Feralwood & embodiment

Here you will find information pertaining to principles of the nursery, as well as an exploration of the Feralwood that is not the nursery. That is: Feralwood as a place at Ardea, and as a way of being in the world.

Embodying Feralwood • Embracing ecological dynamism • A bare-root nursery • Genetic diversity • Indigenous plants

Feralwood began to set its course over a decade ago. It arose through the act of bearing witness to the ecology of Ardea. It has been an inspiring act, creating space for exploration of appropriate ways of interaction among, and integration within, the landscape - its soil and its spirit.

Feralwood did not set out to be a nursery. It began as an active embodiment of a shifting concept. As the concept became more tangible, Feralwood as a place at Ardea was born. In this sense, Feralwood first emerged along a south-facing forest edge and the adjoining field. This is where the first seedlings were put into the ground years ago: American hazelnut, pawpaw, American persimmon, wild plum, black chokeberry, to name just a few. And over the years, Feralwood nursery began to take form.

The name itself emerged from the nature of the place where Feralwood was coming into being. A ‘wood’ is considered an area of land with growing trees that is smaller than a forest. The ‘feral’ aspect of the name is meant to carry with it a story: that in doing the work that Feralwood calls forth, efforts are being made to rekindle memories of how to be in the world. We can account for and tend our relationships to all things, while acknowledging the unique challenges of being human in the modern world.

The name is not meant to imply an escape from domestication, as the word ‘feral’ is commonly defined. We can be curious about aspects of how we have been told to live, and we can find creative ways to integrate them, but we cannot escape them. Yet we also have a degree of agency in observing the ways in which we live and adjusting them as needed.

In that light, Feralwood aims to let the wildness in, to give it a place for expression and relationship. This wildness can be seen in the physical landscape, and can also be sensed in the landscape of being. Aspects of domestication that do not serve us well are identified, and wildness is integrated in a way that can soothe our wounding.

By now it should be apparent that Feralwood is a lot of things. It has its own life force. It is a state of mind and a way of life. Here at Ardea, it is also a physical space, with an open-air outdoor classroom and workshop space where fellow humans play and learn.

A primary desire of Feralwood is to help create a more robust human culture through exploring and experiencing a deep sense of place. In doing so we can begin the work of re-weaving the threads of the living web that have been struck down by the damaging winds of settler culture.

Ecology, in simple terms, is the study of relationships. And if these relationships are anything at all, they are dynamic. Elements within an ecosystem are simultaneously changing and exerting forces that create change. And of course, nothing changes, or exerts a force that creates change, in isolation.

When the conversation begins to focus on the dynamic nature of an ecosystem, it starts to become difficult to talk about things in isolation at all. It becomes clear that the greater reality, if we are to have a comprehension of it, rests within these relations. The web is not there without the weaving. And so we embrace the weaving to better comprehend the web. Though seeing the web in the first place is what gets us to pay attention.

Feralwood embraces ecological dynamism, not as an outsider, but as a participant. As another relationship that weaves within the web. As humans we can choose to explore whether or not the force exerted to create change is within ecological reason. It takes time to sort this out. A very long time. For indigenous cultures that were wholly intact prior to being colonized by settler culture, we are speaking in terms of thousands of years of collective cultural wisdom. A modern version of this is TEK, or traditional ecological knowledge.

As a nursery Feralwood embraces ecological dynamism through a number of ways. Some of these are tangible, some not-so-much. One of the most encompassing expressions of this is how the nursery exists as a mosaic. It moves and changes and pulses. Parts of it die while others are born. Or reborn. Plants are grown in a living soil, one that resembles the forest floor. Microclimates and ecological niches are utilized to keep young seedlings protected from conditions that might kill them. Propagation beds are allowed to naturalize. New ones might be created while others are left to go fallow. Areas of the nursery may be unseen, being so utterly woven into what already is.

The nursery has no borders or pre-determined destiny. Elements of the nursery exist scattered across Ardea’s 60 acres.

Feralwood nursery is a bare-root nursery. Many people are not familiar with the practice of bare root growing, so this is an offering to help create some familiarity with the practice.

