Documentary Film: "Gardening for the Planet"

Darien Library welcomes The Garden Club of Darien and Darien Pollinator Pathway in the presentation of "Gardening for the Planet," a documentary that sheds light on the critical role of native plant gardening in combating the rapidly changing world due to climate change. 

This event is also sponsored in partnership with Darien Green Wave, Darien Land Trust, and the Darien Nature Center.

About the Film

"Gardening for the Planet" is a positive film that shows how something as simple as the plants you chose for your garden can be impactful in the struggle to combat climate change. Many films about climate change can leave people feeling hopeless about the future and doubtful that they can have any impact. However, this film shows how even one person can improve the ecosystem in their tiny part of the planet, their own lawn, by planting native plants instead of invasive ones.

Speakers include professors and native plant gardeners who describe the benefits of native plants including how they can support pollinators and are more accustomed to growing and thriving in their native ecosystems. An increase in pollinators can lead to more insects, which leads to more birds and other animals in a healthy food web. On the other hand, invasive plants can outcompete native plants, and the popular monoculture grass lawn is not an ideal habitat for supporting wildlife.

The film’s visuals are beautiful, and the engaging speakers make a compelling case for the value of native plants in maintaining local ecosystems. For those who still want to achieve a landscaped look in their lawn, the film demonstrates how it is still possible while opting for native plants. 

This film is 58 minutes in length and has closed captioning available.

About Producer/Director, Joanne Hershfield

Joanne Hershfield graduated from the Stanford University film program and has been producing documentary films for forty years. Her films are in the permanent collections of over five hundred universities and libraries in the U.S., Japan, Canada, and Australia.

Recent films distributed nationally and internationally include Gardening for the Planet, a film about the importance of using native plants to address climate change; Benevolence, a Journey From Prison to Home, the story of five formerly incarcerated women who move onto a working rural farm in North Carolina;  Mama C: Urban Warrior in the African Bush, the story of Charlotte O’Neal, a former member of the Kansas City Black Panther Party, a poet, musician, artist, and community activist, who has lived for over forty years as an “urban warrior in the African Bush” in the Tanzanian village of Imbaseni; These Are Our Children, a one-hour documentary film that reveals how the devastating effects of poverty, HIV/AIDs, and violence on Kenyan children are successfully being reduced through local grassroots interventions; and Men Are Human, Women are Buffalo, a film about violence against women in Thailand.