What is the relationship between plants and people? This is the basic question that enthnobotanists contemplate and study. Humans have obviously had a relationship with plants since the beginning. How humans have impacted plant species and populations on Earth, and how plants have impacted human development is a fascinating dynamic that I have been interested in from a very early age.
Of course, when I was care-taking the family vegetable garden in central Illinois I didn’t know the term “ethnobotany” but I sure contemplated the topics covered by this field of science. I made this fascination with plant and human relationships into a very rewarding career, both as a practicing horticulturist and as a professor of horticulture.
There are hundreds of facets to enthnobotany and just as many lenses from which to study and engage in this interdisciplinary field. The most recent lens for me has been in the development of the St. Mark Community Garden. The key word in this endeavor is “community.” There are communities of plants within this garden, for example the new herb garden bed planted by Sunday School children. There are communities of microorganisms in the soil that literally feed other organisms and the vegetable plants that we aspire to grow. There is a mixed community of people engaged in this project – people that have gardened their entire lives to people that have never gardened before, people from the St. Mark community and people from the surrounding community, people with physical and/or mental challenges, people seeking home-grown, organic produce for themselves and their neighbors and people seeking a physical and spiritual connection to the Earth and other people.
The most important community right now is the community of people who volunteer to nurture and grow this project, lead by the enthusiasm and never-ending energy of Gail F. One of my strongest passions at this stage of life is to further explore and engage in the relationships between plants, people, spiritually and earthly stewardship. I am very grateful that the community of St. Mark has also embraced this passion, even though I bet we didn’t know we were engaging in the science of ethnobotany when we were doing so.