The Common Land

Think of gardens and you think of benefits to people and wildlife. But a closer look reveals a more complicated story about the plants, the materials, and the effects of commonly accepted stewardship practices.

Gardens are often connected with buildings so the urge to tend them with the same mindset makes sense. To care for a floor is to keep it clean. Trim lawns mimic this sense of order. Seasonal trends influence gardens too. Hybrid flowers are the fast fashion of planters and borders. They are perfect, eye-catching, and temporary. But the ornamental appeal disguises what is missing. All life depends on plants and wild land is now in terribly short supply. Deep concern is beginning to transform the way gardens are made and tended. Wilderness, and the complex, varied, unpredictable life it supports, will be the new guiding principle of gardening.

All gardening, urban, suburban, and rural, is implicated in this shift.  For example, potting soil is ubiquitous in garden centers. Peat moss, the primary ingredient, comes from bogs which formed over thousands of years and absorb as much carbon as rainforests. Losing them, the species they sustain, or the broader climate implications of raw material mining does not come to mind. I speak for myself. Over the years, I purchased thousands of bags of potting mix and garden soil for my clients.

New, wild gardens are taking shape. The result is lower cost, less work and vast improvement for wildlife. However, there is still a huge commercial infrastructure devoted to the old materials and practices. With that come a vast array of products and marketing pressure to keep gardens tidy and stylish.

The Common Land explores the garden industry based on decades of experience in the trade.  As a practitioner, I want to fully understand the consequences of commonly accepted gardening practices and I hope to make a convincing case for the changes ahead.  Rewilding is the future.

Photo credit: Hannah Edmunds