Trespassing Through Gardens

Trespassing through the side lots and backyards of childhood, we may have encountered gardens—well-tended rows of vegetables, or long-abandoned flowers that still might bloom among the weeds, or a seemingly wild landscape that nevertheless hinted at some effort of arrangement. In this course, we’ll explore themes of environmental aesthetics, conservation, and the management of nature. We’ll read Michael Pollan’s "Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education" and a selection of essays, stories, and poems. And, as we tour an extension farm, agricultural lands reclaimed as meadow and woodland, and the wildflower-filled no-mow zones around the Johnson Hall of Science, we will examine how choices made about the landscape in the past shape what we see today. We will strive to build a community of peers who share similar interests in environmental justice and the natural world.