Comments on: on lantana’s new nature http://www.weedyconnection.com/blog/2007/09/14/on-lantanas-new-nature/ Re-interpreting the status of un-wanted botanical species Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:35:47 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Eat The Suburbs! » Making weedy connections http://www.weedyconnection.com/blog/2007/09/14/on-lantanas-new-nature/comment-page-1/#comment-2081 Eat The Suburbs! » Making weedy connections Sun, 04 Nov 2007 11:02:39 +0000 http://www.weedyconnection.com/blog/2007/09/14/on-lantanas-new-nature/#comment-2081 [...] Seeing weeds as wild nature. This I think I all got from David. Perhaps I was tied up somewhat in the nativist assumptions that we must protect nature’s essentially pristine and static quality. because I felt some liberation when I broadened my view of nature, when I began seeing weeds as most often healing damaged landscapes. (I like that Tim Low lantana quote on your site). Now I see nature as dynamic and self-recreating, not something to be ‘protected’ by locking it up, untouched, like a museum piece. Novel and fascinating new guilds and ecosystems emerge out of indigenous and non-indigenous species (ecosynthesis). Many people hate weeds no doubt because they themselves feel like part of an invasive species. There’s guilt, and an attempt to right wrongs, but the expression of this urge is tragically counterproductive. [...] [...] Seeing weeds as wild nature. This I think I all got from David. Perhaps I was tied up somewhat in the nativist assumptions that we must protect nature’s essentially pristine and static quality. because I felt some liberation when I broadened my view of nature, when I began seeing weeds as most often healing damaged landscapes. (I like that Tim Low lantana quote on your site). Now I see nature as dynamic and self-recreating, not something to be ‘protected’ by locking it up, untouched, like a museum piece. Novel and fascinating new guilds and ecosystems emerge out of indigenous and non-indigenous species (ecosynthesis). Many people hate weeds no doubt because they themselves feel like part of an invasive species. There’s guilt, and an attempt to right wrongs, but the expression of this urge is tragically counterproductive. [...]

