BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO STEWARDSHIP GARDENING: A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO BACKYARD CONSERVATION
1 - INTRODUCTION WITH HISTORY
To first understand what a stewardship garden is or why we need one, let's look at gardens throughout history starting from a Biblical perspective.
Garden of Eden
When God created the Earth, he created the Garden of Eden and placed in it the first man and the first woman, Adam and Eve. They were first commanded to “fill the Earth and subdue it, and have dominion over [it]” (Genesis 1:28a). Specifically, Adam's role was to work the garden and to keep it (Genesis 2:15).
As far as what specific tasks Adam performed in the garden isn't entirely clear. The scholars at Ligonier Ministries teach the work of Adam in subduing the Earth was to glorify God by tending to it and defending it. Adam's role in the garden implies that of kingship serving under the High King, God (Gilbert). Many may get thrown off, or offended, by the thought of Homo sapiens “having dominion” or “subduing”; however, a consistent theme throughout the Bible is that of a good king who cares for his kingdom. One can look to Jesus Christ’s servant leadership for a better understanding.
Adam's role in the garden is consistent with Stewardship. Man, Homo sapiens, isn't called to do whatever we want with the Earth. We're called to work it in a manner that glorifies God. Sadly, Adam failed in his role. In Genesis 3 we see Adam and Eve eating fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This act was something God specifically told Adam not to do. In so doing, Adam and Eve sinned against God, resulting in their eternal death and leading to the Fall of Man (Gilbert, Ligonier).
We see the repercussions of this sin in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve and their descendants would deal with a cursed Earth. From that point forward working the ground would be painful, tedious (thorns and thistles now exist), and difficult (“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” verses 17-19).
Ancient Agriculture
These three repercussions are seen in the Paleolithic Age of our history. Paleolithic Man were hunter gatherers, they had no gardens! As nomads, they would forage (more like scavenge) local plants and hunt local wildlife. Life was arduous. Slowly, man would domesticate animals into livestock; plants were similarly domesticated. This agricultural revolution brought Man into the Neolithic Age. Man began to form and build permanent settlements. This was the dawn of civilization (AA p. 20).
Gardens during this time were primarily centered around agriculture. Ancient Middle East (Mesopotamia) saw the domestication of wheat. The invention of the plow made farming easier, further advancing ancient societies (AA p. 30-31). Neolithic Chinese and Mesopotamians discovered they could make clothing from fabric with the loom, no longer were animal skins needed for clothing, it could be harvested from animal hair or plant fibers, or from cocoons of silkworms (AA p. 38, 55-57).
Thanks to Ancient Man, today we are able to enjoy much of our food. Approximately 60% of our plant food today was domesticated in the Americas (AA p. 63). Even some of our modern pest control practices come from Ancient Man. Near the turn of the millennium Chinese farmers began to employ biological pest control practices. From praying mantises and carnivorous ants to crushed flowers, we see how early Man learned to keep and defend his crops against pests (AA, p. 52-53).
Productivity to Kingly Pleasure
Over time, gardens grew to become more extravagant. To understand man's use of the garden for the aesthetic benefit, we can look to the garden of the ancient King Senacherrib of Assyria, in Nineveh - in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia. Archaeologist Stephanie Dalley argues this is the garden many texts incorrectly refer to as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world (Zekic).
This garden was so massive it required aqueducts and canals to transport water from about 50 kilometers away; it included orchards, game parks, and exotic gardens. It also utilized advanced technology like a water screw for irrigation (British Museum). Luxurious gardens like this were only built by nobles and royalty - those with the status and ability to fund such projects.
Pleasure gardens grew evermore popular as the centuries progressed. It was common for nobles, feudal lords, and especially royalty to have land set aside for the conservation of game for hunting. In France, ten-year-old prince Louis XIII was hunting with his father, King Henri IV out of their hunting château located 6 miles north of a small village called Versailles. He enjoyed the area so much, in his early 20s, he began to purchase up land to form a hunting estate, much like many other monarchs would (Spawforth, p. 2).
