I pass the Petersen Garden Project’s Global Garden almost every day. I’ll step up close to the wire fence when I walk home from the post office or grocery store and look at the new growth.

It’s become fuller since I moved into the neighborhood three years ago. There are many more 4’ x 8 ‘ Pop-Up Victory Gardens in their space along Lawrence Avenue.

I imagine new urban farmers have spent quality time digging and watering in their Vedgewater garden (in the Edgewater neighborhood) and their Ashlandia garden (at Ashland and Hollywood) too.

The other day, when I was looking between the twisted wires of their fence, I saw a garden gnome, an elf-like statue. I couldn’t help but break into a smile.

These gnomes are sort of funny-looking and endearing at the same time. Very much in line with a German, St. Nicholas tradition, usually the figure will be a white bearded man wearing a long triangular red cap. There’s a myth that gnomes help work in the garden at night, but I think their placement in a garden or on a front lawn is mostly about the homeowner or chief gardener.

So, I found myself smiling at the little man. After all, he had big ears and a silly-looking beard. I also was taken by the thought that people naturally want to set themselves apart from others.

I don’t know exactly how many plots there are — a lot — and they all are largely similar. An urban vegetable garden will usually include different types of lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, maybe zucchini or carrots. It only stands to reason that a little figurine will help the gardener find his plot quicker over an unmarked plot.

I thought about my mother’s habit of looping a silver ribbon around the handle of her standard issue black suitcase so that she could spot it more easily when it found its way to a baggage carousel after a flight.

But there is another dimension to the impulse to plant a garden gnome near the beginnings of a pea plant.

I remember an old Mae West saying; something like “A man kisses like his signature. The face I forget, but the name, I remember.”

In so many ways, we have opportunities to put our personal stamp on how we show up in the world. Some of us might choose to do this by how we dress or by getting a tattoo. Others might choose to add a favorite quote to the close of their emails.

Maybe we’re all the same in wanting to be unique. I know a few people for whom I don’t think standing out as an individual is important, but I’d say that if not memorable, most people want to feel they’ll be remembered.

I felt this when I caught sight of the garden gnome on one of many 4’ x 8’ raised plots. I could tell that the gardener wants to enjoy his time in his garden and that he wants to make his small patch of earth HIS.

This touched me.

Anything that strengthens the feeling of owning your own life is no small thing.