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The Deep Middle


Gardening & writing in the prairie echo

Pollinators Don't Justify Exotic Plant Choices + Human Privilege in Hort

9/4/2023

2 Comments

 
Here are some reasons why seeing an adult insect on an exotic plant's bloom isn't justification that it doesn't matter what you plant and / or we've so wrecked the world the answer will always be plant diversity to mend the fabric:

  1. Identify the species. Is it a generalist or specialist? Native or exotic? Is it gathering pollen or using nectar.
  2. What else is in bloom nearby? Nearby means with a few yards, the entire garden, and at least several city blocks. Maybe there's no better option?
  3. Get out your chemistry set -- what's the nutritional make up of the pollen and / or nectar? Is it "better" or not? Is it what that adult species requires?
  4. What habitat does this insect need to thrive in? Is that available on site or nearby? Habitat for nesting etc.
  5. Does the insect requires a host plant for its larvae, and are those available?

And I want to say this, too, which I explore in A New Garden Ethic: when we use casual observations to justify our beliefs, that does not a peer-reviewed-and-replicated-study-in-you-region make. No matter where you fall on the plant origin spectrum, observation is just step one.

A common argument is, again, that we've so altered the world that plant diversity is key to supporting wildlife and adapting to all the changes we've caused. That's hogwash. It's also a defense of human privilege and supremacy, aka greenwashing, and an avoidance of critical thinking and certainly empathy for other species -- and it's totally ignoring that we need to dismantle the extractive, colonizing systems that CONTINUE TO ERODE LIFE (systems of which mainstream horticulture is a part of). Was that a lot? It's in the book, and we go through it a lot slower there in those pages if you're willing to take the ride.

Native plants HELP SPECIES ADAPT TO CLIMATE DISRUPTION. It gives them a fighting chance. It gives evolution a very small window to do its thing (see book). Most species can't and won't evolve within decades as climate disruption speeds along faster and faster. But this belief that we know better (human supremacy) than millenia of co-evolution is a little absurd, disgusting, and racist toward other species. That's right. Because another thing you'll often hear is that native plant proponents are racist, practicing some sort of eugenics by privileging plant species local wildlife have evolved with. No, it's racist to violently colonize a place, to replace a culture with another, and assume you are better, that what you do is benign, and that gardens are privileged art and thus natural and thus devoid of having any sort of environmental responsibility. (Did I mention a certain book?)

For a long time horticulture has been a colonizing force -- just consider the global plant trade, or how many invasive plant species are escapees from gardens. Plants are also often named after white males who "discovered" them. It's systemic human (and white and classist)) privilege, and until horticulture reckons with its hand in colonialism -- of humans and ecoregions -- any discussion about native vs exotic plants is just a pecking on the surface (Star Wars reference!).

The real conversation about indigenous plant species is about running roughshod over other cultures, human and plant and animal, and being unwilling or unable to notice and process the repercussions because they "make us feel bad" or feel too much like "shaming" (also something you'll hear a lot in reference to climate change and social justice anything for POC or the LGBTQ community or sick people or old people). Often, when someone feels shamed it's because they're being asked to do some difficult introspection that confronts a comfortable, self-defining ideology or dogma (which can occur all over the plant origin spectrum) that, when destabilized, makes us feel unmoored and lost. Again, A New Garden Ethic flushes this all out (it was published 6 years ago and is in its fourth printing, fyi).

This is hard work. It will make us feel very uncomfortable. It's good that it does. It's natural. And it's necessary if we are to grow.
Confronting systems of privilege and power will never be without pain -- and that's exactly what native plants are about, whether we know it or not. Native plants don't bring division to horticulture -- horticulture does by privileging aesthetics for one species over what the rest of the planet needs, and doing it via violent colonization. Native plants are just the spotlight brought to bare on some uncomfortable realities we'd prefer to remain under the rug. To some, that makes native plant proponents feel doubly threatening -- not just that they are about "limiting" plant choices for a privileged species (natives aren't really limiting), but that the discussion is also about the systems in place that we lash on to which provide stability to our reality; just when we thought we had something figured out, it proves to be more complicated. But c'est la vie -- and thank god, too, because it's exciting to learn and grow. We are gardeners, after all, and the lessons never, ever end.

So I ranted. It's an opinion. A very different one, probably, and one that has irked plenty for around 10 years now. There's plenty to agree and disagree with, which I'm sure you will below -- just keep it civil please or we'll delete / close comments.

TLDR ---- Above all else I want this to be where we come together to think critically and evolve our thinking in the garden: we all value plants, we all honor and treasure them and the wildlife we see using them. But it's long past time to deeply and fully explore the ramifications of gardening, the connections it has to larger socially systemic issues within and beyond our species, and how gardening as we've known it is no longer tenable -- and that's exciting and hopeful, not something to be angry or depressed over (at least not for any longer than we have to be to cultivate change -- see the book when it explores the five stages of environmental grief and how we're all processing grief right now).

2 Comments
James McGee
9/4/2023 10:43:19 am

I do not reach your level of deep thinking. I started planting native plants to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. I then added more native plants to have different things to look at in the garden. I try to plant native species adapted for the soil and local conditions because those are the ones that do well and persist. Indeed, they have often overtaken and eliminated plants from other regions of the country I had planted.

During this spring drought, I tried to give my lawn an inch of water a week. When I got the water bill, I decided that watering the lawn is not worth it. The area where I live has not had rain in a few weeks with none forecasted soon. The lawn areas in full sun on slopes are dry and brown. In contrast, the areas where I planted prairie plants are green and full of blooming asters. Where the lawn grass dies from drought, I will plant prairie species. Not only will it look better than dead grass, I won’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on water each year trying to maintain it as lawn.

I also planted wet prairie species in an area that hold water runoff in spring. This is easier than trying to mow through standing water.

As I mow my lawn and find the chore hot, sweaty, and unpleasant, I am motivated to turn my yard into native plants a little more each year.

Reply
Bob Pickett
10/7/2023 05:34:28 pm

I couldn't agree more with just one caveat. If we, the local gardeners and landscapers only bought and planted natives then what we see available in our nurseries and garden centers, I believe, would change in a heartbeat. The horticultural trade provides for what we spend our dollars on or what they think we'll want to spend our dollars on. More and more often the native plant sections of my local garden centers is growing by leaps and bounds. That indicates to me that we are asking for and purchasing more natives. This past spring I planted about 300 sq. ft of new garden beds (yes, the lawn keeps shrinking) with only natives and was able to find every plant on the plan at my local garden centers. It probably doesn't hurt that I live an easy drive from the Native Plant Trust and Garden in the Woods here in MA. Let's put the onus on us gardeners to plant native. Convincing the majority will certainly be quite a task but by the expansion of the native plant section at my local retailers we're on the way.

P.S. Amazon just dropped off my copy of "a new garden ethic", and I'll do my part to spread the word.

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    Benjamin Vogt's thoughts on prairie gardening in Nebraska. With a healthy dose of landscape ethics, ecophilosophy, climate change,  and social justice.

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