Meeting my plant neighbours
Do you know the names of the plants that line your garden path? Do you say hello and greet them by name as you dash to work or saunter off to meet a friend? Likely, no. And, why would you?! It sounds a little weird when viewed through the lens of the Western culture, that praises technology more than our ancient green friends.
As I’ve spoken about before, I’ve found myself more and more drawn to nature over the last six months. A series of discoveries, like little joys, have toppled like dominoes, leading me a bit closer to a life that lives side-by-side with nature, enthralled by both the mundane and wondrous parts (don’t get me wrong, I still scroll on my phone, snack excessively on tortilla chips, and forget to bother looking out of the window!).
Robert McFarlane, author and lover of all things natural and wild, wrote a book called The Lost Words to bring back nature words into children’s lives after many were cut from the dictionary. He calls it ‘re-wilding’ language – a beautiful word and notion. Words such as acorn, bluebell and conker were cut and replaced with broadband, blog and cut-and-paste. A crying shame!
Part of my own re-wilding has included learning the names of some of my plant neighbours. I like saying hi to them by name when I wake up or go off for a day of sitting behind my screen.
So, meet my lovely plant neighbours:
