Creating Ecosystem Ark Gardens

Recreating and preserving ecosystems are effective ways of enabling nature to preserve itself, but setting up such environments often results in fairly stable, low-maintenance yards that for some people just don’t satisfy the need to roll up the sleeves and garden. In seeking an outlet for an abundance of creative energy, both active gardeners and frustrated conservationists might consider adopting this guiding concept: the garden as ark, a la Noah himself. The idea here is to seek out and save plant species—both wild and domestic—that are threatened with extinction. Raise then in a garden designed especially to allow them to thrive, safe from the rigors of an advancing civilization seemingly bent on stamping them out. The challenge and excitement of rescuing and growing a rare orchid or caring for an endangered rose that was once grown in ancient Rome give zest to gardening.

“What would my grandfather do?”

It’s big things, and small things. I don’t know if these qualities come from growing up in the Depression, being a hard working man, not growing up in the computer age, or just learning to be a good person. But for my grandfather, every decision matters, to ourselves, our family, our friends, our communities, and the world as a whole.