Lately I’ve had a bit more time on my hands and I had expected to fall into my usual summer-off-from-school routine of reading books I’ve already read and passing video games I’ve taken long breaks from.  I found myself gardening instead. There’s an old wooden box in my front yard, with a few loose nails, peeling paint, and a dead stump in the middle.  When I first moved in, it also contained an odor.  The local cats were apparently making use of this big dirt box.

I had seen some minor success with growing basil in a pot so I decided to dream big and got myself some veggie seeds and unsoiled soil.  I dug up any rocks or thin roots around the base of the stump and planted around it.  Within a few weeks my butternut squash, zucchini, jalapenos had sprouted and after a month or 2 the entire box was taken over by this jungle of green.  The cats never came back but my little patch of forest had attracted lady bugs and mantises and yellow jackets, oh my!  I realized I had created a rather nice habitat that came complete with its own food chain.

I thought back to when I was a little girl, before I discovered writing, when I aspired to be an ecologist.  I loved studying the elements of life and seeing how they all fit together, predators, herbivores, autotrophs, and niches.  I still remember much of the basics because it had fascinated me so much and still interests me today.  As the rainforest episode of The Magic School Bus once taught me, each bit of organic matter were all pieces of the big picture.