Educator and writer Christina Foust with some of her volunteer sunflowers. Front Porch photo by Christie Gosch

Nineteen years ago, I was inspired by the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, to be more responsive to climate change. I worked with students to organize a panel discussion titled, “Beyond the Bulb.” We chose this title to jab at an all-too-common solution presented to people who were alarmed by climate change: switch out your incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent ones. We had just watched Al Gore ride a scissor lift forty feet off the ground to show where CO2 and rising surface temperatures were headed, and you’re going to tell us that changing a light bulb will help?!

Imagine my surprise, then, when I first read Robin Wall Kimmerer’s masterpiece, Braiding Sweetgrass. In the  face of climate catastrophe, Kimmerer suggests individuals begin by gardening.

As with other Green Simple Living habits, gardening can cut emissions. Growing your own vegetables eliminates fossil fuels that bring food an average of 1,500 miles to get to your plate. But the real reason to start with gardening has to do with fostering a right relationship between you and Mother Earth, which Kimmerer calls reciprocity.

I reached out to Christopher Woodburn, Denver Public Schools sustainability program manager, to learn more. He described gardens as “annual, tangible examples of the impact people have on the world around us. In just a few short weeks, we can see the consequences of our efforts or lack thereof.”

Reciprocity, at its heart, is giving freely for the benefit of living things beyond yourself and receiving gifts from others with gratitude. Planting a seed begins a reciprocal relationship, with returns of beauty, food, and a break from the busyness of everyday life. Master gardeners, like Woodburn, foster reciprocity between different plants, and between plants and other creatures. Woodburn describes his own gardening breakthrough:  “babying the tomatoes differently from the corn and differently from the potatoes was a tremendous amount of work and stress, and my results weren’t great.” Supporting “healthy and thriving microbiota in the soil,” though, helped the plants thrive together without his constant attention.

Along with the lessons gardening teaches us in reciprocity, there is also a daily dose of wonder. “Once someone engages with nature and encounters wonder, they are hooked,” Woodburn says. “Wonder is the antidote for apathy and self-centeredness.”

Kimmerer sees benefits from not only vegetable and flower gardens, but also from volunteer gardens. For the last five years, I’ve been a caretaker for a patch of volunteer sunflowers that started with two seeds sown for a three sisters garden (companion planting of corn, beans, and squash together.) Each spring since, dozens of tiny green seedlings begin their climb. Some stop with a single bloom hovering two feet above ground, others stretch above 10 feet. I didn’t intend to grow so many, but I now find myself beholden to them. If a strong wind kicks up, I rush to support them. I have shed tears when squirrels snap their stalks; and marveled when, bent dramatically and scarred, they continue blooming, attracting long-horned bees, monarchs, and goldfinches to our backyard.

Even if you don’t have space for such a “wild” garden, you can cultivate wonder with containers and pots. Woodburn suggests choosing plants that suit the environment you can provide, indoors and out. Consider  trading irrigation systems for a watering can so you can get outside with the plants each day. It takes more  time, but that’s the point of being in a relationship!

Fostering reciprocity can also extend to each other as neighbors. I appreciate it when someone leaves a note inviting a passerby to pick a few tomatoes if they have extra. Perhaps we could also start using Little Free Libraries as Free Seed Banks this spring, or offering to help if we see plants in need of a little extra attention? If you’d like to help out with a nearby school garden, Woodburn says, please contact the school or him directly at cwoodbu@dpsk12.net.

Cristina Foust is a professor of Communication Studies at MSU Denver, and co-founder of the Westerly Creek  Elementary School Green Team. Email her at cfoust2@msudenver.edu or reach out on Facebook. Her column  Green Simple Living will appear periodically in Front Porch.