YOUR GARDEN: I recommend donating your harvest, instead of using the produce for your own needs. Personally, I try to donate across the political, social, or religious aisle. But you will have your own desires and your own approach. Whatever they come to be, we hope that you will share them with us on our Instagram account.