HomeYouth LessonsProject S.O.W: Food Gardening with Justice in MindUnit 2: Gardening with Gratitude2.2 Appreciation in the Garden

2.2 Appreciation in the Garden

Two teens spray-painting colorful garden signs
Bringing art into the garden space.

Skill Level

Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Learner Outcomes

  • Reflect on the importance of showing appreciation.
  • Explore what is important to you.
  • Explore the connection between gratitude and joy.
  • Work together to create an acknowledgement action for the group’s garden.

Life Skills

Critical thinking, service learning, communications, cooperation, sharing, contribution to group, teamwork, noticing and managing feelings

Time

20 minutes

Materials

Space

Comfortable place for youth to reflect and have a whole group discussion

Introduction

Throughout this activity, groups will begin to reflect on how they can garden with gratitude, practice reciprocity with each other and the land, and become a steward of their gardens. Gratitude and joy are connected. We will encourage the group to reflect on their relationship with food, gardens, and the land. In the first part of the activity, youth reflect on what is important to them and how they celebrate what is important to them. In the second part of the activity, we transition to thinking about how we can share appreciations to our garden space.

For most, we have been taught to view the land as what we can get from it, what natural resources it provides. This is one way of thinking. We encourage the group to explore and expand this perspective, moving from usage to relationship. Observation, art, joy, and celebration can be powerful tools in moving from usage to relationship. Written and verbal reflection, creative expression, and group appreciations can also help to make this shift.  This section provides activities for the group that will help them begin stewarding their gardens.

To be stewards of our gardens and the land, we first need to offer recognition and respect. In many cultures, any engagement with the land includes recognition of the land. This recognition can take many forms including acknowledgement of the first land stewards for whom the land is their traditional homeland, as well as songs, chants, offerings, celebration, and ceremony. Paying attention, gardening with joy, feeding the soil with nutrients, sharing your abundance with others, and showing thanks for harvest through acknowledgement are simple ways to show appreciation. Some cultures have ceremonies to celebrate the start and end of the growing season, celebrating though gratitude and festivities. Though there are beautiful examples of honoring and celebration in cultures around the world, we left out specific examples from this activity. We encourage the facilitator to look within for inspiration and to encourage the same among your participants.

How do you show appreciation to that which is important to you?

Important note: There is a difference between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange. If interested in learning more about traditions from specific cultures, we encourage you to research first before reaching out to members of those groups.

Here is a statement from the Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgement by the Native Governance Center:

“Build real, authentic relationships with Indigenous people. In addition to normal employment and family obligations, Indigenous people are working to heal their traumas, learn their languages, and support their nations. If you reach out for help, lead the conversation by asking an Indigenous person what you can do for them. Chances are, they’re likely overworked and could use your help.”

Vocabulary

Honor: to hold in high respect

Gratitude: appreciation, the feeling of being thankful

Reciprocity: being in a shared “give and take” relationship with someone or something

Celebrate: to observe a notable occasion with festivities

Stewardship: caring for something and being responsible for its well-being

Before the Activity

  • As the facilitator, take some time to reflect on someone or something that is important to you. Ponder the following questions: Why is that someone or something important to you? What do you appreciate about them? How do you celebrate or show appreciation to what is important to you? How do you learn more about what is important to you? How can we extend gratitude to our gardens?
  • In this activity, you will be discussing the history of the land where you are meeting. You might need to do some research beforehand on past stewards (i.e. people, organizations, farms, businesses) of the land.

Activity

Opening Questions

Choose questions suitable for the group, if appropriate pose the question to set the tone and do not seek an answer.

  • What is important to you? What are you grateful for? How do you show gratitude?
Experience

Part One:

  1. Review community agreements, ask if people want to make changes.
  2. Pass out a Gratitude Reflection handout to each youth. Ask youth to think of someone or something that is important to them. This can be done as a reflective drawing or writing exercise if that suits the group. Ask them to ponder:
    •Why is that someone or something important to you? What do you appreciate about them?
    •How do you celebrate or show appreciation to what is important to you?
    •How do you learn more about what is important to you?
  3. Ask if anyone would be willing to share what they thought, drew, or wrote. As the youth share with the group, notice trends in their responses. How often is it that people or things are important to them? How do we show appreciation and gratitude for those that are important to us?
  4. Ask the group how they feel when they think of someone or something important to them. When are other times they have this feeling?

Part Two:

