I’VE OFTEN WONDERED what it would mean to live in a place where the benefits of contact with plants, the natural world and healthy outdoor environments are widely accepted and appreciated, where gardening and its kindred activities are all considered pluses.
I think I got a glimpse of that place last summer when I visited my son in the small city of Aschaffenburg, Germany (about 30 miles from Frankfurt). I was struck by the evidence of purposeful human activity, much of it linked to gardening, everywhere I went. Our walks through all parts of the city revealed blooming flowers, trees laden with ripening
