Digging In: Gardens as Community

By Jennifer Smith

I’ve been thinking a lot about gardens as a community. Community gardens often conjure images of allotments or edible garden plots. Several institutions around the country transform vacant lots into safe green spaces. A clean and green program in Philadelphia is a good example of taking wasted, blighted vacant lots, often abused and full of rubbish, and turning them into community green spaces. Locally, the Civic Garden Center works with neighborhoods to build community vegetable gardens.  

No doubt, admirable work. But I’m thinking of something a bit different. As I walk about my neighborhood and look down the street, I see one lawn after another. I also see an opportunity for residents to come together and forgo part of their lawns and plant pollinator gardens. Where lawns once met the public walk, house after house, gardens could reside. What a sight that would be! 

Too often I believe planting for nature forgets the human element. People are an afterthought, almost pushed to the side as to atone for past sins. We’re told to discard all we believe about our home landscape and plant for nature and only with native plants.  Let’s not forget, we are as much a part of nature as the butterflies we want to support. When we treat people with disdain and judgement, we aren’t too likely to get those very people to turn their lawn into a pollinator oasis. Just as native bees need more access to natural spaces, so do we.  We need to re-connect with nature, and with each other. Here’s where gardens as a community take place, in our front yards.

Without fail, when I’m tending to one of our gardens, be it our public gardens or a private front yard garden, people stop to chat. They’re curious about the plants, want to compliment the garden or thank us for planting a public space. The gardens are like a dog, the perfect icebreaker to engage another human in face-to-face conversation. On occasion the conversation evolves beyond pleasantries, and I’m told about the personal losses, struggles and fears they’re facing.  My garden task is set aside, we sit on the park bench and I listen. Sometimes we need to talk through something we are struggling with and a garden in a park is just the place to set us at ease. A conversation that started with tears ends with a hug and smiles: that’s the power of nature and gardens. 

In a time when it’s challenging to differentiate AI generated images and writing, and our lives are consumed with screen time, people crave personal interactions. We spend time online talking with strangers that we will never meet, yet we don’t know our neighbors’ names.  We dedicate way too much time developing online communities at the expense of the community outside our front door.  Is it so unusual to crave something real, to crave nature? 

The National Institutes of Health states we need two hours a week in nature. This can be a walk in the woods or time spent in a garden. The same organization links excessive screen time to depression and anxiety. If there was ever a time to turn part of our lawn into a garden planted for people, it’s now.  

Your new front yard garden is an invitation to others to pause and enjoy your plants and start a conversation. Neighbors ask each other for advice, commiserate over failed plants and celebrate successes like monarch caterpillars munching on the Asclepias. The void that’s been created in many from a lack of nature and personal interactions begins to fill. At the same time, the street that was once an expanse of lawn becomes a habitat for insects that will live out their entire lives in a front yard and a waystation for those embarking on long, miraculous journeys.  

Jennifer Smith is an award-winning pollinator garden designer with Wimberg Landscaping.