Is there a Fundamental Difference between Gardening & Foraging?
They both are the same interaction/activity with Plants just on different sides of the spectrum.
I wonder where Y’all are on the spectrum, reply below!
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I do some foraging and probably fit into wild gardening category. In other words, I plant things that can be left alone until harvest time, once established. I don’t like trees that require lots of maintenance.
When getting into gardening and trees in '08 I tried guerrilla gardening for plants and trees. 100% failure here.
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I do that entire spectrum; many plants are ones I’ve put there, some plants arrive on their own. if they are good to eat I let them stay at my place and eat them.
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@Professor_Porcupine
Botany defines three different types of plant populations: wild, landrace, and feral.
Wild originate without any human cultivation in their entire ancestry.
Landrace plants are those cultivated, circulated, and re-bred by humans to enhance specific characteristics.
Feral are landrace plants that have naturally escaped human cultivation and survive untended in hospitable locations.
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Yeah I’d say there’s a pretty fundamental difference.
Forging is what most any animal can do. Walk around and eat stuff that’s edible. There’s some skill in knowing where to look and what to eat, but it’s still basically just an animal level activity.
Gardening is completely different. It’s a much more artificial, much more human thing. There’s a long cultivated art (as in technique or technology) to it. You’re using tools to create a man-made environment according to some plan you came up with. In so far as humans are outside of nature, gardening is not a natural activity it’s a human activity, just like living in houses or making antibiotics or mining metal. Sure, the subject you’re working with is natural or was derived from nature at some point in the past, but it’s not at all in it’s natural state, and you’re actively working to keep it in an unnatural state.
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@a_Vivaldi @Professor_Porcupine
Gardening is a human activity of cultivation.
In contrast, an entity that forages from plants is harvesting from specimens that are not under their cultivation.
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I am a Hunter… eat several wild animals.
I am a Fisherman… eat lots of wild fish.
I am a Forager… eat lots of wild berries, cherries, plants, flowers, nuts, mushrooms, ginseng. Use elderberries and ginseng for tea.
I am a Gardner… grow mostly tomatoes, squash, onions, chives, okra, watermelon, cantaloupe, occasionally like this year sweet corn… my kids talked me into it. I even grow flowers for my wife.
I am a Forest farmer… have planted 70000 seeds in the forest… and thousands more berries.
I am an Orchardist… 30+ fruit trees.
TNHunter
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Yea… Location can make or break your success. I’ve learned this lesson the hard way.
Nice! So does that mean you also eat your edible “Weeds” too? If so which ones?
Lots of gardeners find Purslane, Wild Amaranths & Lambsquaters when weeding.
Ah I see, those who virtually had no Human Selection done to them? Or those who reverted back to wild traits? I’ve read a study how hard it’s to find a truly wild Brassica rapa. The “wild” Brassica rapa (Aka Field Mustard) x Rapini/Yellow Sarson (Brassica rapa subsp. sylvestris) hybrids seems to be what’s gone feral in Europe & America.
@Richard Do herilooms & Cultivars fit under Landrace Plants?
Cuz my Landrace plants are Semi-Wild as I’m facilitating a Hybrid Swarm of Wild & Domesticated Species into a Super Diverse Population?
Great Break down by the way!
I see, so what happens if you garden where you forage & forage where you garden?
Is it foraging if you find a wild edible weed growing in your garden bed to eat?
Or is it Gardening if your tending Wild Edible Plant Populations & Spreading their seeds to favorable locations?
The way I Garden & Forage, it’s all on a spectrum. I planted Squash & Melons in open forrest where I forage cuz I want to make Foraging more fun & rewarding!
Hopeing to eventually rewild my Squash & Melons so they can survive on their own but still yeild delicious food.
@TNHunter Wow! You really do it all 
.
Wait… do you also save your own seeds? Cuz that would also make you both a Seed Saver & a Plant Breeder by default. What kinds of wild plants do you save seeds from (If at all)?
oh my… I guess technically so but if someone owns it, I like to ask if I can pick fruits & berries (Often times the owners don’t want a mess in their drive way from the squishy messy fruit).
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Zero human selection in their entire ancestry. It’s an important distinction in Botany because the taxonomy of Linnean species are defined by the morphology of their truly wild populations.
Note that Botany also has taxonomy for landrace populations and feral populations.
Yes. The wild origins of several other crops have disappeared in the same fashion. This was the motivation for establishment of plant repositories world wide.
They are the prime examples.
Landrace plants cannot return to wild, period. If a bird or other vector carries seeds off from them to an untended location and they sprout – then they are feral.
No. You are practicing the millenia old propagation method of open pollination. They and their offspring are either landrace or feral.
That weed is only wild if it was spawned by a truly wild native plant. Cultivation changes morphology.
You are not foraging, because you planted the squash and melons.
There are persons on other social media sites who use the term “foraging” to describe the produce they steal – and they are proud of it.
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I see, what happens if we create a hybrid swarm of all species? Do we make a New species? This is what I’m thinking of doing with Cucurbita pepo x C. moschata x C. maxima x C. angyrosperma x C. ficifolia?
At that point is it a new species? I want it to be fully introgressed into a hybrid landrace population.
Oh wow! So it’s good thing I’m saving seeds of both Wild & Domesticated taxa. Have you done any seed saving?
oh wow!? So does the term Simi-wild no longer make sense? or do we just call it Feral?
I’m thinking how many “Wild” plants are no longer wild, surely Humans have interacted with them & left their selection on them. I think to Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) and wonder how Native Americans domesticated that species for huge delicious fruits & why it’s so widespread, could semi-wild or offspring from Native American Landraces have survived in current “wild” populations? Might this explain why some Wild Pawpaws taste soo much better than others?
I see, thank you for clarifying. So does this make the Brassica x Raphanus hybrid that created it’s own new genus Brassicoraphanus still Landrace or Feral? Even if it’s a totally new species or genus in this case?
I see, what about if I spit out Eat Wild Black Raspberries & spit out the seeds in locations I think they would grow?
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You make a new landrace hybrid. Neither a living individual nor a living swarm is sufficient to define a landrace population.
No, I rely on the breeding skills of others.
Correct.
There is anthropological evidence to support that theory.
Brassicoraphanus is a landrace genus. If seeds from a specimen of it end up growing in an uncultivated area, then Botanists will consider them feral.
How do you know they are wild?
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Cuz they were Albindo Black Raspberries, which is a weird mutation that occurs. Haven’t seen any cultivated germaplasm of it yet. What do you think? Wild or Feral?
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You’d need to contact someone like Professor Bassil.
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does he specialize in Basil?
She.
Personally, I strive to address several of my convictions by growing my own urban food forest: Growing plants, especially trees, is good for the planet. Growing organic pesticide free food is good for me. Growing local food answers my need to be a locavore. Now my trees are grafted, seedlings or cuttings, so technically have or had human intervention at some point, so it is gardening, but at the same time this satisfies my ancestral urges of needing to forage because it does feel like foraging to me!!!
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purslane, lambs quarters, dandelion, plantain, violets, wild onion, and a patch of chicory that’s gone perennial and wants to take over.
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Yea, that’s the way I feel about it as well. Foraging really makes you appreciate Gardening & vice versa. Do you do any weeding? Are any of the “weed” you pull edible & taste good? It’s techically foraging too!
Awesome! Do you save seeds from any of these “weeds”. I wonder if your Purslane is different from the purslane that grows here, same with Lambsquaters.
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Lol!
I’ve met many people over the years who do not have this urge. Consequently, there is no meaningful connection between your enjoyment of harvesting and the hunter-gatherer existence of your ancient ancestors.