JENNA OUTCALT
Staff Writer
When it comes to gardening, it’s tempting to measure success by the size or quantity of one’s yield. However, Adrian Higgins believes “the act of gardening is more important than the garden as an object.” More than a point of pride, it is a way to connect not only to the earth, but also to oneself.
Higgins will speak to the Bird, Tree & Garden Club in partnership with the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative at 12:30 p.m. today in Smith Wilkes Hall to explore the idea of naturalism versus nativism in gardening and how gardening fosters connection.
“I’m a lifelong gardener, journalist and garden writer, and I’ve been lucky in being able to combine my love of gardening with my work,” Higgins said. He retired from The Washington Post in 2021 after almost 28 years, where he wrote a gardening column for many years in addition to writing and contributing to gardening books.
“I just wanted to share my curiosity about the gardening world and also to place the garden within the larger cultural context of our society,” he explained.
During the BTG lecture, Higgins will discuss the style and history of naturalism, which he described as “evoking nature but not aping it.” Because it can be conflated with nativism, which focuses on only planting native species, Higgins wants to make a distinction between the frameworks and explain why naturalism is a good model to follow.
However, Higgins also wants to focus on the personal side of gardening.
“I believe primarily — and I know this is now a radical view — that the purpose of the garden is to save not the planet, but ourselves,” he said.
Higgins emphasized the importance of gardening as a retreat rather than a chore.
“I think that we need, more than ever, a still point in our lives away from a world that is frenetic and grasping and always on,” Higgins said. “I think the private garden is one of the last places of personal sanctuary and refuge that we have.”
There’s no need for a garden to be elaborate, according to Higgins. The most important part of the practice is the “sacred relationship between the gardener and the garden.”
For the journalist and gardener, the practice of gardening is one that can be both deeply personal and universal at once.
“Creating your own garden is our way of sort of connecting with the universe, but it has to be done on a very personal level and it doesn’t have to be grand,” he said. “It can be very simple as long as it’s driven by your desires and wishes.”
