Californian Garden Research Paper

A single rose within a garden of daisies may be considered a weed. But that single rose can also contribute to the beauty of the whole garden. Just as the rose changed the daisy garden, humans have modified California’s superb garden, as John Muir called it, and while some may think that we have improved the garden, others would disagree. Much of California’s nature has become modified by humans to produce new forms involving agriculture, and urbanization as opposed to letting it grow naturally. Man has created his own version of nature in California; he has messed with the Garden of Eden. But the desert is one aspect that man cannot control. Imagining the desert as the Garden of Eden in California is bewildering, because the desert appears to have nothing to offer with its bare landscape, however there are those who still run back to the desert …show more content…
The desert offers an opportunity to leave old identities behind and start over. The new California Garden of Eden can be seen in Gary Reger’s The Deserts of Los Angeles: Two Topologies, Mary Austin’s Land of Little Rain, and Joel Sternfeld’s After a Flash Flood, Rancho Mirage, CA. California’s original Garden of Eden has been consumed due to the interference of man, however the original Garden traces can be found within the desert itself. The desert is a Garden of Eden because it can be a place to seek redemption and serve punishment. By seeking redemption, the desert may be considered a sanctuary because there appears to be no interference from man, such as in the original Garden of Eden. Austin analyzed the desert to be a safe haven because compensations are given to those who reside there. The description of the desert in Austin’s excerpt is a dry landscape, “that supports no man” (Austin 60). However, the desert may also be considered, “the loneliest place that ever came out of God’s hands” (65). The inhabitants