13, March 2008 Judy Brittenum Second Nature: A Gardeners Education Written by Michael Pollan, Second Nature follows the meditations of a gardeners relationship with the earth and its nature. Pollan communicates his meditations through the learning he experienced as he started his first "real" garden. As a child, Michael grew a few plants, inspired by his grandfathers magnificent garden in Babylon, New York, but now Pollan and his wife live on a "sliver of a derelict dairy farm on the edge of the Housatonic Valley"(2) and aspire to create something out of his New England landscape. Little does he know, he not only learns a great deal about the act of gardening, but he also discovers the implications of gardening as well as its innumerable metaphors. Upon this, Pollan masters his perception of how he wants his garden to appear as well as speak. Every garden possesses a story, intentional or not, however Pollan learns to communicate though his purposefully. The book contains four major parts titled Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, all of which have accompanying chapters. In these chapters, Michael shares an episode of his garden, from planting roses and trees to catalogs and harvest. Pollan expounds upon these incidents to explain deeper meaning behind them all, such as the social hierarchy in the garden. In the first of the four segments, Spring, Pollan discusses the nature of gardens, mowing and the moral imperatives of compost. At what lengths can a
gardener protect his work before the garden proves unnatural? Through the eyes of a Romantic, battling pests, surrounding the garden with a fence, or even weeding may dub a garden unnatural, but without any protection from the gardener, surely the infestation of insects, larger animals, and weeds must dominate, suffocating out the desired plants. However, Pollan breaks down and builds a fence and hires the help of ladybugs and mantises to protect the garden. Pollan then begins to discuss the necessity of mowing his lawn. Lawns appeared in past Europe, though many of the lawns pertained only to estates, therefore establishing lawns as a social hierarchy. In America, however, lawns represent democracy and unity, a perspective influenced strongly by Frank J. Scott (58). Through this view of lawns, not many tolerate improper lawn care. One should keep his respective lawn clean-cut as everyone else, so each separate lawn flows effortlessly into the other, something very popular following the suburban boom. Pollan grows tired of mowing his rather large lot for four hours every Saturday, so he breaks from the norm and shields the lawn from roadside sight with the implementation of property-bordering hedging. With the situation of his lawn held secret, Pollan contemplates allowing the field to become a meadow. Finishing up the segment of Spring, Pollan studies the depth of compost. Compost escapes conversation of European gardens, but in American gardening, compost holds high regard. The aesthetics of European gardening overpowers the importance the moralistic American gardening attains for
compost. Pollan discusses the independence compost generates. Compost allows the gardener to solely create a healthy bed of soil. Fertilizer, rendered insignificant, may remain on the shelves. In the second segment, Summer, Pollan explores the rose garden, weeds, and the meaning of the title "Green Thumb." As Pollan flips through the pages of a catalog littered with the pictures of roses that especially caught his eye. He sees roses unfamiliar to the ones he recalls in his childhood. He gazes upon these "old fashioned" roses and decides to plant a rose garden. Upon researching the roses he picks, Pollan discovers a very distinct social hierarchy developed by the many varieties of roses. The "old fashioned" roses belong to upper class, many of which bred specifically for or by queens. As the years progress, hybrids develop, and with their flashy colors and weak immune systems, due to selective cross-breeding, become the representation of the middle class. Pollan opts for the older roses because a certain "stingy" aura the hybrids emit, as the older ones hold certain sensuality. The sexual metaphor of the roses intrigues Pollan. He believes the metaphor likely stems from the urge humans seem to possess that forces them to personify nature, and Michael finds himself equally guilty of the urge. To the Romantic, weeding a garden removes the natural aspect it would otherwise obtain. Pollan attempts to create the natural garden to find some interesting surprises. After the first summer, the wild, natural garden proves to impress Pollan. The flowers of the weeds he normally extracts show beautiful,
