We're in the process of cobbling together some vegetable beds and a few flower gardens, even though I am notorious for callously neglecting anything green under my care. We do have some strawberry plants on the back porch, however, that seem to be surviving. More than that, they actually produce about one brilliant red strawberry a day. Juniper has been dutifully watering and pruning and petting. As soon as she spies a ripe berry, she plucks it and pops it straight into her mouth. According to her, they are sweet and "very goody." I'll have to take her word for it, since she hasn't offered me any yet.
She reminds me every morning that we need to water the garden (or sometimes, "garden the water"). She walks along, watering and sniffing and naming, "That's a strawberry. That's a tomato. That's a rosemary. That's a fig tree." How simple it is, this kind of learning. Some dirt. A plant. The sun. Time enough to take it all in.