Pet Plants: An Ode to Our Gardening Community
During one of the many joyful planting sessions in St John’s Garden in spring/summer 2025, SJG’s budding gardeners had a go at potting something of their choosing - in this case, wild strawberry plants.
The children chose the colour of their pot, decided what to plant, and carefully potted one each.
They added small stones, layered compost, and, using a technique they had learned in earlier sessions, gently squeezed a triangle around the base of the plant to help it stay upright, before giving it a generous watering. Finally, they inscribed their names on beautiful slate labels using chalk pens to show the world their new plants.
The level of care that followed was amazing.
The children began actively requesting extra trips to the garden to water their plants and check on them. With growing excitement, they tracked how many strawberry flowers appeared, how many green strawberries were forming, and how many had turned red. Many strawberries were eaten, and many photos were taken (with the odd fight when one plant was more prosperous than the other!)
This ritual continued into autumn and winter, after school as the light faded, and even in complete darkness. We stood there with phone torches on, checking on the plants. It was wonderful. On the walk home from school, the usual requests for screens disappeared. Instead, in the dark, they wanted to go and visit their beloved strawberry plants.
Then, a few weeks ago, we discovered that Sebby’s strawberry plant was gone - no longer sitting in its brightly coloured pot, with “Sebby” lovingly emblazoned on the label. Violet’s strawberry plant, meanwhile, is still there. Remarkably, here we are in February, and it is flourishing with new blossoms. Unfortunately this contrast only added to the heartache.
At the time, he was completely distraught - as if a pet had died. I realised I had underestimated just how much the plant had meant to him.
Time, as always, has helped. So too has a new task: helping to grow peas and carrots in a neighbouring garden. (As a child, whenever I asked him whether he wanted to grow anything in our apartment, my suggestions of herbs were always declined in favour of carrots!! Until recently this simply wasn’t possible. Once again, our gardening community—particularly Jess and Sarah—made it a reality, for which we are very grateful.)
But the biggest source of healing, as with the original planting, has been the community the garden has created. When I shared Sebby’s story, our neighbour Jess came to the rescue, kindly offering to bring him a plant from her garden that could be potted alongside Violet’s plant. Sebby is very excited to have another chance at caring for a strawberry plant through winter.
So today, as we pot his new plant, it marks a fresh start for Sebby and his new "pet" plant. It also provides a quiet moment to celebrate this wonderful, supportive community we have grown together through our gardening sessions.