In 17th century France, King Louis XIII’s son King Louis XIV transformed the large estate from a large hunting retreat to a pleasure palace. Relocating entire villages so they no longer obstruct the view, he filled the massive grounds (2,000 acres) with fountains, plants in geometric shapes, sculptures, and the tepis vert (green carpet or lawn). His chief aim was to impress and entertain (Spawforth, p. 4-5).
The French citizenry filled with ideas of the Enlightenment often critiqued Louis XIV's style negatively. However, after experiencing a civil war, King Louis “believed passionately that glory and magnificence constituted the greatness of kings and that France needed a great king to rebuild respect for the monarchy” (Spawforth, p. 26). In 17th century France, Roman antiquity was highly valued and the Holy Roman Empire was a chief rival of France. Many of the French kings, including Louis XIV sought to conquer and take the imperial title for their own (Spawforth, p. 27).
This luxurious, pristine style of gardening was the epitome of social status. This popular style was widely accepted, and one could say expected, amongst Europe's elites. A similar style was adopted in England and its respective colonies. This view shifted in the infant nation of the United States after it gained independence from Britain.
Pleasure Gardens of the Republic
During the American Revolution era, the Founding Fathers embraced gardening as a form of national, American identity (specifically George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison whom I will refer to collectively as the Four Fathers). America was founded on the ideals of wealth and prosperity for the individual, gardening was a direct representation of those ideals. Andrea Wulf writes,
“Golden cornfields and endless rows of cotton plants became symbols for America's economic independence from Britain; towering trees became a reflection of a strong and vigorous nation; native species were imbued with patriotism and proudly planted in gardens,” (p. 4).
George Washington's Mount Vernon was inherited as a British plantation. A member of the upper ranks of Virginia's society (and of the new nation) Washington’s estate reflected this status. However, he wanted it to be the estate of a revolutionary! Therefore, he would pick native trees and shrubs from his woods and have them transplanted to his front yard, encircling the common bowling green. His use of natives was unique as most British colonists wanted to replicate their “home” gardens and import plants from England. His father-in-law John Custis would have never considered using plants as abundant as those in the wilderness, as if they were weeds. Washington’s ornamental garden was the first in the colonies to use almost exclusively native trees and shrubs, it was indeed revolutionary (Wulf, p. 19-22).
Future presidents Jefferson and Adams, while in England for political business, toured many English gardens. Jefferson particularly admired Wooburn Farm which combined the practicality and functionality of a farm with the traditional English ornamental style. Jefferson envisioned this to be representative of America, both beautiful and bountiful.
Adams and Jefferson were attracted to Stowe Garden by Lord Cobham. Politically, Jefferson embraced individual liberties, and he wanted a garden which juxtaposed the intricate, lavish gardens of Louis XIV which represented tyrannical rule (p. 47). Similarly, Adams believed Americans should avoid the hedonism and individual gratification of Europe. He said the only foundation for their Republic was civic duty and public virtue rather than personal indulgences of luxury (p. 49).
During an excursion through the Virginia countryside, Jefferson and Madison admired much of the scenery and plants. A theme of favoring patriotic gardens was common amongst the Fathers, Jefferson and Madison wanted to popularize sugar maples to boost the American agricultural economy and become self-sufficient on sugar, and an exporter of it (p. 90-95).
The Four Fathers were all passionate about innovative agriculture. Jefferson's own vegetable garden was a research garden after all. Washington and Adams especially were frustrated with common farmers killing the soil, they both were advocates and innovators for use of fertilizers such as manure or seaweed, and the use of rotation crops. They were eager to learn new techniques to share with their fellow countrymen. They believed the small, independent farmers were the pillars of American society as the guardians of liberty (p. 114-117).
During retirement, Madison was vocal about the balance of nature and the need for man to not be destructive and work with nature (p. 206-207). Of the Four Fathers, Madison had the most formal yard. He had hired a French-trained gardener and an English-trained gardener, he wanted his garden to reflect the new American prosperity of his two terms. (p. 196-197)
Altogether, the Four Fathers merged their gardening styles with their political ideals. They all cast aside the incredibly formal gardens of their British colonial ancestry, adopting the use of both American natives and farming in their landscapes. What did remain however was the usage of the pristine lawn (or bowling green), in some cases grandiose, to accentuate their social status.
