Reciprocity—returning the gift—is not just good manners; it is how the biophysical world works. Balance in ecological systems arises from negative feedback loops, from cycles of giving and taking. Reciprocity among parts of the living Earth produces equilibrium, in which life as we know it can flourish. When the gift is in motion, it can last forever.
– Robin Wall Kimmerer
Individual Action: Refugia is Good for the Soul
Seasoned gardeners typically attest that gardening lifts their spirits and improves their wellbeing. This isn’t to say that gardening is all bliss. Anyone who has spent a day weeding knows this too well. But even days of hard work like that are satisfying; they give you a sense of accomplishment. Furthermore, there’s something about being outdoors, working in the soil, and interacting with nature that connects to something deep down within us. It just feels right. Especially when you mindfully “tune in” to the natural interactions in your garden, you begin to recognize and understand that the world is a much bigger, more wonderful place than the one that typically captures our day-to-day attention. This kind of gardening teaches you that you are not the master but a student – not the one who controls, but the one who is called to “read,” learn, and cherish. If you keep at it long enough, gardening will reward you with patience, wisdom, and hope.
There is great reward in approaching refugia gardening as a labor of reciprocal love that draws one into a sense of kinship with the natural world. First of all, approaching refugia gardening as a reciprocity leads us into an appropriate humility and gratitude. It causes us to ask, “What can I do for the creatures in my garden?” instead of the usual “What do I want my garden to do for me?” That outward turn of our attention is crucial. It is the essential first step on the pathway towards regeneration and sustainability because it reorients us to rethink our relationships with nature. Thinking that humans and nature are separate, or dualistic, has gotten us into a grand mess. Furthermore, it contributes to notion that people can only be ‘takers’ or ‘breakers’ of nature, and it ignores the many ways that indigenous peoples and local communities have historically benefitted biodiversity though traditional practices. In contrast, recognizing that humans are an integral part of nature enables us to get beyond thinking just about ecosystem goods and services to thinking also about our services to ecosystems. Back in 2008, ecologist Calvin DeWitt aptly described this as “con-service,” but Robin Wall Kimmerer’s description of reciprocity couples this with the powerful medicine of gratitude passed down from her Potawatomi ancestors. Both ideas are apt descriptions of the more mutualistic relationship with nature we aim to practice by refugia gardening.
Second, by attuning us to ecological functions and adaptations that allow glimpses into nature’s resilience, refugia gardening can help us to develop a sense of hopefulness. In today’s world, hope is an increasingly rare commodity. With an almost daily barrage of bad news about climate change and environmental degradation, it is easy to give in to paralyzing despair. But we cannot afford such paralysis. Since humanity is the cause of the current ecological crisis, we also have to be part of the solution. This involves both mitigation (strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation (strategies to live into a new environmental reality). Refugia gardening works on both ends. Garden plants and soils mitigate by taking up CO2 and sequestering it. And we adapt by designing refugia gardens with an eye towards greater biodiversity and resilience in the face of climate change. Best of all, you don’t have to wait for a COP conference, act of Congress, or the marketplace to act. You can begin to make a difference just by gardening on your own and in partnership with your neighbors. The movement to a better future begins with you!
Third, by focusing on interrelationships between plants, between plants and people, and between all of us and our environment, refugia gardening can help us gain a sense of kinship with the natural world. Kinship is a term that we typically use for describing close human relatives. Extending that word kinship to include the non-human world helps us to reimagine our fundamental relationship with nature. The word we often use to describe that relationship is stewardship. However, as our colleagues note in Beyond Stewardship, that word connotes a relationship where we have agency as a manager or caretaker over the non-human world. Stewarding is something we do to nature as its superior. There is a relational imbalance implicit in the word and also a presumption that we have sufficient knowledge to do the right thing. These blind us from considering that nature might have something to teach us about what it needs from us. If instead we were to approach non-human creatures as kin, we would place ourselves on the same level with them. This opens us to learning from non-human creatures by watching their behaviors and their reactions to changes and disturbances in the environment. In this way, a refugia garden is not primarily a place for you to collect plant specimens that appeal to you. More importantly, it is a place where you can partner with our plant and animal kin in ways that give you new insights into their lives and their needs.
Collective Action: Forming Refugia Gardening Networks
By networking with fellow refugia gardeners, you can help to create corridors and genetically interacting populations of plant and animals. Both are crucial for facilitating ecological adaptation and resilience in response to climate change and other ecological changes. Networks also provide opportunities for fellow gardeners to support and teach each other. We recommend getting in touch with organizations such as Wild Ones or National Garden Clubs (NCG) to find local chapters that you can join. Of these two national organizations, Wild Ones places more emphasis on native plant species. But the NCG also does have a Gardening with Nature page that includes a link to Doug Tallamy’s Homegrown National Park initiative. You can join either organization and advocate for our Principles of Refugia Gardening, which elaborate the importance of including natives. However, for reasons outlined on our Why Not Natives Only? page, one need not be a purist. In the face of climate change and other environmental challenges, the most important focus for gardeners should be on ecological functions and resilience.
Because you will gain invaluable experiences related to climate change and biodiversity as you garden, it is also important to extend your collective advocacy into social, economic, and political arenas. People need to hear your story! They need to see how refugia gardening produces seeds of hope for a more livable future. Invite them into your garden and show them. You also need to hear their stories and to lend your support. Remember: today’s global problems are the cumulative result of daily decisions made by billions of people. In the same way, when you collaborate with others and grow a movement, your tiny individual actions (which are insignificant by themselves) will synergistically add up to collective actions that can – and will – change the world!
Remember… A Good Anthropocene Begins at Home in the Garden!
Refugia Gardening 