To be alive is to grow, to change and to transform. As we grow as individuals and as a species, we move into positions of responsibility for the world around us. Plants remind us with both a gentleness and an insistence of our place as caretaker in this web of life. They also reward us, over and over with the most simple joys. It may be a piece of fruit, a new leaf, a beautiful blossom or an amazing fragrance.
Over the last century the indicators that we are moving in the wrong direction and are neglecting our role as caretakers for life are all around us. Species are dying, plant and animal diversity is decreasing, human and animal infertility is on the rise, diseases are made stronger by climate change, and food development and delivery systems are completely unsustainable. Healthy and productive soil, high in organic carbon, is now acknowledged as one of the best pathways to removing carbon from the atmosphere. As there are more of us, demanding more from the world, it has become essential that more of us become gardeners. And gardeners in more than the traditional sense, as we must now also cultivate and restore the living landscapes that produce not only our food, but also clean our air and water and moderate our climates. Now is the time to create and tend those gardens and re-awaken our minds and our hearts’ affection for the natural world.