What Gardening Taught Me to Notice

Lately, I have been paying closer attention to what’s happening in my backyard meadow as it grows taller and puts out more flowers. Big ol’ bumblebees move from bloom to bloom, sometimes visiting the same patches of color as the yellow-winged butterflies.

There’s my resident rabbit, Jessica, who seems to enjoy the grass and leafy plants growing around the meadow. And, of course, there’s Chester, the squirrel, who rolls around in my garden beds. I swear I once watched him plant a couple of trees back there. Time will tell.

The birds play in and around the meadow too, feasting on whatever little bugs they find. It could be some of the little black ants that seem to be everywhere. After they get their fill, they sing to me from the branches of my mimosa tree. Her wide limbs shade the yard from the summer sun, and her blossoms fill the air with sweet perfume. Beginning in June, the fireflies awaken in the evening and dance around her and all in the yard. I like to imagine she had something to do with it.

 

I have always wanted a pollinator meadow in my backyard. During my second year in the Rooted East Home Garden Program, I filled out a survey about what I hoped to do with my garden. Rooted East helped make the meadow happen. A group of volunteers and I tilled the ground and planted the seeds. Before long, what I once thought of simply as my backyard began to feel like a habitat.

I joined the program a couple of years ago because I wanted to grow food and because Rooted East’s values felt close to my own. We share a belief in stewardship—the care of people, land, food, culture, and community together. I believe access to healthy food is part of freedom, and that our people should have the knowledge and support to grow some of our own food. Rooted East has given me classes, hands-on help, plants, seeds, tools, and people to learn beside. They are not only growing gardens. They are growing community. I have always had a fairly clear idea of what I want to grow to eat: potatoes, cucumbers, collard greens, herbs, onions, and garlic. This season, carrots became my success story. I grew them from seed, and I was genuinely excited when I pulled them from the ground. That small harvest gave me a taste of the satisfaction that comes from growing my own food. It made me even more eager to keep learning until I can grow the rest with confidence. There is something powerful about knowing where your food comes from and realizing that, with patience and support, some of it can come from the ground around your own home.

But gardening has also taught me to notice what else the yard sustains. Ants tunnel through the ground and help aerate the soil. Bees and butterflies carry pollen from flower to flower. Birds and squirrels feed on insects, seeds, fruits, and nuts. Rabbits find food and shelter among the grass and shrubs. Everything seems to feed, shelter, pollinate, aerate, or make room for something else. I’ve also noticed Jessica resting in the shady part of my front yard. She sits perfectly still when I step outside for a closer look. I can tell I’m disturbing her, so I leave her be and go tend to my raised beds. I’ve got a few peppers, several varieties of tomatoes, two eggplants that keep teasing me with flowers but no fruit, and potatoes and carrots still waiting to be harvested.

The vegetable garden was the doorway, but I am beginning to see the whole yard as a larger living system. Being part of this program has helped me create a meadow filled with life. I am still learning how to become the gardener I want to be, but the experience has already changed the way I pay attention. Rooted East helped me learn to grow food. Along the way, I began to notice just how much life was already here.

-Margo Miller