Gardening is the management of an ecosystem that includes living parts: soil, insects, weather patterns and seasonal cycles, crop tendencies and preferences, and the countless relationships that reverberate. A garden itself is a living system that requires balance and attention to these elements simultaneously.

Gardening is the art of working with natural patterns. A gardener learns to recognize and support the patterns that create healthy growth. There are patterns of light and shade, of water flow, how plants prefer to be taken care of, the conditions that make a plant, and then a group of plants, and then a whole garden thrive.

Gardening is accepting that there is a seasonality to all things, and everything operates on its own timeline. You cannot expect the fruits of labour to be born simply because you are labouring. The conditions to growth are in your control but the growth itself is not. The best we can do is to provide consistent, reliable, and intentional care to create the conditions for the things we care about to naturally unfold.