The power of plants

A full day today of gardening talks, followed by a meeting with the organizer of a recently developed community garden downtown (on a year-by-year city gardening space) has me reeling, a bit.

Too many gardening threads to think about in the same day -- from ecological gardening, to the Lurie Garden's story, to a grounds-up community garden.

But the important message that came through from Thomas Rainer and Roy Diblik, in their presentations, and Clare Hanrahan, the community garden organizer, is about the power of plants to connect people to the environment, stop them in their tracks, and bring nature to the city.

It's a message I've embraced my entire life. I fell in love with plants in the natural world, but was also entranced by the "wild plants in the city" -- the survivors and colonizers -- as a young teenager, spending a summer near NYC.

I left academic research for outreach about a decade into my career life with plants, and embraced that since, whether it's been encouraging people to grow natives ("plants that work for a living") or growing vegetables year-round, another passion.

The power of plants -- humans need nature, and plants are the foundation of that. Whether it's a window box, a box full of edibles, a large-scale garden, or living in the forest, it's a path to the natural world.