How Should You Help the Planet? By Getting Your Hands Dirty

A bed at Reed’s high school garden | Photo Credit: Reed Zimmerman

As someone who has found their passions to be rooted in environmentalism, I am often asked by peers, or even adults, about how they can reduce their environmental impact in light of our human-driven climate crisis. Although I typically recommend taking cold showers, getting a reusable water bottle, trying to drive less, or other actions along those lines–I hate doing so. 

Those activities are great, but they are preformative. People do them more so because they are seen as the “right thing to do” rather than out of genuine care for the natural world. Sure, I do these actions as well, but I like to think I do them more so without regard to the perceptions of those around me. I know many cannot say the same. 

I digress, do the aforementioned actions help the planet? Yes. They do. Every action, no matter how small, holds some benefit. But do they help ENOUGH? Clearly not. These preformative actions fail to build the necessary respect and admiration of Nature that is required to make true change. 

I believe that to truly make a meaningful impact on our planet, people must understand exactly what it is we are trying to protect. In turn, the genuine, most honest answer I would give people to that question is to get their hands dirty.

When I say getting your hands dirty, I don't mean getting dirty in the way you would while going on some outdoorsy adventure like hiking, kayaking, or fishing. Rather, I am referring to one of humanity's oldest industries–horticulture. 

Some of the most powerful moments of my four years in high school were spent working in the school garden alongside my English teacher: a man who still remains a huge mentor and role model for me. Throughout high school, I would go directly from the garden to class, still covered in my work. Dirt could often be found on my hands, ankles, pants, and, one time–, much to my friend's amusement–, even my cheek. At Northwestern, the same holds true. After Sunday work days with WildRoots, I often arrive at Norris or Main with dirt somewhere on me, which is a sight my friends are now used to seeing during study sessions or mid-day coffee runs. 

Planting seeds, taking care of beds by watering, weeding and fertilizing, and eventually harvesting the produce forces you to connect to the earth in a way no other activity can. Unlike most human activities, eco-friendly horticulture requires you to work with nature and its systems to reap a successful harvest. 

You get your hands dirty–literally and figuratively–in a garden. You have to directly touch plants during harvesting or while pulling pesky weeds, you have to let the soil run between your fingers to see if it's hydrated, and so much more. While gardening gloves are nice at 

In other words, you have to truly engage with the natural world in a garden by working with it, not against it, as humans often do these days. If you do not do this, you will fail. Whether your seeds fail to germinate, your plant does not fully mature, your harvest is inedible, or the plant dies and wilts, there will be a failure in some capacity. 

Occasionally, my English teacher's children would join us in the garden. Like most kids their ages (eight and five at the time) when meeting someone significantly older for the first time, they kept their distance and did not really talk to me. However, like the seeds we planted, their perspective of me changed. Now, whenever I am back in the garden to help out during the summer, I am not a scary college-aged kid. To the two of them,  I am everything from a partner-in-crime in harmless shenanigans, an assistant counter of the crops we have harvested, and above all, someone who will always listen and answer their questions to the best of my ability, no matter what they are.

During one such summer work day, I was harvesting vegetables when his son, done chasing butterflies, rushed over to me. Now unafraid of my presence, he turned to me and asked me why animals eat what they do. I shucked off my gloves, knowing they would only impede my means of answering his question. As I put my gloves on the garden bed, I amusedly told him:

 “I am not the best at science, but I think I can answer that question. There’s something called the food chain….” 

I instinctively reached down to the dirt and drew a triangle through it, the brown earth staining my bare hands, to explain the food pyramid and the food chain as best I could. As I explained, his hand would point at the different levels with curiosity as he asked insightful questions about where certain animals would fall in the food chain or why certain animals didn’t have predators. 

Reflecting on this moment now, I was using a gift of nature–healthy soil–to teach him about the natural world. My hands were getting dirty teaching about the systems I grew to admire and respect while his young hands were getting dirty absorbing lessons that would not only serve him well in science classrooms years later, but also lay the foundation for a care of the earth. 

Over the past 250 years, humans have become increasingly disconnected from nature, which is a huge cause of today’s climate crisis. Through anthropocentric perspectives promulgating human domination over nature, various components of the natural world have come to be viewed as conquerable resources that solely exist to fulfill humanity’s developmental goals. These perspectives need to be changed and to do so, we need to reconnect with nature once more. 

Shifting these views requires people to take action not because they want to be “moral” or look good, but because they truly understand why and truly care about the earth. We cannot solve the current climate crisis without communal, genuine care for our earth. However, such care can easily be built with a garden and with dirt-smudged hands. 

Anyone can benefit from getting their hands dirty—not just the youngest of us. Get out and get your hands dirty, whether that be a plant on an apartment windowsill, a rooftop setup, a more traditional backyard, or even a farm. Here at Northwestern, check out WildRoots or community gardens in the Chicagoland area–there are plenty! 

So get out there and get your hands dirty, not only for your own sake, but for the sake of our planet and all the life–human and nonhuman–that calls it home. And if you get your hands dirty enough, you may have some delicious, home-grown produce to show for it.