Required reading: We are the Ark.

How to invite nature into our landscapes and why it truly matters.

Hello Everyone.

I’m a little obsessed with birdhouses right now. Listening to the mating calls that indicate territory, and watching for signs of new life is a daily practice. For you, too?

I’m also curious about where birds choose to nest, and the types of materials they weave together, tiny masterpieces from sticks and string, feathers and wool these delicate works of art are often tucked onto a precarious place. Forget the collection of fancy birdhouses, even the most glamorous birdhouses in my yard remain empty in favor of a quirky hole drilled into an old wooden box that hangs in my neighbor’s yard.

A year ago, I interviewed Bridgette Butler, the Bird Diva who offers a course on slow birding, I was fascinated to learn that what we think is going on in a  bird’s brain is not what is really going on, yet the best way to truly understand birds is to sit quietly. Without binoculars. Simply watch and listen, until it becomes a Zen experience with the avian world. Drop the notion of identification, which is what most birders care about, to simply observe.

When you let go of identification, bird calls, and other ways to understand birds, you begin to notice other things, too, which is far more important

Anyone who has taken the time to slow bird, or watch a birdhouse for signs of new life, understands why this is important. Big changes are happening in our landscape, and if we aren’t paying attention, we are not taking an active role in preserving the biodiversity that is essential to life – not just ours but every creature on the planet. An active birdhouse is a sign of a healthy landscape, what I grow in my yard feeds the young avian families

You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem. – Eldrige Cleaver

This leads me to tell you about Mary Reynolds who founded an organization called We Are the Ark. Her first book, Garden Awakening, is based on the way she designs gardens in partnership with nature,  which led her to win the prestigious award at the Chelsea Garden show, a few years back. At the time, she was a little-known landscape designer and revolutionized the concept that most gardeners now embrace: keep it wild.

I quote from her book frequently in my garden classes, and with her new book, We Are the Ark, she expands this notion further and suggests that we don’t even design a landscape, yet allow half of our yards to remain natural. In other words, she admits a touch of regret about even becoming a designer, since in many ways, designers are destined to disturb the original intention of the land.

ARK = Acts of Restorative Kindness is the opposite of what we truly should be doing when we landscape our back yards. Listen to this interview with her in the podcast Cultivating Place with Jennifer Jewell to learn more.

We Are the Ark is all about non-gardening, giving back to the land by allowing it to be more about its original state. As gardeners, we spend too much effort clearing, cleaning, weeding, spraying – and more weeding to keep our yards tidy and organized. Reynolds shares steps for how to restore a balance and re-assess our management of every individual tiny patch of the earth possible.

Then we put up fences to keep critters out, and lights to show off the garden at night, or for protection. Everything we do as human gardeners is anti-environmental when you think about it. More chemicals and herbicides and plastics are sold in garden centers than anyplace else, yet for what purpose? For us to enjoy our gardens, at the detriment of nature.

It is important that we take time to notice the connections and take responsibility for our actions. More importantly to start making changes in the way we view the landscape not as a place to control, but as a living, breathing, extension of life. It may not save the planet, but if everyone built an ark in their yard, by letting it go wild, we would all have a little more fun, too. Adding to a positive change.

Warning to future garden design clients! This book is required reading. 

From my garden to yours,

Ellen O.

Ellen Ecker Ogden is a kitchen garden designer and author of The New Heirloom Garden and The Complete Kitchen Garden, among other books for cooks who love to garden. Follow the year-round garden on Instagram.