  1. At this point, the group transitions to thinking about their garden space. If your garden space has already been established, have youth share a word on how the garden makes them feel.
    •If your garden space has not been established yet, ask youth, “What is your relationship to land? How do you feel when you are on land?”
  2. Ask youth, how can we show thanks to the land? How can we show appreciation to our space?
  3. A starting point in showing thanks to the land is learning its history. Briefly discuss the land on which you are meeting and its history. Ask the group, what is the name of the land we are on? Does it have other names? Who stewards this land now?
  4. Acknowledge the previous stewards of the space you are meeting in, including any past people, organizations, farms, or businesses. Take a moment to acknowledge those who stewarded the land before white settlers arrived. A great resource for discovering previous indigenous peoples that have resided on the land and where those people are today is Native Land.
    •Here is a Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgement from the Native Governance Center.
    •Here is an example of a land acknowledgement statement: Cornell University Land Acknowledgement Statement.
  5. Pause after acknowledging previous stewards of the land. Invite curiosity to any tension, and then share that history is important. Some parts of our history are taught in school, other parts are not. It is our responsibility as those who work with the land to try to understand the land, and that includes its history.
    •When acknowledging the genocide and forced removal of indigenous peoples, make sure to also highlight where those communities are today and their continued resilience.
  6. Share with the group that through your time together, you hope to better understand the space and land you are meeting on and form relationship with it. Share your thanks for the group and garden space and opportunity to work together.
  7. Come up with a gesture, acknowledgement, or ritual to start and end your meetings. Explain gratitude may feel uncomfortable at first, and the more you practice it, the more comfortable it becomes. Example gesture or acknowledgement could look like:
    •Sitting in silence for one minute focusing on what you are grateful for.
    •Taking a deep breath, raising your arms on the inhale and lowering them on the exhale.
    •Giving thanks before and after entering your garden space.
  8. Once you come up with your gesture or acknowledgement as a group, practice it.
Reflection Questions (choose a few that work best for your group)
  • What did it feel like to reflect upon someone or something important to you? How did it feel to hear others in the group respond? How did it feel to share with the group?
  • How does it feel to reflect upon the full history of this land – the good and the bad?
  • Did anything you heard or felt surprise you? How do gratitude and reciprocity affect relationship?
  • How can we build and maintain a balanced, reciprocal relationship with the land?

Extensions

woven wood basketsCornell Garden Based Learning- Dig Art Curriculum Have youth select an art project, art can be used to decorate the garden or meeting space. Example activities include:
  • Printmaking: Painted Leaf Prints
  • Gourd Crafting: Painting
  • Leaf Print Casting
  • Natural Fibers & Dyes: Weaving with Plants
  • Natural Fibers & Dyes: Clothes Dyeing
  • Photography in the Garden: The Human Camera
Learn their Names
  • Go on a nature walk, practice identifying a few common plant species in your area.
Plants have families too
  • Plants that are related and you might not recognize them or be aware of it. Here are the families of common plants grown in a vegetable garden. Have youth match the crop to its family!
Amaranth Family Grass Family Onion Family
(Amaranthaceae) (Poaceae) (Amaryllidaceae)
Beets Corn Garlic
Chard Leek
Spinach Onion
Cabbage Family Legume Family Squash Family
(Brassicaceae) (Fabaceae) (Cucurbitaceae)
Broccoli Bean Cantaloupe
Cabbage Pea Cucumber
Cauliflower Pumpkin
Collard Greens Summer squash
Kale Watermelon
Radish Winter squash
Turnip Zucchini
Carrot Family Nightshade Family Sunflower Family
(Apiaceae) (Solanaceae) (Asteraceae)
Carrots Eggplant Artichoke
Cilantro Pepper Lettuce
Parsley Potato Sunflower
Parsnips Tomatillo
Tomato
Sit Spot

This is an exercise of observation, both simple and complex. It can be an effective way to learn your landscape as it encourages prolonged, thoughtful observation of one place in the natural world with you, the observer, continually noticing patterns and seeking information. The purpose of a sit spot is ultimately to improve and deepen your understanding of natural systems by devoting yourself to extended and possibly consistent time in them. This activity can be done as a one-time experience or can be done multiple times in the same space. Observing the same spot at different times of day and during different seasons allows you to see the dynamics of nature unfold. No matter how many times you visit a place, when you take the time to experience the space, there is always something new that you can learn from it.

To participate in a sit spot activity, find an outside space for the group to gather in a circle. Collect technology (phones, music devices, etc.) from the group. Let youth know that in this experience we are trying to be present in the moment. Share that we going to engage in an activity that will bring our attention to the present moment. During the activity, we ask the group for silence. After an initial focus activity, we will place each person in a safe space, spread out throughout this area.

Focus activity: To bring focus to the present moment, invite each person to close their eyes or lower their gaze. Ask everyone to take a deep breath. Listen and try to hear three unique sounds. With your eyes still closed or gaze lowered, feel three unique textures. When they are ready, take another deep breath. They can open their eyes and identify three unique shades of green.

Place each person in a spot away from others, set a timer for 15 minutes or as much time that can be allowed for it, encourage youth to identify sights, sounds, textures, smells. They can journal, draw, or observe. Suggestions for focus:

  • Examine the layers of vegetation, evidence of animals, patterns of past human use.
  • Zoom your focus from the entire scene in front of you to the smallest leaf/insect/spec of earth. Then repeat; back and forth.

Pair up with a partner and discuss what you experienced.

Sit Spot: Companion Plant

Have each person in the group select a plant to be their “companion plant.” This should be a plant that they have regular contact with and can be a plant they are growing or a plant found in nature (ex. a tree or bush they pass every day). Our hope is for youth to get to know this plant and move from a “usage” mindset to a “relationship” mindset. Encourage the youth to pause every time they see or pass by their “companion plant.”  Have youth reflect upon what would a conversation be like with that plant. Encourage them to take photos, draw, learn about the plant (what is its name, what does it need to thrive), notice changes and reflect.  At the next meeting, check back in with youth and ask how their “companion plant” is doing.

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