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<\/h3>\nThe strawberries on the cover are from my garden at home. Although I have helped with gardening over the years, I’ve never taken any responsibility like I have this semester with my classmates. Watching our plants grow from seeds and starters has come with its ups and downs. While some flourished and have become beautiful plants, others hesitated. Getting to embrace this process has reminded me that gardening is about more than just producing food. It has encouraged me to view nature from a different perspective and has also helped me connect to the topics being taught in this course.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt so far is that nature cannot be controlled very simply. At the start of this course, we were provided with information about seeds, starters and how different plants work together. Through this knowledge, we were able to decide what plants we wanted and where they would be placed strategically. We decided to plant marigolds, tomatoes, basil, beetroots and peppers. Looking after the garden has been a collective effort, showing that healthy ecosystems require ongoing care rather than a single person’s actions.<\/p>\n
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<\/h3>\nNot everything went according to the plan we created. The marigold and basil seeds we planted had issues sprouting. Instead of considering this a failure, we sought advice from KPU librarian (and avid gardener) Melissa and adapted our garden. This experience reminded me that nature does not always respond the way we expect. Unlike many human systems, gardening requires patience, observation, and the willingness to adjust. Green Criminology has encouraged me to think similarly. Environmental issues are usually more complex than we think, and there’s rarely a simple solution. Responding responsibly sometimes means adapting instead of trying to dominate.<\/p>\n
Although I’ve grown up helping my family garden, taking greater ownership through this course has made me pay closer attention to the hard work involved. Even something as simple as watering the plants consistently or checking on their progress became important because every small action contributed to the overall health of the garden. Looking at the plants now, it is easy to focus on how much everything has grown, but that growth represents weeks of care, teamwork and patience. It also reminded me that environmental well-being is dependent on consistent ownership rather than occasional attention.<\/p>\n
The strawberries from my family’s garden also changed the way I think about food. Eating something that I helped grow created a greater sense of appreciation for the care, time and natural processes involved in the food that reaches our plates. It reminded me that food is not just simply a product in the grocery store but the result of healthy soil, clean water, pollinators and those caring for the land. Green criminology has expanded on this perspective by encouraging us to think about how environmental harm can disrupt these relationships, affecting ecosystems and communities long before the consequences become obvious.<\/p>\n
Looking back, gardening has reinforced something that green criminology continues to emphasize: humans are part of nature, not separate from it. Every decision we make has the potential to harm the environment, whether those effects are minor or major. My experience in this class has taught me that caring for the environment is not about achieving perfect results, but doing your best to make a difference. The marigolds and basil seeds didn’t grow, but the garden continued to thrive cause we adapted and continued caring for it. Sometimes the most important thing is not that everything succeeds, but that healthy relationships require patience, responsibility and respect.<\/p>\n
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The strawberries on the cover are from my garden at home. Although I have helped with gardening over the years, I’ve never taken any responsibility like I have this semester with my classmates. Watching our plants grow from seeds and starters has come with its ups and downs. While some flourished and have become beautiful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1513,"featured_media":958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-published"],"splot_meta":{"author":"Lovepreet","license":"","footer":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=959"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1032,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959\/revisions\/1032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}