Gardening, Migration, and Women's Agency: Stories from Rogers Park

Gardening, Migration, and Women’s Agency:
Stories from Rogers Park
Alice Marquardt Cherry
Home gardens are small, domestic enclosures in which people grow plants for
food, medicine, and ornament. In the global South, women commonly keep home
gardens, but many women migrants to the North discontinue the practice. In this
study, I interview 25 South Asian immigrant women living in Chicago’s Rogers
Park who kept gardens before but not after migrating. I ask how they valued
gardening and why they stopped. The results demonstrate that the interviewees
found gardening satisfying, discontinued it reluctantly, and cope creatively with
their loss. I argue that home gardens are valuable outlets for women’s agency.
This study supports a research paradigm in which agency is dynamic and social.
Introduction
Home gardens are small systems of household plant production found in many
societies, both rural and urban. i Women usually maintain home gardens, using edible
produce for household subsistence (Niñez 5). In the global South, home gardening enjoys
continuity through time and space (see, e.g., Greenberg); in many parts of the Indian
subcontinent, for instance, home gardening is a widespread practice (Arunachalam 47;
Wilson 211). ii Migrants to the North, however, frequently abandon gardening: New York
Latinos shop for medicinal plants in supermarkets and import herbs to stock their
botánicas iii (Ososki et al 23), while many Bengali-American women in the Chicago area
do not garden but rely upon grocery shopping (Ray 119). iv
The South Asian immigrant women in this study gardened in their home countries
but do not keep gardens in Chicago. v They gardened because they enjoyed it, not because
they had to—because it fostered connections with family, friends, and neighbors, and
because it provided specific benefits in the form of fresh food, aesthetic beauty, and
respite, among other things. Thus, the women in this study exercised agency through

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gardening. After migrating, they stopped gardening not of their own accord but for
reasons such as lack of space, with many taking creative measures to cope with their loss.
Moreover, how the women in this study exercised agency through gardening—and
through their efforts to cope with its loss—has the potential to say something larger about
agency. Agency cannot be fully represented by theoretical models that focus exclusively
on individual autonomy, free will, and empowerment; forging social ties and responding
creatively to constraints also constitutes agency.
Methods
I conducted the interviews at a South Asian community center in Chicago‟s
Rogers Park neighborhood between December 2009 and February 2010. My contact, a
program coordinator, recruited 25 first-generation immigrant women on my behalf, each
of whom kept a home garden before migrating but does not keep one, or has not always
kept one, in Chicago. The research method consisted of recorded interviews, ranging in
length from 15 to 35 minutes, some with the help of an interpreter. vi I asked the
interviewees why they gardened before migrating, why they had since stopped, and what
they do (if anything) to replace gardening.
The women in my sample are largely middle- or working-class vii , from India, and
Hindu. They range in age from 26 to 80. In their home countries, they were wealthier;
like many South Asian immigrants, they experienced a decline in economic status after
migration (see Kurien 161). This decline is reflected in a complete reversal in
employment status among the women in my sample following migration, with just seven
holding jobs before migration and 19 after. Nearly all came from cities—many from
Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, or Karachi. All migrated here within the last 20 years.

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Basic Characteristics of the Sample
Category Sub-Category Number of Subjects
Home Country India 22
Pakistan 2
Bangladesh 1
Social Status in Home
Country viii Middle- or Upper-Class 22
Poor 3
City or Suburb 21
Village 4
Geographic Location in Home
Country
Religion Hindu 21
Muslim 4
Age 60 or older 8
40-59 13
Younger than 40 4
Job in Home Country ix Yes 7
No 18
Job in Chicago Yes 19
No 6
Garden in Home Country Yes 25
No 0
Garden in Chicago Yes 3
No 22
Background
Home gardens in South Asia, especially in urban areas, are compact as a result of
population density (Niñez 23). Compared to rural gardens, urban gardens are less
important economically; they are also more likely to be used for play and relaxation
(Niñez 22; Bhatti and Church 200, 188). Not surprisingly, then, my interviewees said that
their gardens were small, located directly adjacent to the house or apartment, and (in most
cases) not economically essential. x Despite this last fact, however, the women in this
study grew a wide range of plants, both edible and decorative; xi they also describe the
utilitarian benefits of their gardens during the interviews.
Gardening practices of South Asian migrant women lie at the nexus of
overlapping fields of study on agency, feminism, and diaspora. Agency is “the human
capacity for reflective action” (Frie 1); in Western philosophy it is defined primarily in
terms of free will, empowerment, and the autonomy of the individual (Grimshaw 146-

