LIVING IN A WEEDY FUTURE - Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities - page 94

In contrast to the general labour of removing weeds in the previous section, the
labour of removing weeds so that vegetables can grow did produce satisfaction and
pleasure. But that pleasure was usually expressed in relation to the tactility of the
soil, and the growth of the favoured plants, rather than with reference to the weeds
themselves.
Weeding as purification
Kris, whom we met in the introduction, was an example of a group we called
committed native gardeners or purists. This group tended to express disparaging
attitudes towards 'exotic' or 'foreign' plants, and the neighbours who enjoyed
them. For them, the importance of natives as 'belonging' was paramount. For some
in this group the notion of gardening, with its connotations of planting and
humanly assisted productivity, was inaccurate. Rather they saw themselves as
restorers of native bushland, or eradicators of weeds that prevent native bushland
restoring itself.
Claire in Alice Springs had been on a mission for many years to remove the
introduced buffel grass ( Cenchrus ciliaris ) from her family's block:
My object is to eradicate all the buffel and noxious grasses out and let the
natural regrowth occur and it's just, it's my art; we have a sense that if I can
achieve that to a high degree, that, that's my art within the community.
Soon after rain is an important time for the removal of buffel, when it rapidly
responds by creating a green sward across the landscape. Claire described the
practice of her art in very embodied terms. She told of regularly starting at 4.30 or
5.00 on summer mornings and removing buffel for three hours before the business
of the day began, coming inside drenched in sweat and satisfied with her exertions.
This physical, almost sensual, engagement and investment of labour were similar
to that described by passionate gardeners who were planting things, and lawn
mowers who were removing things.
Weeding the bush: the practice of spatial purification
Many gardeners, and not just purists, were active in weed removal beyond their
fences, seeing different types of nature as belonging in different places. This is a
further example of weeding as a spatial purification. Claire was not the only Alice
Springs resident who removed buffel. Chris, who had an extremely manicured
backyard including lawn and rose beds, was active in weed removal beyond her
open mesh fence, seeing different types of nature as belonging in different places.
In Wollongong, Janine's backyard garden was conceptually similar to Chris's,
albeit with different species. A fence separated the more domestic part of her
backyard from the adjacent bush. On the inside were grass, vegetables, garden beds
and homes for her extensive menagerie of pets. On the 'outside' of the fence, but