<p>This article employs an ecocritical lens combined with a theoretical framework of cultural memory studies to analyze the middle grade fantasy novel, <i>The Night Gardener</i> (2014), by Jonathon Auxier, and examines the roles diegetic narrative, memory, and magic play in developing and altering the characters’ relationships to their environments. In the novel, magic symbolizes the characters’ interactions with place, and expresses the harm and healing that these interactions can bring to both place and inhabitant. This article suggests that place, along with social groups and relationships, is the basis for individual and cultural memory, and suggests the importance of memory in forming reciprocal relationships to place. Using a cultural studies approach, this paper interrogates the text as a cultural object, exploring how characters relate to human-made spaces and more-than-human ecologies, and considers the value of analyzing this text through an ecocritical lens with young learners. Based on the analysis of this text, this study suggests that viewing place as a social entity is crucial to living in accordance with our environments.</p>