Modern Lawnscapes
The embrace of the lawn that was adopted by the Founding Fathers was also adopted by the general public. Lawns came to represent success and stability; the prosperity, liberty, and wealth of the individual the Founding Fathers emulated. These values grew to be known as the American Dream.
Ecologists cite a study to try to explain why humans in general prefer landscapes similar to a savannah. The idea is because our ancient ancestors felt safe in these more open environments (Tallamy, 56). To expand on this, as American pioneers immigrated into the Western Frontier, they had to “conquer” the wilderness, most began family farms which did need protection. This involved intensive clearing in some areas, or alterations of prairies to farmland. Given Man's past as hunter gatherers and eventual farmers, which we also see in the early days of the American Republic, this might be the case. Doctor Austin Perlmutter suggests our modern lawn creates a sense of order enabling us to feel successful and safe from a chaotic world, much like a moat around a castle.
Today, the United States is covered in more than 40 million acres of lawn. According to the EPA 40-60 percent of the fertilizer applied to American lawns ends of in our water. Altogether, Americans spend a collective 3 billion (yes that's a B) hours tending their lawns. Ecologically, lawns produce the least amount of biological activity - they are something conservationists refer to as an ecological dead space, or wasteland (Tallamy, p. 47-48). This is particularly concerning given the Living Planet Index shows a 73% decline in vertebrate populations from 1970 to 2020.
Stewardship Gardening
Now that we have a decent grasp of gardening through the ages, we can circle back to Man's roots. We were given dominion of the Earth and called to subdue it. This dominion isn't a tyrant's abusive domineering, this is a king caring for his domain, particularly as a vassal to the High King, God. As Adam was called to work the garden and keep it, we are called as Stewards to tend our gardens and defend them for the glorification of God.
We live in a culture where people are conscious about the impact of their actions. In terms of gardening, homeowners are looking for styles that are eco-friendly, pollinator friendly, bird friendly, drought resistant, low-maintenance, able to sequester carbon, produces food or medicine, or just aesthetically pleasing. Stewardship gardening provides all these options.
At its core, Stewardship Gardening is a form of ecosystem management called Passive Rewilding, defined by Jepson and Blythe as, “the release of ecological processes through reducing human control of landscapes” (p. 69). Ideally, homeowners will incorporate native plants to support native populations of wildlife. Given the extensive amounts of infrastructure, we now have in our suburban landscapes, true habitat restoration is nearly impossible within “city limits,” in my opinion. Jepson and Blythe further define Rewilding as “restoring networks of interactions between communities of organisms and their physical environment, along with the ecological processes that emerge from these interactions.”
In more practical terms, Stewardship Gardening is the provision of Food (through the use of native plants), Water (naturally filtered), and Habitat (natural or artificial) for wildlife in our own backyards. It utilizes a mindset that sees homeowners not as having ultimate control over their landscaping but living in reasonable harmony with the wildlife that may visit. Stewardship Gardening is a means the ecologically concerned gardener may practically conserve wildlife in their own backyard.
REFERENCS
Bible, ESV, Crossway
British Museum, “Paradise on Earth: The Gardens of Ashurbanipal”, https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/paradise-earth-gardens-ashurbanipal
Gilbert, “In the Beginning God Created a King”, https://www.crossway.org/articles/in-the-beginning-god-created-a-king/#:~:text=As%20the%20one%20who%2C%20uniquely,%2C%20and%20therefore%20God%27s%2C%20rule.
Jepson & Blythe, Rewilding: The Radical New Science of Ecological Recovery, 2020.
Ligonier Ministries, “You Shall Not Eat”, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/you-shall-not-eat
Perlmutter, “The Strange Psychology of the American Lawn”, https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-modern-brain/202002/the-strange-psychology-the-american-lawn
Spawforth, Versailles: A Biography of a Palace, 2008.
Tallamy, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard, 2019.
Woods & Woods, Ancient Agriculture: From Foraging to Farming, 2000.
WWF, “The Living Planet Report 2024”, https://livingplanet.panda.org/en-US/
Zekic, “The Hanging Gardens of Nineveh”, https://armstronginstitute.org/1054-the-hanging-gardens-of-nineveh
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