even as they grow alongside the flowers he purchased. The second summer sang a different song. The weeds choke out the rivaling plants and consume the flowerbed and fail to show as pleasant as before. Pollan accepts the results and ponders the true "wilderness" of weeds. He concludes, "Weeds, contrary to what the romantics assumed, are not wild. They are as much a product of cultivation as the hybrid tea rose or Thoreaus bean plants."(109) The evolution of the weed focuses one on main objective: thriving in the ground disturbed by humans. Also, many of the weeds present in America appeared as the Puritans brought them over from Europe, therefore the specific weeds become unnatural and "un-wild" to the American landscape. These so-called wild weeds now join the rest of the plants as a garden variety, just not as popular. Upon his reasoning, Pollan continues to weed his garden. The title of "green thumb" entails much more than simply being able to garden and is not exclusive to a privileged few. The name is one that someone rarely designates to oneself to avoiding sounding too proud. A gardener blessed with the green thumb understands the wants and needs of each of his plants and works hard to learn what he lacks in knowledge. Green thumbs only appear to have a knack for gardening because of their extensive experiences with gardening. Pollan explores the harvest, planting a tree and the idea of a garden in the Fall section of the book. He discusses the dangers of harvest time as the frost of fall may strike as early as August and ruin the entire garden of crops. One must
instinctively know when to harvest the crops to prevent losing anything. As he harvests his garden Pollan becomes downtrodden hoping to extend the life of his garden longer, but after careful consideration, he realizes that the garden needs a break in order to keep the soil from being completely exhausted. So he walks out of the garden the final time in autumn and he decides, "I leave the gate open behind me."(149), as if to say that he understands and respects the schedule of the garden, so he leaves the rest of the crops in reach of the animals. For some time, Michael contemplates planting a tree in his yard and finally decides the time is right. He desires to plant a larger tree to provide shade in the seemingly harsh landscape. After long meditation and solid advise from the nursery owner, Pollan selects a tree and locates the appropriate site for his new tree. He selects a spot along a path between the house and barn that would allow the tree to be seen from many areas of the property. As he prepares the hole for the tree, Pollan begins pondering the significance of trees in the past and wonders what their importance might signify in the future. Just as our conservative views of today differ from the forest-clearing virtues of our ancestors, how might attitudes toward trees change further? Pollan then discusses several metaphorical trees; the "Political," "Romantic," "Colonial," "Utilitarian" and "Puritan" trees. Again, Pollan wonders what metaphors hold for the futures trees, hoping for one that puts "our relationship to nature on a sounder footing at last." (175)
Pollan begins to reflect on the devastating effects of a tornado on the Cathedral Pines, a government designated national natural landscape. The tornado tore through the pines, leaving behind a trail fallen white pines and sparking a large controversy on what to do with the fallen lumber. As the Nature Conservancy deliberates the fate of the fallen trees, Pollan imagines the results of a few different, possible decisions. Leaving the down pine and completely separating any human intervention could possibly alter the forest altogether, but to the naturalists, any "help" from the humans would dub the landscape unnatural. However, leaving the land unaltered can lead to certain deterioration and collapse, consequently ruining the natural landscape. So just how far can man go without disrespecting the wilderness but also aid in conserving the nature? A question that is likely to remain unanswerable due to the varying perspectives of the people. The Winter section wraps up the book with discussion on garden catalogs and the relationship between man and his land. Pollan describes the differences of the gardening magazines he reads, and asserts how each catalog portrays a garden with dissimilar aesthetic and metaphorical views. He then questions which one he falls into and whether or not he feels if their views on the garden coincide. Deciding what to do with ones land can prove to be a difficult assessment. Some options do not hold as high regard as others do. Pollan asserts, "... to ,,design it according to your own taste or fancy is to turn your back on the
community..."(229) However, the choice remains in the evaluation of the individual gardener. Pollan feels one should shield the garden from the "motorists gaze"(230) and create a space that relates the gardener to his respective garden. Pollan finishes the chapter, along with the book as a whole, with the landscape of his own design. He reveals the empowerment and satisfaction of truly gardening. I thoroughly enjoyed Michael Pollans writings. His experiences and reflections inspire me to become a gardener like himself, one that ventures beyond simply burying a seed and admiring the growth and to truly desire to garden. I aspire to be able to appreciate the history of each plant I grow and further understand my relationship with the earth and nature.
Works Cited Pollan, Michael. Second Nature. New York: Grove Press, 1991.