Amber Grossman is the founder of BlackGirlsGardening, an online community on Instagram designed to connect Black women gardeners and inspire others to start a garden and plant seeds back into the land, she is also the author of Black Girls Gardening: Empowering Stories and Garden Wisdom for Healing and Flourishing in Nature.
When the joy of gardening in her backyard brought her online in search of guidance and community, Amber found an abundance of voices—but a lack of Black women represented on many platforms. In 2019, she launched @blackgirlsgardening on Instagram, a space to connect with other Black female gardeners. The community has grown to almost 100K followers, providing the vision for this much-needed new book.
Her new book, Black Girls Gardening, profiles 31 women and shares their hands-on gardening wisdom, compelling personal stories, and inspiring images of their real-life gardens. The profiles are conveniently organized into specific gardening pursuits: backyard gardens, garden to kitchen, flower gardens, gardening with kids, community gardening, and farming.
Throughout the book, readers will find helpful how-tos and practical advice on planning a gardening site, composting for beginners, organic pest control, must-have tools, and more.
This is a gardening book for all walks of life and any experience level. Each woman in Black Girls Gardening shares a unique gardening journey, but they all demonstrate how a gardening practice has the power to heal, empower, educate, and connect. Check out our conversation with Grossman below.
ESSENCE: What did you first start growing?
Amber Grossman: It was just a few herbs, some basil and lavender. I had cucumber and peppers for some vegetables and strawberries, and that was like my first little garden, the first couple of things I learned to take care of and tend to.
So why did you decide to start growing food instead of flowers or plants?
I went to the grocery store and saw the quality of food that was out there, and instead of going there, I spent a lot of time going to farmers’ markets. There was a massive difference in how produce looked to me and tasted when it came from, you know, somewhere like the market and grown by farmers or local, in the community. And once I tasted that, I was like, “You know what? It shouldn’t be too hard for me to plant a couple of seeds and grow some things I like, and start there” And that’s really what got me to start my first garden.
How has gardening improved your quality of life?
When I’m gardening, I experience less stress and anxiety. During COVID, I picked up a bit of depression and anxiety, and, you know, the stress and all the stuff I feel like everybody went through, but gardening has always just kind of kept me connected and calm. And when I’m out there, forget about all the other stuff. It’s just been good for my physical being as well, I mean, to have an activity of digging constantly, or, you know, planting, weeding, watering, whatever it is, it’s still physical, so I feel like that’s just been good for my body to do, practice daily.
Let’s talk about your popular platform on Instagram, Back Girls Gardening. Why do you think your platform is so popular?
It took off during COVID-19. I started in 2019, so it was right before COVID, and I was growing, you know, a little by little. During COVID, when everybody resorted to buying house plants, gardening, growing their food, and getting on social media, people connected with strangers. It was like this whole timing of things that worked out perfectly with me starting the account, you know, just a few months before, and with everybody, you know, wanting to garden at that time. So people were looking for accounts and inspiration, to get in the garden and stuff. That’s how many people came across the platform.
What do you love the most about gardening?
More recently, it’s been the creative aspect. I have never felt super creative with design and things like that. But having a garden, you know, and planning the design of the garden and the space—it was kind of a creative outlet. It let me kind of distract myself a little bit and design things based on certain plants and heights and colors, and I don’t know, I think that’s probably the coolest.
What are the benefits for black women when it comes to Gardening?
You know, it can help that self-esteem just by watching plants grow and thrive, something that you, you know, cared for and pretty much raised from a seedling or even a tiny plant if you buy it. You didn’t do seeds, but it just feels like an accomplishment once you finally grow something and you get to harvest, your food, and I feel like that boosts our self-esteem a little bit, and makes us feel a little bit more we have a purpose. And then it also, it encourages a social connection, even if you are gardening alone, which a lot of us do, you know, at our homes and stuff. Still, there’s also this community and people who want to see what you’re doing in the garden and want you to share those things. So, even if we are at home, there is still a social connection that we can maintain through gardening and primarily through the account.
How can growing our own food be healing?
That’s a good question. I mean, for me, healing means reducing my stress and anxiety. Gardening helps me with that. It’s mindfulness. It helps me distract, reset, and disconnect. Being in nature is a calming experience, you know, just sitting outside anyway, and so when you’re surrounded by the stuff you created in that sense of beauty and that atmosphere, I feel like it is just healing itself.
From greenhouse to growing food and flowers, why did you want to show the diversity of gardening in your book?
Because of gardening, some people might consider it as if you have to do everything to be a gardener. You have to grow food, you have to have flowers, you have to be harvesting everything and preserving and canning, and, you know, to make you like a gardener. But this book shows you could plant flowers and be a gardener. You can grow food in your backyard and be a gardener, or you can go to the community garden, where you don’t even technically have your garden, but you’re still a gardener. It is essential to split it up by highlighting and having separate chapters that focus more on which kind of gardening an individual person is primarily focused on.