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161; Raisborough and Bhatti 463). Some feminist literature has conceptualized women‟s
agency in particular as a form of resistance to normative gender relations, and the degree
to which unpaid household work supports immigrant women‟s agency is a subject of
disagreement (see Pessar, Vidbha). Wilson (224) speculates that women in rural
Bangladesh would not garden if they had more economic opportunities; however, other
studies have established links between gardening and women‟s agency—for instance, the
efforts of Hmong women in Sacramento to provide fresh, culturally appropriate food for
their families (Corlett et al); women‟s gardening as a means to earn discretionary income
and expand social networks in central Anatolia, Turkey (Ertug 194); and the economic
and cultural stability provided by women‟s gardening in northeast Thailand (Moreno-
Black et al) and among Yucatec Mayan immigrants in Cancún, Mexico (Greenberg).
Results
Gardens of Agency: “This [Gardening] is Myself”
Not only did the women in this study assert that they gardened of their own
volition rather than because of cultural expectation or economic need (or, in a few cases,
in addition to the latter), but they identified specific reasons for gardening. The most
consistent theme to emerge from the interviews is the ability of gardening to strengthen
ties with family members, friends, and neighbors. Many of the women traded surplus
produce with that of neighbors, explaining that each neighbor grew something different;
in other cases, they gave away excess produce as gifts. As one woman from Karachi
explains, gardens were not the only source of these gifts, nor would the exchange have
been impossible without gardens; however, it made her especially proud to give gifts

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from her garden. These responses highlight an aspect of agency that has more to do with
social interaction and social ties than with individual autonomy.
Gardens also strengthened family ties. One interviewee remembers that her
mother-in-law taught her to garden as part of her initiation into the family; another
explains that her parents asked her to maintain the family garden after their death. A few
interviewees recall playing in the family garden as children, eating fruit straight from the
branch—or of grandparents showing them, as children, how to save and plant seeds.
These interviewees say they kept gardens in part to keep alive their parents‟ way of life,
or to satisfy nostalgia for their childhood. Thus, gardening was an important part of their
identity; as Krishna, a 47-year-old from Mumbai, puts it, “This [gardening] is myself”.
Yet it was not an individualistic kind of identity to which they refer, but rather an identity
rooted in family and tradition.
Over half of the interviewees say they kept gardens because they love plants.
Sangeeta, a 62-year-old from Delhi, says simply, “It‟s a loving thing”. Some of the
women recount talking to their plants and playing music for them because they were
convinced plants grow better this way; Krishna, for instance, says she and her brother
used to drag the tape player onto the balcony so the roses could hear it. A few
interviewees compare caring for plants to raising children, and, in some cases, plants
seem to have actually replaced children who are now grown: Durga, a 64-year-old from
Delhi, explains of her formerly live-in grandparents,
“They are just taking care of…[these] plants like their children. You know, in the
morning they will go and they will say, „Oh, this one yesterday, the
leaves…[were] not there!‟…”

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In these instances, gardening was clearly not a household chore akin to doing dishes or
laundry; again and again, my interviewees remind me that, although gardening brought
them utilitarian benefits, they did not experience it as a burden.
In fact, two woman describe gardening as a respite from household life: Zeenat, a
45-year-old from Karachi, tells me that gardening distracted her from the truly arduous
task of washing her family‟s clothes by hand. Another woman, also from Karachi, says
she lived in a noisy household and most appreciated her garden for its “peace and quiet”.
In these instances, gardening was a deliberate effort to overcome circumstances that the
women found disempowering. However, as Raisborough and Bhatti argue in a similar
context, it would be a mistake to focus on the “transformative power of individual
agency” in these accounts; rather, agency is constituted by “daily creative negotiations in
social contexts and conditions that lie outside of individual control” (466).
Coping Mechanisms: “I am [still] happy...”
Because of space constraints, time constraints, and the cost of hired help, very few
of the interviewees keep gardens in Chicago; however, most of them engage in activities
that help them cope with the loss of their gardens. A few of the luckier women
describe—with clear excitement—their plans to move to the suburbs, where they will
resume gardening. For those less fortunate, a popular strategy is to grow potted plants
indoors, especially the herb tulsi (Holy Basil). Kirti, a 54-year-old kitchen worker at the
community center, says her friends tease her for turning her apartment into a greenhouse.
A second popular coping mechanism is to seek out homegrown food: Several
interviewees make an extra effort to purchase food that is organically grown, from

