We see gardens like extensions of our living spaces, to be designed and shaped and decorated to our sensibility. Behind the climbers on a trellis, under the weeds, lives a whole ecosystem that feeds the soil and cleans the air, and has intrinsic rights to be, which remain unrecognised. We cannot absolve nature of ‘mess’. It is our framing, not hers. We don’t ‘own’ gardens, but of course we’ve built a whole edifice on the belief that we do, just like we sell water rights, and treat land like it’s an infinite resource for wealth creation, and not the source of soil that nurtures us and keeps us alive. ‘Weeds’ just means plants we don’t want here, now. The most beneficial, restorative plants are those local to the region, and we don’t plant those very often. We will still be here when our grandchildren and even our ageing children ask us, why we didn’t heed the urgent crises of biodiversity and climate, given they were so thoroughly researched and reported throughout our lives; why we didn’t do everything in our power to act from what we know. I wonder if we will tell them the truth. Unlikely, given how powerfully we are lying to ourselves.
We see gardens like extensions of our living spaces, to be designed and shaped and decorated to our sensibility. Behind the climbers on a trellis, under the weeds, lives a whole ecosystem that feeds the soil and cleans the air, and has intrinsic rights to be, which remain unrecognised. We cannot absolve nature of ‘mess’. It is our framing, not hers. We don’t ‘own’ gardens, but of course we’ve built a whole edifice on the belief that we do, just like we sell water rights, and treat land like it’s an infinite resource for wealth creation, and not the source of soil that nurtures us and keeps us alive. ‘Weeds’ just means plants we don’t want here, now. The most beneficial, restorative plants are those local to the region, and we don’t plant those very often. We will still be here when our grandchildren and even our ageing children ask us, why we didn’t heed the urgent crises of biodiversity and climate, given they were so thoroughly researched and reported throughout our lives; why we didn’t do everything in our power to act from what we know. I wonder if we will tell them the truth. Unlikely, given how powerfully we are lying to ourselves.
Love the Emerson quote, "Weeds are plants whose virtues have not yet been discovered." So true!
Wonderful piece, Ali.
Thank you so much for reading!