Serena – Vienna, Austria

(Community Field): Pot Marigold, Parsnip, Mustard Greens, Dill, Walking Onion, Sweet Cherry Pepper, Surprise me tomato, Basil Mix.
(My balcony and my friend’s balcony): Elephant Grass, Japanese Silvergrass, Baby’s Breath, Chamomile, Peas Mix, Beans Mix, Sweet CA wonder Pepper (summer 2025)

My seed journey this summer took part both on my balcony in the 2nd district and in a community field of allotment gardens in the 10th district, near the ‘Boehmische Prater’ Park.
Although my south west-facing balcony doesn’t get tons of sun, the grasses, flowers, peppers, and beans did ok!
I’ve saved the seeds to continue next year and will be more vigilant about watering the poor peas…
The seeds planted in the community garden were part of the summer project of Mai Ling, an artist collective of Asian diaspora FLINTA* I work with in Vienna — several of our members ran an allotment garden in dialogue with the local farming cooperative “Laaerberger-in” (where anyone can harvest anything from anyone’s plot) and we planted Christina’s seeds alongside seeds from clandestine seed importing from Taiwan, China, Thailand, gathered from fruits/veggies, and in exchange with other gardeners. We rotated working in the garden so it got a bit chaotic at times to remember everything that was planted… There were wild hamsters and birds to contend with and the increasingly hot central European summers; the marigolds, tomatoes, peppers, parsnips and herbs pulled through! It was really interesting to see the differences in growing in pots on the balcony and growing in the field with different soils and companions and pests; there was also of course a big difference in terms of the divisions of labour, scheduling, and communication. There’s a different engagement when growing alone and tracking all the changes; growing with the team meant keeping notes and checking in about tasks (there was a waterproof notebook and pencil left at the garden to log tasks). I’m usually hesitant to engage with my balcony because I get my hopes up but then things never really grow well because there’s not a lot of sun; because I travelled back to Canada for a chunk of the summer, my friend/neighbour (whom I shared some seeds with for their balcony) helped me set up a solar-powered watering system.
As part of the community field project, Mai Ling hosted a ‘Sticky Solstice Species’ outdoor 1-day festival with herbal teas, somatic practices, garden-harvested snacks, solar cooking, and we had a reading group with our zine of collected texts on decolonial, feminist land-based relations — we read Christina’s manifesto for ‘seeds are meant to disperse’ as part of the festival 🙂 It’s been great to integrate Christina’s seeds into these practices and conversations in Vienna — where there are less houses with gardens and more balconies and communal initiatives for allotment farming — and as part of our collective’s ongoing research on ‘invasive species’ and diasporic decolonial gardening/farming practices.