In the garden, we can see, feel, smell,

and taste the fruits of our labor.

Tiny seeds, carefully sprouted and watered,

grow into plants that flower,

get pollinated, and yield fruits

who contain the seeds to begin the cycle again.

A Juneberry, a mousemelon, a tomato –

they are all full of seeds,

nascent potential awaiting activation.

Just like the gardener in all of us.

In the garden, we can slow down and notice

the insects, birds, plants, and fungi

and learn from their resourcefulness,

cooperation, and resilience. 

Gardens are ideal classrooms

where children and adults alike can

actively learn about almost anything.

A garden contains tangible lessons

in life cycles, the multiplication of saving seeds,

stories of foodways from around the world.

A garden can quiet the mind and open the heart,

reminding us of the positive possibilities

for ourselves and our planet.

“Who has not watched with delight the wee tots with their toy set of garden tools and faces all aglow with happiness and the yearning expectations of the coming harvest as they dug up the earth and dropped in a few seed or illy set an equal number of plants—with what joy and satisfaction they called it their garden, or with what enthusiasm they hailed the first warm days of spring with their refreshing showers which bespoke emphatically the opening of the mud pie and doughnut season, and how, even though they were water-soaked and mud-bespattered from top to toe, how very happy they were at the close of such a day’s work.”

– George Washington Carver, groundbreaking scientist and innovator in agriculture, soil science, mycology and food justice in his 1910 publication titled “Nature Study and Gardening for Rural Schools”