Status Updates From Second Nature: A Gardener's...

“To plant trees,” Russell Page wrote in his memoir, “is to give body and life to one’s dreams of a better world.”

Lawns, I am convinced, are a symptom of, and a metaphor for, our skewed relationship to the land. They teach us that, with the help of petrochemicals and technology, we can bend nature to our will. Lawns stoke our hubris with regard to the land.

“The more serious about gardening I became, the more dubious lawns seemed… Gardening was a subtle process of give and take with the landscape, a search for some middle ground between culture and nature. A lawn was nature under culture’s boot…Mowing the lawn, I felt like I was battling the earth rather than working it”

Me trying to convince Brett to get rid of the lawn and plant more plants….