going native

"we are unlikely to achieve anything close to sustainability in any area unless we work for the broader goal of becoming native in the modern world, and that means becoming native to our places in a coherent community that is, in turn, embedded in the ecological realities of its surrounding landscape." wes jackson,__________________________________________________ "going native" was a pejorative in the victorian imperial age...a sort of cultural treason...i am trying as hard as i can to become more native here and, perhaps, i am more native than i was four years ago...i certainly seem to be thinking and behaving differently these days...the back yard is an experiment in learning about what can and cannot be done as far as food crops go i n that limited space...what can i produce with sunlight, water, and soil? i don't suspect i will ever be able to achieve anything close to subsistence...but i can learn ( lots of trial and error out there amongst the research )and share what i learn...which is what the community garden is about...learning to be a part of "a coherent community" rather than the detached observer...and sharing with anyone who wants the knowledge or help and accepting learning and help in turn...there are native plants in my back yard...the jerusalem artichokes and the ginseng ( i hope )and the lambs quarters in the second photo...the hopi blue maize in the top photo and the asparagus in the third...the zea diploperennis in the fourth ( okay..not a food crop...but an ancestor and a really cool plant ) and the nascent turnip in the bottom photo are all imports...part of learning about the ecological realities" of my back yard...what works...what doesn't...what produces...learning and sharing...the whys and wherefores of this blog...more as it comes up.