Find the Gardeners

These inquiries into the relationship between nature, the garden, and humans call for a new way of working with rather than against natural systems. As Carolyn Merchant says in her chapter about Partnerships, “A new ethic entails a new consciousness and a new discourse about nature. Living with and communicating with nature opens the possibility of nondominating, nonhierarchical modes of interaction between humanity and nature.” (Merchant, 2013)

This body of work suggests that the new consciousness lies between masculine and feminine energies. That is where the gardeners exist - a third space. One that embraces and can balance the two sides of the same mind. A third space creates a space between masculinity and femininity combined in a mesh to form a new type of attitude. (Soja, 1996) James Corner wrote in an essay from 2006 about terra fluxus. “The designation terra firma (firm, not changing; fixed and definite) gives way in favor of shifting processes coursing through and across the urban field: terra fluxus.” (Corner, 2006) This describes a way of working more fluidly and dynamically, considering both the predictable and the unpredictable.

This balancing act can happen at all scales of a garden, from a small patio garden where the gardener has to embody both genders to the scale of a city where the team in charge of intervention has to embody both as a group. Some group members will have to give weight to the masculine side, while others must speak up for the feminine.

In order to design with nature for the betterment of the garden (our planet), we have to approach projects from an empathetic side. It is helpful to pay attention to the work just as the weeding women did and to stay curious like Eve. When it is time to make a move, the hero comes along, and Adam steps in. It is important, though, that after an intervention is made, we return to Eve and continue caring for the garden after implementation.

As collaborators with the natural world, our primary medium is time. As Clément says in his final words of The Wisdom of a Gardener,