Far From Restless: the Natives that Never Move

They come in all different sizes, shapes and even colours. This is their land and they’ve been here for far longer than we have, but today they are bearing the brunt of modern society’s onslaught of expansion, pollution and destruction. Their numbers are fewer and many are at risk of disappearing altogether.

They’re the native trees and plants of my area, the subject of my first-ever community meeting, entitled “Native Trees and Plants in Your Garden”.

Until now, my gardening hobby has been mostly restricted to growing plants indoors, but since we purchased our first home in downtown Hamilton, I’ve been working on the garden outside. It was a complete disaster when we moved here but it’s improving, slowly but surely. When I got a flyer in the mailbox about this meeting, I couldn’t resist traveling to my local recreation centre to check it out.

Ryerson Recreation Centre is about what you’d expect: brick exterior, interior the same beige paint that adorns the interior of every school and rec centre in North America, posters advertising various community events plastered on the walls. About 15 people showed up, mostly women with a smattering of middle-aged men. I won’t describe the ages of most attendees except to say that when it comes to gardening, there’s no doubt that I’m getting a 30 year head start.

An energetic young woman thanked us for coming and introduced the featured speaker, Paul O’Hara, the owner of a local landscaping business that specializes in native plants. After he was introduced they turned the lights down and he started showing slides of trees and plants in the area. I immediately got off on the wrong foot by asking what he thought of the idea of getting native plants from native habitats, like by digging up or taking cuttings from plants on the escarpment and out in the woods to put in my garden. “Why would you want to ravage the outdoors when it’s ravaged enough already?” he asked me. The elderly woman next to me looked at me disapprovingly. I blushed. He recommended taking their seeds (no more than 10% of them) in the fall and using them instead.

Paul’s activist stance on the environment grew more apparent as he went through the rest of his presentation. After showing many beautiful slides of trees, thickets and gardens (he mentioned that people “ravage” his gardens and steal the plants, I tried to look inconspicuous), he started showing pictures of parking lots, the misnamed Meadowlands complex in Ancaster (a sprawling network of big box stores and parking lots, 99% pure concrete), and then a picture of a towering 170-year-old burr oak in Oakville. “How do I know it’s 170 years old?” he asked. “Because I counted its rings”, he said, flipping the slide and showing the same tree in pieces. “Cut down to make room for more parking at Budd’s Imported Cars”.

There was palpable emotion in the room as these slides flipped past, from the disgust of the burly Burlington arborist to the dismayed wistful sadness of the little white-haired woman in the corner. These images were a sort of public mourning for the sickness of nature. It struck me that so much can be accomplished if you can get people into one spot to speak with them and let them see things. But where is everyone?

As I was leaving a woman approached me and identified me as having just moved into our house on Jackson Street, explaining that she lived across from me. It turns out Pat is an avid gardener who encouraged me to come over to her place and take a look at her garden to get ideas and advice. What do you know – attend a community meeting, meet people from the community. What a novel idea!

P.S. If you’re from the Hamilton area, you can get a free tree planted on your lot’s city property. Just go here.