Gardeners can experience their gardens as loving caretakers in return

Evidence

I ask her, “Do you love your garden?” even though I already know the answer. But then I ask, tentatively, “Do you feel that your garden loves you back?” She’s quiet for a minute; she’s never glib about such things. “I’m certain of it,” she says. “My garden takes care of me like my own mama.” — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 437

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to ch21 ‘good mothering expands to caring for all life’ and ch22 nursing as first reciprocal bond. — connects to: Gardens are simultaneously material and spiritual undertakings — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 427; Humans can act as guardians who return care to their plant helpers — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 528
• ADDENDUM: Supports the Grafting and Growth article’s theme of what gardens and cultivated plants give back when treated as relations.

Broader Connections

• Humans can act as guardians who return care to their plant helpers #corroborates (0.82) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 528