Two articles written by Akiva Silver of Twisted Tree Farm reflect Feralwood nursery’s thoughts and practices as they explore the benefits of bare root growing. These are The Benefits of Bare Root Trees and Bare Root vs. Potted Trees. These are suggested reading if you want to better understand how plants grown at the Feralwood nursery differ from, and compare to, those grown at commercial nurseries.

Trees for the nursery are generally grown in air-pruning beds. Air-pruning beds offer a lot of benefits, with one being the establishment of a higher degree of lateral feeder roots at the discouragement of deeper roots, such as an extensive taproot. In general, this makes establishment easier and more successful.

If we glance inside the beds we will see roots laced with white threads of mycelium: an earthly tinsel holding tight a few remnant wood chips, half-rotted. The wood chips are clutching water, soil, rotting leaves, some wood ants and an earthworm. Relationships. Mutualisms. Life enthralled.

And when the cold is settled in they are plucked from the Earth.

Plants grown for the Feralwood nursery are grown outside, in the real world. There is no greenhouse, though microclimates are specifically chosen for certain traits as needed. Since there are few off-site inputs (such as synthetic fertilizers, plastic pots and flats, potting soil components) and less required infrastructure, bare-root growing keeps costs much lower. It also creates healthier and more resilient trees than the fragile, root-bound, top-heavy fruit trees sold by large-scale nurseries. And, most often, it does this at a cheaper cost to the buyer.

Genetic diversity holds a sense of priority within Feralwood. Genetics express information about the environment in which a living thing is embedded. One way to express this idea is by using an analogy that progresses from syntax to culture. In this analogy genetics would be syntax, and mutualisms would be culture. So, let’s say that traits or adaptations of a plant are its language. In this analogy syntax would be the genetic information, hopefully keeping the language well-formed and fit for the environment it is in. The plant, the lifeform itself, gives this language meaning in the world. But, as nothing stands alone, it can only do so through interactions with other organisms, particularly mutualisms. In this analogy, the established mutualisms, such as vascular plants' relationship with mycorrhizae, would be a culture.

Seed has stored within it information about our changing climate. Therefore, growing from seed is one buffer we have to help establish plants that potentially have a greater level of resilience in the face of change. The higher the genetic diversity of a particular species, the most likely it is to have an adaptation that can tolerate environmental stressors, such as novel diseases or prolonged drought periods. Most of the trees we grow are grown from seed that is collected from wild trees which have shown desired traits.

On the other hand, most of the herbaceous perennials that we sell are rooted divisions. This is favored over growing from seed for the same reasons the nursery is bare root - it cuts down on costs, keeps inputs low, reduces waste, and minimizes the use of plastics. However, there is an overall tendency to suppress the creation of redundancy in genetic information at the nursery.

For example, those plants which we offer as rooted divisions (with the obvious exception of named cultivars) originated as the planting of seedlings, or a combination of seedlings and several divisions from other locations. Many of our propagation beds have naturalized, offering new seedlings to enter the mix. And we are always injecting new genetics (via off-site divisions and seedlings grown at the nursery) into existing patches.

As Feralwood came into being, there was a clear focus on the propagation and understanding of perennial food plants that are indigenous to the temperate areas of the eastern US. This is the larger eco-region which holds Ardea. A primary inspiration for this focus was to gather a deeper sense of place: plants that have been in partnership with humans for thousands of years, in this place, make good teachers in this light. Also, plants of an indigenous nature are accustomed to the climate, pathogens, predators, and other influences in the area where they have long existed. Through working with these plants we aid in the direct support of local ecosystems. And by capturing local genetic information in the form of seed, we can contribute to a landscape that is better prepared for a changing climate.

While this focus on indigenous plants is still strong, the curious and fluid nature of Feralwood has led toward getting better acquainted with many non-native plants. This is particularly true in the realm of perennial vegetables, and a reflection of this shift can be seen in what the nursery offers today.

The current debate about native versus non-native plants, particularly as it happens online, often lacks nuance and can quickly grow exhausting. Feralwood has a highly nuanced approach to working with the plant kin. This is a relationship that is not only informed by government policies and public opinion, but also through direct experience interacting with and observing ecosystems. In the near future expect to hear more from Feralwood on this topic.