The Enemy in the Yard

The yardwork guerrilla distinguishes between Bad and Good Nature. Bad Nature, the G.Y.’s opponent, comprises everything she wants to eliminate, purge, greatly reduce, or keep out. In short, Bad Nature comprises everything that clashes with the G.Y.’s vision for the yard.

By contrast, Good Nature comprises all elements the guerrilla yardworker wishes to establish, keep, or cultivate. Throughout her struggle the G.Y. co-opts Good Nature to her ends, taking advantage of the changing seasons, the sun and the rain, the day and the night, to plant and sow as she wishes. She learns about Nature in order to master Her. When, for example, she replaces a lawn with a row of potatoes, she replaces Bad with Good Nature, using Nature’s own weapons for her own ends. The guerrilla knows she cannot annihilate the mightier foe, so she strives to integrate Nature’s cooperative, flexible, and beneficial elements into the order she envisions to establish.

Fighting Bad Nature and cultivating Good Nature requires that the yardwork guerrilla respect Nature overall (in fact, the person most likely to become a guerrilla yardworker is a Nature lover). Bad and Good Nature constitute opposite sides of the same coin, operating on the same principles and striving for the same thing: survival. When respect for Nature vanishes, the yardvolution has lost.

* Excerpted from the book. Buy Guerrilla Yardwork: The First-Time Home Owner’s Handbook now on Amazon.