Plantarchy - Tumblr Posts
My promise to myself and the land this year is to aggressively help native plants reclaim the barren city scapes I have access to. I don’t care if it’s ripped up again six months later. I will try.
listen...Plants Are Free. an acorn will become a tree. Fallen leaves will become rich soil. The wild creatures and plants will come. You don't have to give them money.
I say this, not to deny that land, soil, seeds, and water are all made into commodities, but as a WAY OF RESISTANCE
The plants are your allies. They are fighting back every day, endlessly, clawing to return to the pavement and hard eroded ground, the abandoned lots and gravel piles left behind by the pointless and endless pursuit of profit. They are giving us seeds and nuts and acorns as gifts. The dandelions and blackberries are given to us freely by abandoned and neglected ground. Here, take this fruit and eat. Here, take these acorns and plant them. Here, take these leaves and protect and build the soil. Rest in my shade. Breathe my breath.
What do we do to survive the horrible machine, the wasteland, the all-devouring dragon? Listen to the plants. Observe them closely, learn their ways, and all of us, each of us, do the smallest things we can to be caretakers—grow and distribute the seeds, learn the names of trees and common wildflowers, protect the smallest patches of resistance in neglected corners of our neighborhoods. Take photos of any plant not planted by human hands, honoring the dignity of weeds. In the future, there will be no word for "gardener," because we will all be caretakers to whatever small or great extent we can.
In the future, children will think our ways are strange. "Why do old people always grow so much milkweed in their gardens?" they'll say. "Why do old people always write down when the first bees and butterflies show up? Why do old people hate lawn grass so much? Why do old people like to sit outside and watch bees?"
We will try to explain to them that when we were young, most people's yards were almost entirely short grass with barely any flowers at all, and it was so commonplace to spray poisons to kill insects and weeds that it was feared monarch butterflies and American bumblebees would soon go extinct. We will show them pictures of sidewalks, shops, and houses surrounded by empty grass without any flowers or vegetables and they will stare at them like we stared at pictures of grimy children working in coal mines