It seems to me that the Drystone Wall Association, its practices as a trade and the small industry as it exists in Canada, is in direct opposition to the hyper-commercialised landscape industries which dominate the garden shows where the DSWAC exhibits traditional dry stone walling . Its ideals, for me, lie in its well-crafted objects, the beautiful aesthetic, and the sense of place the stone creates. The fact that it is often locally sourced is very important, rather than the ubiquitous concrete products which pervade most garden company displays and landscape projects. These man-made materials are shipped all over the world and entail mass amounts of energy money and wasteful/dangerous by-products.
I think that DSWAC should take an approach at these shows which emphasizes its existence as a craft and art that is ecologically friendly and environmentally sustainable. Stone can be sourced locally at subdivision developments and farmer fields or small local quarries. These smaller operations support small local business rather than monolithic transnational corporations that are faceless and greedy like Uniloc and Permacon. There is less embodied energy, in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, little need for heavy machinery, and no toxic products used in drystone construction. This should be emphasised.
In this arena, dry stone walled gardens should win every ecological award. The walls themselves becomes habitats which mice, bats, birds, chipmunks, insects claim as their home. Plants that can grow nowhere else find a niche in these constructs. This does NOT happen with concrete. Lichens and mosses find growing conditions in dry stone walls they would otherwise not find.
I would suggest that along with these natural dry stone walls, the plantings can also be of a more sustainable variety. Native plants use less water and afford the only sources of sustenance that very specific wildlife rely on for their survival. This is why butterflies, birds, and other valuable wildlife are disappearing. It is tragic that they are seen less and less. Subdivisions filled with non-native annual plantings offer no respite for these creatures. But subdivisions don't need to be like this. If landscape contractors were to use techniques like drystone walling, (of course, built carefully, in a proper structural way ) with native plantings, many of these species could make a come back and wasteful watering could be avoided , in high summer drought , preserving this valuable and rapidly diminishing natural resource.
I think the future of gardening, indeed the future of the planet, requires that people, as the traditional Scottish song suggests, 'take the high road'. The Dry Stone Walling Across Canada can continue to lead the way by building and displaying realistically earth friendly projects, which depart radically from the what can be seen at most landscaping trade shows, and yet still look proper and beautiful. Though it may be argued that such walled displays look discordantly different from the rest of the commodificated and unhealthy landscapes produced by other exhibitors, it will at least provide a 'wake up call' for the industry.