A rambunctious garden, as described by Emma Marris, is not a place isolated by walls or fences, it coexists with humanity. Rambunctious gardening is proactive and optimistic; it’s not a romantic notion but a part of our everyday lives. A rambunctious garden can be found anywhere, one doesn’t have to escape his/her daily life to witness it, its all around us and develops with the humankind. A rambunctious garden is evolution in action, a practical form of conservation, which can flourish anywhere. The High Line, an abandoned railway line that runs along the West Side of Manhattan, fits perfectly with the notion of a rambunctious garden. It represents an ecosystem that coexists with the city life and continues to diversify.
The High Line possesses every characteristic, which makes it a suitable candidate for a rambunctious garden. It’s in confined to an area within a busy city, it continues to cultivate despite human disturbances and trampling, and possess an unlikely location. One may suspect that an abandoned commercial railway line, deprived of proper sunlight and nutrient rich soil, may never be suitable to sustain such large biodiversity per ha, but that’s what makes it rambunctious. Primary succession and pioneer species took over the abandoned place and cultivated it to withstand the human hindrances.
The railway line currently stretches 20 city blocks between 13th and 34th streets and parallels 10th avenue. It is no longer just an abandoned strip of land, but has become an urban oasis and a public walkway, which is constantly visited by locals and tourists. As investigated by Stalter in his study, the pioneer species at the site were primarily mosses and grasses. The growing and dying of pioneer species added organic matter, which allowed for vascular plants to grow and thrive and also contributed to the slightly basic pH of the soil.
Furthermore, Stalter’s study concerning the biodiversity and flora, reaffirms its classification as a rambunctious garden. The High Line is one of the most biologically diverse and species rich system in the New York-Tristate area with over 161 species, 122 genera and 48 families. The study also shows a density of 38.8 species per ha, which is greater than sites like Ellis Island, Liberty Island and Bayswater State Park.
The biodiversity of the highline is truly remarkable, and strengthens the support for maintaining and supporting rambunctious gardens, interestingly enough only 59% of the species at the High Line can be classified as “pristine” or “native”, but still the system continues to thrive and seems very natural. The high level of diversity has been made possible by human interactions, mostly humans are considered to be a hindrance for an ecosystem, but in case of a rambunctious garden, humans act as inadvertent pollinators.
Nevertheless, after visiting the High Line myself and examining the pollinators and the coexistence of nature and humanity I am convinced that nature doesn’t always have to be pristine and rambunctious garden can exist anywhere and support a species rich ecosystem.