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farmers‟ markets, or imported from their home countries so as to re-experience the purity,
freshness, and flavor of the food they used to grow.
Interestingly, many of coping mechanisms mentioned during the interviews
recreate the strengthening of social and family ties discussed above. A few interviewees
say that their friends or neighbors gave them permission to use their own gardens.
Krishna, for example, grew cucumbers in her friend‟s garden. Although she lost them to
hungry squirrels, she prizes the experience: “I said, „It‟s OK, squirrel‟…I am [still] happy
at that time, you know” Two other interviewees have taken to collecting seeds and
giving them as gifts to admiring friends, relatives, and co-workers; another—one of the
fortunate few with a garden in Chicago—freezes food from her garden and sends it to
relatives elsewhere in the U.S. Finally, a few interviewees make an extra effort to keep in
touch with friends and relatives back home who tend their old gardens. Asha asks her
relatives for updates on the status of the garden, while Jyoti says it comforts her to know
that her old garden still exists and that her brother takes good care of it.
Conclusions
In this study, immigrant women exercise agency by gardening in their home
countries and by devising creative solutions to replace gardening after arriving in
Chicago. In both cases, their agency takes a form that cannot be fully explained by
Western neoliberal models of agency, which focus exclusively on free will, autonomy,
and empowerment. Rather, agency is expressed through social ties and family traditions
embedded in the practice of gardening. It is also expressed through creative responses to
constraints, both in Chicago and the women‟s home countries; as Wray contends, “…it is
possible to be…empowered and disempowered at the same time” (23). Building upon

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earlier studies, this study proposes a link between gardening and the exercise of agency.
It also proposes a new theoretical framework for agency, one in which social connections
and creative responses to constraints are considered. However we define agency and the
activities that constitute it, it should be possible to ascribe agency to people in diverse
circumstances. I hope that further studies on agency will leave room for roses and tape
players, squirrels and cucumbers, and other stories from Rogers Park.
Acknowledgements
I owe many thanks to the faculty reviewers for their wonderful suggestions, not
all of which could be incorporated because of space constraints. I also want to thank the
following individuals for their generous feedback: Micaela di Leonardo, Professor of
Anthropology and advisor to my senior thesis; John Millhauser, senior seminar TA;
Helen Schwartzman, Department of Anthropology Director of Undergraduate Studies;
Jana Measells, Undergraduate Research Advisor; and Peter Civetta, Undergraduate
Research Grants Coordinator. An undergraduate research grant funded this study.
Notes
i Many names exist for this type of garden. I have chosen the term “home garden” to reflect
the small-scale, domestic nature of the gardens in this study. I did not use “kitchen garden”
because some of the interviewees grew ornamental plants.
ii
In this study, I use the terms “garden” and “gardening” as shorthand for “home garden” and
“home gardening”.
iii
Botánicas are “shops that sell traditional remedies and function as herbal pharmacies”
(Ososki et al 2007, 17).
iv “North” and “South” refer to the global North and South. This terminology reflects a rough
geographic line of division in the distribution of home gardens worldwide (with most in the
South) and is commonly used in the literature on home gardens. It also fits the epistemic
frame of this study better than the “developed/developing” terminology.
v
With a few exceptions; see the Methods section.
vi
I arranged for a Hindi-speaking graduate student to interpret interviews with women who
did not speak English. Because a small number of interviewees spoke neither English nor
Hindi but Gujarati, my contact interpreted when necessary.
vii
According to my contact. Her information seems accurate, given the jobs the women hold,
where they live in Chicago, and the composition of similar community centers nearby (see,
e.g., Rudrappa’s description of the Indo-American Center, p. 100).

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viii
Based on my contact’s information, the interviewees’ descriptions of how they used their
gardens, where they lived before migrating, and my own rough knowledge of social class in
India. All three interviewees classified here as “poor” came from villages.
ix
These data include part-time but not volunteer work. The same is true of the jobs data for
Chicago.
x
Only a few of the interviewees—those who came from villages—described their gardens as
economic necessities. Because of the sensitivity of this subject and the difficulty of eliciting
direct answers, I asked both direct and indirect questions.
xi
The following list summarizes the plants most often mentioned during the interviews:
tomato, potato, onion, garlic, okra, eggplant, chili pepper, basil, mint, lime, jasmine, mango,
date, papaya, rose, sunflower, and various squashes, gourds, melons, and pulses.
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