Image description: Artist Anne Riley kneels in dark soil outside the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University, while installing Dark Matter Garden. One hand is extending across the earth as if smoothing or tending it. The work draws connections between soil, ecology, Indigenous knowledge, healing, and the scientific search for dark matter. &²Ô²ú²õ±è;
It’s gardening season. As they say, April showers bring May flowers.
Spring is the perfect time to plant flowers and herbs and enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. What this looks like will depend on your space, but there are more options than you might think. Growing things, even in small ways, feels good.
Charlie and I love this time of year, going for walks and watching the flowers bloom and the buds come out on the trees, and planting our own secret garden.
Balcony / Outdoor Office
A balcony garden doesn’t need to be complicated. Hanging planters (Dollarama is a good place to start) make use of railing space, and second-hand or free pots are easy to find if you keep an eye out. You can grow flowers, herbs, or just try things and see what grows. This year we are growing a mix of bought plants, seeds, and bulbs. We also made some witty tags for my seeds, like Bachelor Pad for my bachelor buttons, Abracadabra for my wand flowers, and Two Peas in a Pod for my peas.
Our balcony becomes an outdoor office. Charlie always joins me out there, keeping watch over the neighbourhood while I’m gardening, reading or writing.
Plots
There are garden plots to rent in Kingston, both in and through Queen’s. These are individually used spaces where you essentially rent a small plot of land and have your own area to grow what you want, and they provide the land, tools, and water.
There is a waitlist for all of these and it might be too late for this season, but you never know. It’s worth putting your name down and getting involved even if nothing opens up right away.
At Queen’s, there are several community spaces including the Employee Health and Welnness Plots  adjacent to Jeffery Hall, Working on Wellness Plots at 355 King for the staff that works in the building, spaces at the Four Directions Indigenous Student Centre and the . These are more shared, community-centred spaces where people grow together, with shared care, tools, and knowledge. Reach out to them to find out how to get involved in the growing season. It’s fun to grow alongside others or to collaborate on a garden together.
Gallery Gardens
Gallery gardens are beautiful spaces connected to local galleries where you grow a garden in relation to art and place. Sometimes this is done collectively, like currently at the garden, the garden , and the .
Other times, artists use gardens as sites for their work. For example, as part of the , was installed as a circular garden outside. The work engaged with land, soil, and Indigenous approaches to care and relation. was printed on seed paper and planted in the garden. She also sold Critical Compost, which were shredded papers from her PhD drafts to help fund the project.
Galleries also use gardens as sites for material like at the Tett Centre, where uses the plants they grow to dye their wool.
These spaces are often looking for creative volunteers and artists. They are a nice way to be part of something without needing your own plot or long-term commitment. You show up, help where you can, and spend time outside with others.
Guerrilla Gardening
Guerrilla gardening is about planting in overlooked or unused spaces. It can be as simple as planting bulbs, scattering native seeds, planting vegetables or going a bit wild and making seed bombs to throw into empty patches of soil.
It’s not about ownership so much as noticing space and choosing to add something to it. A small act of care in places that are often ignored or forgotten.
For example, in my neighbourhood, there is a small spring garden an elderly woman planted when she lived here. Tulips and daffodils come up every year and we all enjoy it. In my old neighbourhood in Victoria, BC, people took ownership of the boulevards and planted vegetable gardens to share with the community.
There’s something satisfying about planting something and not fully knowing what will happen next, or who will end up seeing it grow.
Conclusion
Growing things doesn’t have to be big or perfect. It can be a balcony full of mismatched pots, a shared plot in the city, a gallery garden, or seeds scattered quietly into a patch of soil.
Gardening is one of many ways to grow alongside your life in grad school.
How to survive grad school? Grow a garden.