If you follow me on Twitter you know I really let it fly there. Basically, I'm condensing larger ideas from my book and talks and really getting to the heart of a concept. Here's a collection of recent tweets that will likely turn into a longer piece at some point.
- Native vs. exotic plant conversations are the tip of a larger iceberg, which is who we garden for in a world we've altered for our benefit. It's an ethical conversation, & so it's uncomfortable, unnerving, & feels deeply personal. As it should when we need to think critically.
- When we come at garden design only though human eyes, we continue a legacy of privilege that has led to the 6th mass extinction. Our alienation from life makes us sick, unstable, and unable to work with one another.
- Native plants aren't a garden or aesthetic preference, they are agents of change in a world of extinction and habitat loss.
- Our privilege doesn't give us the right to use any plant we want in a garden -- it gives us the wisdom and responsibility to see beyond ourselves into the ecosystem and the thousands of lives interacting with our homes (and us) every day.
- When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. Native plants aren't about you, they are about all the other fauna. Choosing plants you like may be denying freedom to countless other species.
- Native plants DO matter. We have to stop equating plants with human-based ideas of culture, equality, and freedom. Native plants aren't extremist isolation and fear of immigrants, they are the lifeblood of 99% of the living world.
- When I assail beauty in garden design people hear "gardens should not focus on beauty." What I'm saying is beauty for one species is not enough, it's only a fraction of what gardens can and should be.
- The idea that native plant gardening is unjustly discriminatory or even racism toward other plants has to end. The racism comes when we choose plants only for human benefit, and ignore the other species whose lives depend on native plants and functional ecosystems.
- In a time of mass extinction gardens aren't just for us anymore. They aren't just places of refuge but places of activism and compassion. Our urban gardens are the last best hope for species we've pushed aside & a nature we felt was out to get us when in fact it was out to save us.
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