Queer Ecologies - Or This Ain’t Your Grannie’s Garden!
- Room to Be
- Jul 5
- 2 min read
Over tea, coffee and home-made elderberry cordial (courtesy of our speaker themselves) AJ Stockwell, the fellowship artist in residence at DJCAD, led a study group in the Dundee Botanic Garden Library on queerness and gardening. We read through and discussed articles on how local Scottish gardening groups are using their pruning shears to tackle thornier issues than just errant rose bushes.
AJ led us through some varied talking points on gardening as an act of rebellion; as a resistance against consumer culture, a way of learning resilience in the face of failure (may the slugs enjoy our cauliflowers!) and the struggle of finding space to call one's own. We also spoke of the hope in building community and the importance of being visibly queer, especially in more rural areas. New ideas were exchanged and new friends made - including AJ’s collie, Bracken!
The talk was rounded off with a Deep Listening exercise, eyes closed, laid back in the grass and letting ourselves float away into the sounds of nature. After all, gardening is not just about finding a space of one's own, but making it - even if it’s just by giving yourself 5 minutes of quiet to listen to the trees.
El Dineley
Inside the Living Lab within the lovely setting of University of Dundee Botanic Garden, I met with a few members of Room To Be to attend the Strange Strangers queer ecology study group. Topics included discussing the range of biodiversity in urban environments compared to rural areas and the importance of LGBTQIA+ gardening groups providing a social space for queer people. Many of the ideas resonated with me and I'm excited to engage with the study group again and continue to prosper with the Room To Be cohort.
Anna Rooney
Articles:
Grounded, rooted, growing: the queer joys of gardening
TopSoil: gardening as radical queer resistance
Videos:
Queer Gardening
Queer Gardening at Hummingbird Farm
