As a community, we have many conversations.

Some of them have been historically easy. “How’s that spouse of yours?” Or, “How are the kids doing?”

But even those have gotten more difficult in this age of pandemic. Masks, vaccines, public health, individual rights, fear in general are all lurking under the surface.

But having difficult conversations is essential to our community.

So face them we must, together. Because the subjects of those conversations affect us all.

And that’s where the idea for the monthly conversation was born. It’s designed to create the space where we talk about things, even sticky things, in a moderated space, using all different ways of expression. Each month we have presented a prompt. We’ve run through 14 topics from What Does It Mean to Be an American? or this month, How Does Your Garden Grow? Find the collection at www.river reporter.com.

These conversations are, potentially, the way that we can share our common humanity with each other. And to build trust that the space we are creating is moderated, thoughtful and brings out the best in us.

As a breather from difficult topics, and in a nod to this amazing alive landscape that we dwell in, this month’s conversation experiment asks you to muse on how your garden grows.

We’re looking for reflections, garden lessons, garden hardships, garden drawings, photos, odes, curses, love letters. Open to all ages!

Gardens give us a chance to reflect and to be in tune a growing energy and the weather. (You can always talk about the weather!)

Speaking of the weather, it’s been a rollercoaster with cold and rainy, then hot and dry. Through it, the plants got stressed. Some bush green beans became pole beans! As soon as the plants got ready to bear fruit—think cucumbers, zucchini—they got a fungus.

We replanted some zuchini a week or so ago. This morning I noted, “We’re getting better at this.”

How does your garden grow?

Send your contributions to copyeditor@riverreporter.com by August 27 by 3 p.m.