Over the garden fence: How to honor the harvest this fall

November is a month for gratitude. Here in central Pennsylvania, the harvest is gathered in, and soon families and friends will gather as well for the Thanksgiving holiday. Nowadays, it’s sometimes tricky to find good topics for conversation at the festive table, but gratitude is always a good idea.

As gardeners, it’s fairly easy to give thanks for healthy, productive plants, beautiful landscapes, or a body healthy enough to do the work we want to do. But in the best-selling “Braiding Sweetgrass,” author Robin Wall Kimmerer takes us a step further and introduces the concept of The Honorable Harvest, a set of principles long practiced by Indigenous peoples. They describe interaction with nature in ways that promote sustainability and reciprocity, rather than a traditional “more is better” approach. Key tenets include being mindful, taking only what is needed, never taking the first or last, using all that is taken, sharing and giving a gift in return. It’s a framework for a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with the natural world, which applies to all forms of taking, from food to resources.

How can these principles be applied in our gardens? After all, most of us are directly responsible for a modest plot of land at best. But whether you have a large vegetable garden or a few balcony planters, closer study reveals many ways to put some of these ideas into practice.

Be mindful: Have you thought about where your food comes from? Or if you’ve “grown your own,” what pollinators made its growth possible? (For example, that pumpkin pie on your table is brought to you in part by squash bees (Eucera pruinosa), who specialize in pollinating cucurbits.) Calling to mind the effort you or others have put into growing, harvesting and preparing, it can give your mealtimes a whole new dimension. It’s an interesting (and often humbling) exercise to trace the bounty of your garden or the contents of your grocery cart from seed to table. From seed companies to pollinating bees, from laborers to truckers that haul the finished products, all are essential parts of our food systems.

Use it all and waste nothing: We can show respect for the gifts we receive from the garden by doing our best to use everything we grow. Don’t leave that fresh produce to decay in your fridge, but look up a new recipe, or preserve what you harvest by freezing or canning what you can’t immediately use.

Share what you take: We can share our harvest with our community, just as the earth has shared with us. Some alternatives to leaving surplus zucchini on neighbors’ doorsteps in the dark of night? Perhaps you might volunteer at a community or school garden, donate some of your harvest to a food bank, or give back some of the gifts we have been given by the earth. This could be done by spreading beneficial native seeds, removing invasive plants, planting native trees, leaving fallen leaves as food and winter cover for insects, or taking other actions to help the ecosystem. Not able (or inclined) to actively garden? Instead, we can also be mindful of where we give our dollars: Consider buying at least a portion of your food from local farmers, in appreciation for their hard work. Or choose to purchase “green power” or other products with lower carbon footprints, as you’re able.

Be grateful: Perhaps most importantly, we can cultivate a spirit of gratitude for all the life and land that has been entrusted to us — not just in November, but all year long. Ultimately, it’s up to us to be good stewards of whatever we have.

In the garden this month:

• November is a great time to put your potting or garden shed in order; take stock and reorganize or discard items as needed.
• Clean, dry, and sharpen garden tools before storing them for the winter. 
• Empty and clean pots, especially ceramic or terracotta ones, and store them upside down to prevent them from cracking due to freezing water.
• Likewise, drain and store hoses and other irrigation equipment.
• Be sure vegetable gardens are free of debris and crop residue to avoid overwintering pests and diseases.
• Give all your garden beds a winter blanket of fallen leaves for protection and nutrition.
• Get ready to enjoy a few months of rest!

Lisa Schneider has been a Master Gardener volunteer since moving to PA in 2017. Have a home gardening question? Email centremg@psu.edu.