198. Giving Back to the Earth: Restorative Gardening with Mary Reynolds

The Good Dirt: Sustainability Explained

This episode was initially published on April 21, 2023 under the title The Urgent Need for Restorative Gardening

Internationally acclaimed landscape designer, activist and bestselling author of The Garden Awakening and her newly released title We are the Ark, Mary Reynolds discusses her efforts to restore the earth through her global ARK campaign, (Acts of Restorative Kindness). She launched her career by achieving a gold medal for garden design at the Chelsea flower show in 2002, the story of which was made into a 2016 movie called “Dare to be Wild”. She later founded the global movement “We are the ARK”, an organization advocating for more wild spaces and to raise awareness of our current extinction event.

Topics Discussed

• Mary's new book We Are the Ark: Returning Our Gardens to Their True Nature Through Acts of Restorative Kindness with illustrations by Ruth Evans
• Mary's story of the pivotal moment that changed her career
• How Mary reframes the concept of gardens
• The ARK concept
• How the idea of feeding the world is greenwashing, when we should support the world to feed itself.
• Floral designer Amber Tamm @ambertamm
• Doug Tallamy, founder of Home Grown National Park - a grassroots organization regenerating local biodiversity
• Native species vs non-native plants and how they affect local eco-systems
• The 100th monkey syndrome
• Shifting Baseline Syndrome/ Daniel Pauly
• How has Mary's mission evolved from The Garden Awakening to We Are the Ark
• Mary's project in Westport, County Mayo
• The difference between a garden and an ark is intention
• How can people become less afraid of the wildness?
• Where does Mary find hope that we will be able to save the planet and ourselves?
• Spreading the message of The ARK all over the world
• From What is to What If written by Rob Hopkins
• The book Silent Spring written by Rachel Carson

Connect with Mary:

• Website: We Are the Ark
• Instagram: wildmarymary

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Original music by John Kingsley. Editing and podcast production by Fast Forward Production.

🌿 The Good Dirt Producers:

• · Wendy Gray

Original music by John Kingsley. Our technical partner for this series is CitizenRacecar, Post-Production by Alex Brouwer and José Miguel Baez, Coordinated by Gabriela Montequin and Mary Ball. The Good Dirt is a part of the Connectd Podcasts Network.

Statements in this podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not to be considered medical or nutritional advice. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and should not be considered above the advice of your physician. Consult a medical professional when making dietary or lifestyle decisions that could affect your health and well-being.