Native Plant Books by Indigenous Knowledge-Keepers

For most of the 30 years that I’ve been writing books about native plant gardening, I’ve participated in the settler erasure of Indigenous knowledge by neither engaging with nor acknowledging the millennia of wisdom held by Inidgenous communities and knowledge keepers.

In the past few years, I’ve been learning from Indigenous writers’ books and from Indigenous earth-workers. The following are just a few of the books I’ve been learning from:

Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer: I am always reading this book! I think I’m on my fourth session with it…The subtitle opens up so much: “Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.” Weaving stories and science, grounded in love, this book celebrates reciprocity and deep, respectful relationship with the earth and all the beings with whom we share this home.

Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have To Do is Ask, edited by Wendy Makoons Geniusz

Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have To Do is Ask, edited by Wendy Makoons Geniusz: Written by the editor’s late mother, this book shares Anishinaabe teachings about plants, not as individual “specimens” but as woven in a richy animate fabric. Full of stories, cultural teachings, information about medicines, and with a section of recipes, this is a book to return to over and over.

Medicines to Help Us: Traditional Métis Plant Use, by Christi Belcourt

Medicines to Help Us: Traditional Métis Plant Use, by Christi Belcourt: Honouring the personality and spirit of each plant, in this gorgeous full-colour book artist Christ Belcourt explores the 27 plants in her painting Medicines to Help Us, sharing traditional Métis medicinal knowledge and the healing power of these wild plants. The book includes an essay by Elder Rose Richardson.

Community Help

One of the most gratifying things about my Sedges Instead project is the way that neighbours have become involved.

Baillie, who first told me about this boulevard and how perfect it would be for Sedges Instead, offered me the use of her outdoor tap, about 100 feet away. Lugging watering cans takes some time, but I’m grateful, as are the young seedlings.

Florinda, who lives right across the street from the Sedges Instead project and who has a gorgeous flower garden, drags her hose to the sidewalk whenever she sees me, and together we shower the sedge beds from across the street—causing a few people in cars to wonder why it’s “raining” as they pass.

Another fellow came over with a packet of Heavenly Blue Morning Glory seeds and planted them in a concrete planter on the wall.

Mike, who lives a block away, was curious about who to speak with at the City so he could do something similar.

Sahar, who just moved into a house on the street, would like to adopt a section of the boulevard for vegetable growing.

I’m hopeful that by next year, this neglected boulevard will be full of people tending public plantings!

The boulevard in May, prior to creating the Sedges Instead beds.

A Day of Damage

Tending to public spaces is often uncertain work. Arrived at the Portland Place Pollinator Patch today to find that a branch of the young redbud tree had been snapped off and two sections of the garden trampled down.

There were empty alcohol bottles nearby, and I think someone passed out on the plants.

Here’s how this patch looked a few weeks ago, pre-trampling.

A reminder, if one were needed, that nobody and nowhere is okay until everyone is okay.

Small Space Gardening

I’m inspired every time I go past this planting.

Such lush food production from a small space on a busy street.