How does the garden itself become a metaphor for what happens among its members?

In many ways, the garden becomes a symbol for the growth
and understanding of the people who plant in it.  Each person approaches the garden with
some type of need in their life.  For example, Sam's need is to "mend the tears in the
social fabric" that exist in his world.  Uncle John's need is to reclaim some part of
his identity that his move to America has taken from him.  Kim seeks to establish a
connection and a sense of being with something that time has taken from her.  Each of
them need their own nurturing or "watering," a type of external gardener to mend their
broken condition and allow them the chance to grow in a world where growth is
challenged, hampered, and sometimes fully denied.  As they each tend to the garden,
something in them is tended as well.  The garden becomes the external manifestation of
their own internal hopes, dreams, and state of being.  In the most painful of senses, if
it dies, a part of them- the hopeful part- does, as well.