Why garden?

That first summer of COVID drove home what many of us already suspected: a garden is the best thing we’ve got going right now. It’s beautiful, soothing, and nourishing. It builds community. Gardens are good for you—not just for the vegetable eater or the active gardener, but for anyone who simply walks through or even looks at a garden.

The mere act of looking at green space through a school or hospital window restores attention and promotes healing. Neighborhood trees reduce crime and increase economic activity. Increased plant material reduces neighborhood flooding and watershed pollution.

While we tend think of a garden as nature’s gift to us, the right kind of garden can be our gift to nature. For generations, we have gardened by working against nature. Despite our best intentions, we have worsened some of the very problems we hoped to solve. What’s worse, we have taken our ecologically functioning landscapes and turned them into sterile pictures of themselves.

By planting with ecological processes in mind, we can

• restore lost animal habitat

• absorb, reroute, and filter stormwater

• regenerate damaged soil

• clean and cool the air

• remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

• reduce maintenance

• create a sense of place in harmony with our regional ecology

• increase the life-giving capacity of our surroundings

When if not now?