Building Relationships Through a Gardening Community
One of the things I’ve really enjoyed on my gardening journey has been connecting with people of differing cultures and backgrounds. Gardening has a way of bringing people together for a common purpose. Since gardening is naturally a “down to earth” hobby, gardeners tend to be quite peaceful people. With all the negativity in the world, it’s nice when people can put differing views aside for the good of humanity.
How to Meet New People through Gardening
When we think about gardening, often times it’s easy to envision a solitary activity in our backyard, which at times is just what we gardeners want to experience, but it’s also about a connection with life.
We learn the ways of gardening through tales and triumphs of others successes and failures. There are all kinds of ways to make friends through our gardening hobby.
Some of the ways I’ve been able to connect with other’s through gardening include:
Trying Things that I Want to Grow
When I first began learning about growing subtropical fruits, many of those types of fruits were foreign to me. I grew up in the Northern part of the United States on fruits like apples, cherries, peaches, and berries.
Things like Cherimoya, Sapodilla, Mamey Sapote, and Guava’s were exotic fruits that I never had experienced. When I started to learn about the possibilities of growing these types of fruits in my area, I wanted to try everything I could. Many of these kinds of fruits weren’t found in typical groceries stores, so I started to venture into various ethnic markets.
As I started to search for some of these fruits, I began to talk with individuals that worked in those markets. Oftentimes those individuals had a story to tell about growing up on those fruits that seemed so unique to me. It’s been a joy to learn more about cultures regarding these fruits and how they remind others of their home.
Social Media Groups
Although it isn’t necessarily face to face contact with others, Facebook and other social media groups can be a great way to connect with fellow gardeners. Just do a search for a gardening topic that you are interested in and you’ll most likely find a group for it. It’s a great way to see what others are doing with their gardens and to share your experiences with others. I continue to learn a great deal from others through social media.
Classes
There are all kinds of local gardening classes that you can be a part of in your community. Check your local nurseries or county offices for various classes. These classes are great for meeting new people along with learning about growing in your local environment. Classes can teach you about specific gardening skills that you want to learn about like pruning techniques or raised bed gardening.
Plant Sales
I’ve networked with other gardeners through various annual plant sales that occur in our cities. Sometimes these are held at local community colleges or even can be done on a smaller scale in neighborhoods.
Nursery Staff
It’s amazing how much you can learn from your local nurseries. Many of the staff and owners of nurseries are plant heads just like you. They love sharing their experiences and often are very knowledgeable about growing in your area.
Farmer’s Markets
Typically you go to Farmer’s Markets to purchase produce, but this produce is grown by none other than a gardener. Farmer’s Markets are a great way to learn about how the beautiful produce that you came to purchase was grown and what types of things are in season. Often times various plants can be sold here as well.
What you can do with other gardeners
As you build friendships with other gardeners there are ways to share your passion for gardening to enhance your community. Partnering up with other gardeners for various projects is amazing. These are some activities that can be done by a group of gardeners:
Teach Others
Setting up workshops or community classes can be a great way to bond with fellow gardeners while helping others catch fire of the gardening passion. Take something that you know well and share it with others.
Community Gardens
Finding a plot of land and developing a community garden could be an amazing venture. Although this would take some time and resources these types of gardens can have astonishing positive impacts on our communities.
Getting Kids interested in Gardening
There has been a growing push for gardens at schools and it could be great to grab some of your gardener buddies together to enlighten another school about the joys of gardening.
Community Garden Tours
A local gardener in one of my Facebook groups hosted a garden tour event. Several gardeners opened their backyards up for a day for those of us in the groups to tour. This was a great experience to see some of the various backyards and talk about things we were growing.
Seed Swaps
This is another great activity that can be done monthly or a few times a year. Simply save those extra seeds and share them with those at the event. These events often lead to swapping stories and other garden goods.
Serving Others
I remember an experience where a local gardener became very ill and many gardener friends came together to assist the family with caring for the yard while he was recovering from illness. Having a food drive to donate excess produce to various homeless shelters or organizations can help. In our area we tend to have a lot of extra citrus that is donated.
Cook Off
Well if we are growing it, it’s because we like to eat it. Having an event to share recipes or foods from the garden can be a fun way to get a group of gardeners together.
In summary, as we know, gardening is a great way for us to connect with nature and bring peace into our lives. Even though we love the individual tranquility, gardening has the ability to bring people together. As we share our passion for gardening with one another we can strengthen our communities and be more unified with one another.
Please comment below on anything that you’ve enjoyed from this post or how you’ve been able to connect with other gardeners.