Misfit Gardens and Misfit Gardeners

Gayla Trail at Community Garden

I wrote this short piece recently as a series of tweets on Twitter and then transcribed it to my Instagram and Facebook accounts. But because too much falls into the social media ether these days, I have transcribed it here with a few small changes.

When I was 16, going on 17, I dug my first garden without conscious thought or reason. I hid it behind the garage* and planted no seeds.

For there were no seeds to plant then and I didn’t even know I was digging a garden exactly. I just needed to dig.
And really, what I was digging was my way out of the hell world my parents had created & a place to bury the trauma.

I was digging connection to nature, life, hope, future, self. Beginning an act to nurture & heal wounds I couldn’t voice.
Eventually, sometime later, I did plant seeds in places that were not meant to be gardens but became them anyway.

Misfit gardens by a misfit gardener.

Over time, as I found the words to put to those experiences, I learned that in a world dominated by perfect gardens & perfect gardeners, I am not alone. There are others like me who need to garden for similar reasons.

The earth’s body; our bodies.

————

Writer Lydia Yuknavitch invited people to tell their stories as a part of the launch of there book, The Misfit’s Manifesto. I first found Lydia’s writing by chance — an essay excerpt from her memoir, The Chronology of Water so blew me away with its power, fierce honesty and prose that I ordered the Kindle edition of the book and began reading it not five minutes later. So when she called, I felt especially driven to answer. Here’s her Ted Talk on being a misfit. The above was my story.

*I wrote shed in the original. However, for accuracy, it was more of a garage, although no car was ever stored there.

Gayla Trail
Gayla is a writer, photographer, and former graphic designer with a background in the Fine Arts, cultural criticism, and ecology. She is the author, photographer, and designer of best-selling books on gardening, cooking, and preserving.

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7 thoughts on “Misfit Gardens and Misfit Gardeners

  1. I too, am a misfit gardener. I garden to find solace, to feed inner city children, to promote peace and just because. I love to feel my hands in the soil, see living things pop out of the dirt after weeks of tending. You are not alone.
    Garden on….
    Susan

  2. My father and grandmother were gardeners. Even my husband tended a plot in the community gardens. I dabbled , even with some poultry too, but mostly observed. Then after my dad died I started to dig. Transplanted everything I could from the little family farmette to the house in the development. Back beds are overflowing with flowers, herbs, some vegetables. Some in pots. Strange but satisfying.

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