Gardeners work in partnerships, more or less successfully, with what nature provides.  They experiment all the time, fiddling with this, trying out that.  People take seeds and stick them in the ground to see what happens – that’s how Ifugao villagers bred hundreds of types of rice in a few centuries.  An essential factor is that gardeners experience the consequences of their own actions.  They make decisions and expend labor; a few months later they discover what they have wrought.  Externalities are rare.  Gardens are places of constant change, but the changes are owned by the gardener – which is why they feel like home.”

excerpt from Charles C. Mann’s excellent book, 1493, on the final page of the Coda, “In Bulalacao”.