All I Need Can Be Found in a Garden
By Juliann Gardner, CGC Board Member
Need vs. want?
So often when deciding where to spend my energy and resources, I choose with this question in my mind. Resources like time and money and physical effort are precious and, frankly, limited, so this act of choosing is required. Usually I will act first on what I need and then, secondly, what I want falls in line. Wonderfully, gardening falls into BOTH—it’s needed and wanted—and this is where the best levels of motivation, learning and likely positive outcomes result.
Gardening or cultivating a small patch of land, including gathering soils into pots and raised beds, is one way to have both—what we need and somehow know we want. We all are in a better frame of mind when we can take care of ourselves. For me, taking care of myself equates to being able to feed myself what I need. Gardening teaches us how to grow what will feed us. We can literally be fed by the fruits of our labor as well as fed by the beauty we witness. It elevates our outlook, and we are shown—through what are, to me, truly miraculous examples of life—its struggles, its perseverance, its determination.
I have found all of life’s best lessons in a garden. When we exert the effort to touch and connect with the world outside ourselves, even with a potted basil plant on a windowsill, we gain perspective and a sensitivity to another living being. All of that comes through when setting a seed to soil. From the newborn germination, to the young, tender and tasty nubile growth. Then, further into the season, auditing the development of its offspring, fruit and seed. This life cycle in not unlike our own journey. We learn to nurture and care for something beyond ourselves so that what grows before us becomes a mentor.
I believe that when we learn to grow anything for ourselves, we become more confident in life knowing simply that we can. This improves all our worlds. A garden teaches us to be curious and observant as well as humbled through the failures and hopefully filled with awe by the wins. In a garden, we can learn about collaboration and companion values and how to reconcile forces outside of our control that will call upon adaptation and resilience and acceptance. So gardening is a “life skill,” much like learning how to read or cooking to feed ourselves. It’s also a life-giving skill that rewards us greatly.
And gardening betters our communities and our world. It is multigenerational place with a language spoken by young and old alike, regardless of their origins and personal histories. A garden creates important transferable knowledge, too, which, when shared, enriches all of us. It gives its intellectual properties freely—and has since the beginning of our agrarian history.
I was not raised with backyard gardens nor on a farm. I was raised in the 60’s with Tang, TV dinners and taxus shrubbery as a landscape preference. Luckily, those were not my only formative years, and learning to grow came to me later in life. It’s never too late to start growing. I learned from others. I started a company—One Small Garden—to help others grow. And a few years back, after nearly 20 years of creating and delivering to others our locally made red cedar raised beds and soils, I was asked to join the board at the CGC.
One Small Garden came from this personal enlightenment and true power from growing in a small garden. I can say that growing feeds me so much more than what I eat. Gardening has enabled me to teach others to grow for themselves, and this directly aligns with the mission of the CGC. I am proud and privileged to be a part of this advocation, passion and place. It teaches all to grow where they are, at whatever formative years they are in.