Last Saturday Raemelle and I had the opportunity to attend a workshop about Medicine Wheel Gardens at the Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change. I want to convert a section of my front yard to an herb garden and the able crew at Alma de Mujer gave us some inspiration.
Ana Lara, Alma’s Program Director, led the workshop.
Before we went out to the garden itself the participants spent some time sharing information about the different kinds of illness that affect our families and our communities as well as the different kinds of medicine that we grew up with, both conventional and herbal.
The Medicine Wheel Garden divides a circle into four quadrants oriented to the four directions. Particular colors and elements are associated with each direction. These colors vary with different peoples. The volunteers who constructed this garden drew upon Mexica traditions and laid it out Yellow-East, White-North, Red-South, and Blue-West.
The garden is only two months old and already looks great. In the photo below one of the trellises awaits planting.
In addition to the garden at the center itself, volunteers from Alma have planted three smaller medicinal gardens around Austin, one at Resistencia bookstore, one at MonkeyWrench bookstore and one at the offices of PODER.
I look forward to ripping out another section of my front lawn and having more herbs to share with the neighbors.
