Family, Memory, and the Future Theme Analysis

A number of the gardeners in Seedfolks are drawn to the community garden not because they personally want to garden, but because a family member does. And while much of the story focuses on how gardening benefits individuals, it’s clear that it has a positive impact on families, too. As Seedfolks shows, gardening can strengthen families through the generations by connecting people to their memories and family history—as well as helping them carry those memories and old traditions into the future.

Gardening, Seedfolks suggests, can be a way for people to remember and connect with deceased family members. The novel’s very first chapter articulates this idea. Nine-year-old Kim’s father, a farmer, died eight months before she was born, so she never knew him. She decides to plant her lima bean seeds the night after his death anniversary, after wondering if her father’s spirit even knows who she is. Kim wants to show her father’s spirit that she is his daughter by taking part in gardening, something that was essential to his identity. For Kim, gardening helps her feel more connected to a father she never knew, but she isn’t the only one who comes to the garden to connect with a deceased relative. Leona, a Black woman who grew up in the South with her Granny, decides to plant goldenrod in her Granny’s honor. It gives Leona satisfaction to be able to honor her grandmother in this way, and to pass her grandmother’s wisdom about medicinal plants and herbal remedies on to future generations.

Seedfolks shows that gardening also provides a venue through which older generations can connect with younger ones. Many of the novel’s young narrators, like Virgil and Gonzalo, only get to know their older family members on a deeper level once they start gardening together. While Gonzalo sees his great-uncle Tío Juan as having nothing to offer at first, he soon realizes he’s all wrong about this the moment he sees Tío Juan expertly handle seeds and turn over soil. Tío Juan, a former Guatemalan farmer, has so much expertise to offer younger generations—but he can only share his wealth of knowledge once he and Gonzalo get involved with the garden, where he’s an expert. The garden, then, causes Tío Juan to become a fully formed person in his great-nephew’s eyes. In this vein, Seedfolks shows that the garden provides opportunities for young people to humanize their older relatives. Virgil, for instance, watches in dismay as his father plants six plots of a fancy baby lettuce—and then lies to other gardeners by claiming that each plot is for a family member who can’t garden. In reality, Virgil’s father intends to keep all the lettuce for himself to sell. Virgil has never seen an adult lie to get ahead before, let alone his own father. But this only makes Virgil’s father seem more human to his young son. While Seedfolks only gives an open-ended conclusion to Virgil’s story, it nevertheless makes the case that through their involvement in the garden, Virgil is getting a more well-rounded view of his father—something he perhaps wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else.

Overall, Seedfolks suggests that the garden provides families a place to learn to appreciate each other—and a way to pass on knowledge. For Amir and Florence, going to the garden provides them with the opportunity to teach others about respect and kindness. Amir teaches his toddler son, for instance, to not pick produce before it’s ready, while Florence coaches adult passersby to not pick others’ vegetables without asking. Perhaps even more importantly, though, the garden offers parents and grandparents who spent much of their lives outside of the U.S. the space to teach children and grandchildren about crops native to their home countries. Amir introduces his son to a special kind of eggplant, while a number of narrators describe other parents teaching their children and neighbors about various hot peppers, herbs, or melons. More than just a plot to grow produce, the community garden becomes a place where people can connect with their family members on a deeper level, and where the children of immigrants can learn about their culture. And while it’s worth noting that it’s not necessarily just gardens with the potential to provide these opportunities, Seedfolks nevertheless makes it clear that it’s essential that people have a place to get to know their relatives and their history. Only then can people truly understand who they are and keep the wisdom and memories of past generations alive.