I’ve been compiling this long list of places, people, studios, articles in the world of plants/design/landscape/ecology/food. It’s in a google doc simply titled, “Things of Note.” Every time I come across an article, or a new book, I add it to the list. I felt it was time that I turn that long list into something a little more organized and digestible. So think of this as a type of newsletter perhaps… monthly, or maybe even more frequently, where I distill a few of the things I’m consuming related to the natural world. So, here’s Volume I. Enjoy.
Attention is the beginning of devotion.
-Mary Oliver, Upstream
WILD SEED PROJECT
What: A Portland, Maine-based organization with a mission to return native plants to the landscape. Their site is full of interesting content and information on native plants, as well as the pollinators, wildlife, and habitats that native landscapes help to preserve. They define Native Plants as “species of trees, shrubs, vines, wildflowers, grasses and ferns that grew in eastern North America before Colonial times and co-evolved, over millennia, with the region’s animals, insects, amphibians, bacteria and fungi. Many of these native plants depend on one another for survival, and their interrelationships help sustain ecosystems.”
Check out: Their magazines. I ordered a few previous issues through their online shop and just received them in the mail. Wild Seed just put out its 6th Volume, but they all have really informative and well-written content that would satisfy anyone curious about – in addition to native plants themselves – insects and pollinators, birds, landscape design, fungi and old-growth forests, and landscape restoration. The first article in Volume 5 of Wild Seed is a great read by historical ecologist Kerry Hardy. Here’s an excerpt, towards the end of “Same Place, Different Land,” that hits home:
“We can still catch glimpses of former landscapes–such as a pocket of blue-eyed grass in a field, or false Solomon’s seal along its edge. Autumn meadows still glow with goldenrod, silverrod and asters, bordered by colorful blueberry, blackberry, huckleberry and staghorn sumac. But so much has gone missing and been forgotten.
Ecologists refer to this as ‘shifting baselines,’ where each new generation takes the diminished health and complexity of an ecosystem as normal, never realizing the profusion of life and the diversity that once flourished.”
A stack of Wild Seed.
READING THE FORESTED LANDSCAPE
What: A book by ecologist Tom Wessels that’s like searching for clues at the scene of a crime – except, these clues consist of moss and lichen covering a tree stump. And you’re not looking for a murderer, per se, but rather unraveling the mystery of all the factors, both human and natural, that influence the way a landscape looks today.
Check out: The section on “nurse logs” (Chapter 6: Cradles and Pillows). It’s a fascinating dissection into how fallen trees, seemingly void of all life, can become sites of new growth. Another interesting tidbit: if you’ve walked through a forest and seen a single tree that splits into multiple different trunks, that could be a sign of logging. But probably my favorite aspect of this book is the way it’s illustrated. The etchings by Brian D. Cohen, in addition to being more informative and detailed than photographs, have this uncanny, quiet vibe about them that really makes you look.
A beech tree grows on a nurse log in the forested landscape of Manitoga / The Russel Wright Design Center in Garrison, NY.
HOW A COLLEGE FINAL BECAME A LESSON IN SURVIVAL
What: If you have 5 minutes, read this article from the New York Times about an unconventional assignment a professor gave to his students: “Go outside and take a photo of the natural world.” It’s timely, and a reminder that some comfort and respite can be found all around us when we pay a little more attention.
Check out: An excerpt from the author/professor, Daniel Mason, on some of the photos that were shared by his students:
“There was a waterfall from the hills of Georgia; a pasture in Venus, Texas; budding magnolias in New Jersey. A student in Nome, Alaska, posted a bare cottonwood covered with snow. An Australian student shared a gum tree blooming after the wildfires there. There were sunrises in California and roadside mushrooms. Snow-filled woods and fruiting lemons. A standoff between a dog and lizard on a bright green lawn. A southern stingray from the Gulf of Mexico. Fritillaries, songbirds. A Carolina swamp. And the same sky in Ohio and Delaware as out the window of my room.”
As for what’s outside in my natural world, here’s some Sugar Magnolia Snap Peas from the Hudson Valley Seed Company, breaking through the soil in my planter.
Sugar Magnolia Snap Peas emerging. I will need to build a trellis for them to climb on, soon.