Even if you’re not a gardener, its time to get your hands a little dirty #TEDTalks

0:00 In these scary times, it can be so hard to know what to do and how to help.

0:05 Thank goodness that there are solutions.

0:09 And many of them literally involve planting flowers.

0:13 While you might not be a gardener,

0:14 I am still going to ask you to get your hands dirty.

0:18 All it takes is a pot on your stoop to have a positive effect.

0:22 The first thing we should all be doing are

0:25 planting plants that are from the places where we're gardening.

0:28 We call them native plants.

0:29 and they're important because they evolved alongside of the wildlife there.

0:33 In return for planting native plants,

0:35 we get a front row seat to the wonders of the natural world.

0:39 It's hard work, but it's the best kind because at the end of our efforts,

0:43 not only do we get biodiversity, but we get butterflies.

0:46 It feels great to cultivate life with your own two hands.

0:50 And there's an abundance of research now to show how

0:53 beneficial gardening is for our health and even our happiness.

0:56 because we all deserve to live in a healthy and thriving ecosystem.

1:00 But it feels even better when we're part of those systems,

1:04 supporting the plants and pollinators around us the way that they support us.

1:09 Like many of you, I am at times immobilized with climate grief,

1:13 thinking about the world that we're leaving for our children.

1:17 But gardening honestly brings me so much hope that we can solve some very big,

1:22 very serious problems, that we have the solutions already.

1:26 And many of them simply involve planting