Planting a Self Conserving Native Landscape
In the beginning, the gardening I practiced was largely, often completely, a foisting of my human will on the land. It rarely allowed, it routinely imposed. I continued that practice for many years, then I brought its habits to Chattanooga Valley when I settled here …
Nipped in the Bud Some 20 years ago I wrote a short, provocative letter to the editor of the Fredericksburg, Virginia, Free Lance Star. A defense of organic farmers, it was my first letter to an editor, and I had little expectation that it would …
Written in Gratitude to Robin Wall Kimmerer Mother Yards Six years ago, I bought into a landscape that was overrun with invasive plants. I was daunted when I pondered their removal, but certitude slowly withered the pondering and I began removing them, sometimes by bits, …
Legacy My Flintstone, Georgia, house was built in 1951 by Martha and Jack Pinion. Almost everyone in this small community knew them, and everyone knew the Pinions’ house. That’s in part because Martha worked but a short walk from here, just past the end of …
Three clear intentions initiated and guided my landscape restoration: to remove invasive and other undesirable plants, to replace them with native plants, and, always, to return the land’s organic matter to the soil. I am carrying out these intentions, no doubt, but other intentions, fashioned …