]]> By: weedyconnection » on interviewing adam http://www.weedyconnection.com/blog/2007/09/14/on-lantanas-new-nature/comment-page-1/#comment-2060 weedyconnection » on interviewing adam Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:34:55 +0000 http://www.weedyconnection.com/blog/2007/09/14/on-lantanas-new-nature/#comment-2060 [...] What about your foraging practice? Why did you start to look at weeds with different eyes? My interest in weeds and foraging stems from fear, and a desire to be less dependent on the industrial food chain as I learn more about how tenuous and destructive it is. There are other reasons too: * when supplementing my diet with fresh greens, seeds and fruit from foraging, I am living with less money, so I can work less. * gardening becomes less of a battle, as things like chickweed, fat hen, amaranth, purslane, dandelion, milk thistle, fennel and nettle become welcome into my garden. A weed can be defined as ‘a plant that is not valued where it is growing’. A ‘useful weed’ is an oxymoron. There are two ways of weeding — one with your hands, the other with your mind. * when I forage I am exploring the neglected and wild areas of the city and country, and finding value where others see none. This is a beautiful thing. I love the weedscapes of the merri creek. * I begin to feel like I’m living in my environment, not just on top of it. When you recognise the plants around you, when you eat some of them, and return nutrients to the soil (i compost my shit too) you become integrated as a functional part of an ecosystem. There is a new level of information filling your vision as you walk around. Seeing weeds as wild nature. This I think I all got from David. Perhaps I was tied up somewhat in the nativist assumptions that we must protect nature’s essentially pristine and static quality. because I felt some liberation when I broadened my view of nature, when I began seeing weeds as most often healing damaged landscapes. (I like that Tim Low lantana quote on your site). Now I see nature as dynamic and self-recreating, not something to be ‘protected’ by locking it up, untouched, like a museum piece. Novel and fascinating new guilds and ecosystems emerge out of indigenous and non-indigenous species (ecosynthesis). Many people hate weeds no doubt because they themselves feel like part of an invasive species. There’s guilt, and an attempt to right wrongs, but the expression of this urge is tragically counterproductive. We destroy self-healing landscapes and try to impose native-only species using military-industrial machinery and toxins. In fact, conditions have changed: pollutants now enter the system, the soil has been washed away, the climate is changing rapidly, the people that used to live in and manage the system were destroyed by genocide, and the megafauna were lost only a few millenia ago — but we think we can force nature back to an imagined and non-existent past. If instead we can see weeds as part of nature, and value their vigor and productivity, we can continue to identify with them, but change our philosophy about our potential ecological relationship with this damaged country. We are indeed like weeds, and we can heal the land too. [...] [...] What about your foraging practice? Why did you start to look at weeds with different eyes? My interest in weeds and foraging stems from fear, and a desire to be less dependent on the industrial food chain as I learn more about how tenuous and destructive it is. There are other reasons too: * when supplementing my diet with fresh greens, seeds and fruit from foraging, I am living with less money, so I can work less. * gardening becomes less of a battle, as things like chickweed, fat hen, amaranth, purslane, dandelion, milk thistle, fennel and nettle become welcome into my garden. A weed can be defined as ‘a plant that is not valued where it is growing’. A ‘useful weed’ is an oxymoron. There are two ways of weeding — one with your hands, the other with your mind. * when I forage I am exploring the neglected and wild areas of the city and country, and finding value where others see none. This is a beautiful thing. I love the weedscapes of the merri creek. * I begin to feel like I’m living in my environment, not just on top of it. When you recognise the plants around you, when you eat some of them, and return nutrients to the soil (i compost my shit too) you become integrated as a functional part of an ecosystem. There is a new level of information filling your vision as you walk around. Seeing weeds as wild nature. This I think I all got from David. Perhaps I was tied up somewhat in the nativist assumptions that we must protect nature’s essentially pristine and static quality. because I felt some liberation when I broadened my view of nature, when I began seeing weeds as most often healing damaged landscapes. (I like that Tim Low lantana quote on your site). Now I see nature as dynamic and self-recreating, not something to be ‘protected’ by locking it up, untouched, like a museum piece. Novel and fascinating new guilds and ecosystems emerge out of indigenous and non-indigenous species (ecosynthesis). Many people hate weeds no doubt because they themselves feel like part of an invasive species. There’s guilt, and an attempt to right wrongs, but the expression of this urge is tragically counterproductive. We destroy self-healing landscapes and try to impose native-only species using military-industrial machinery and toxins. In fact, conditions have changed: pollutants now enter the system, the soil has been washed away, the climate is changing rapidly, the people that used to live in and manage the system were destroyed by genocide, and the megafauna were lost only a few millenia ago — but we think we can force nature back to an imagined and non-existent past. If instead we can see weeds as part of nature, and value their vigor and productivity, we can continue to identify with them, but change our philosophy about our potential ecological relationship with this damaged country. We are indeed like weeds, and we can heal the land too. [...]

]]> By: info http://www.weedyconnection.com/blog/2007/09/14/on-lantanas-new-nature/comment-page-1/#comment-1458 info Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:25:02 +0000 http://www.weedyconnection.com/blog/2007/09/14/on-lantanas-new-nature/#comment-1458 thanks Milkwood, great review! thanks Milkwood,
great review!

]]> By: kirsten bradley http://www.weedyconnection.com/blog/2007/09/14/on-lantanas-new-nature/comment-page-1/#comment-1355 kirsten bradley Sat, 22 Sep 2007 05:49:42 +0000 http://www.weedyconnection.com/blog/2007/09/14/on-lantanas-new-nature/#comment-1355 heya mista - just a note that Pat Collins has some very good stuff to say on lantana - i reviewed her here: http://www.milkwood.net/resources/reviews/book-review-useful-weeds-at-our-doorstep---pat-collins.html yay for uninvited habitats - xk heya mista – just a note that Pat Collins has some very good stuff to say on lantana – i reviewed her here:
http://www.milkwood.net/resources/reviews/book-review-useful-weeds-at-our-doorstep—pat-collins.html

yay for uninvited habitats – xk

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