|
Too Cool For Color
via Blogger http://wendyimmiller.blogspot.com/2018/06/too-cool-for-color.html June 20, 2018 at 11:48PM
0 Comments
Time to “Rethink Pretty” in the Garden by Allen Bush
Benjamin Vogt and I began an email exchange last March after I read his very interesting A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future. A few weeks ago, Benjamin had a sign posted on his property in Lincoln, Nebraska that warned him about the public nuisance he had created. He won the fight to keep his front and back yard prairie, but this got me thinking. It seemed like a good time to share our exchange. Portions have been edited and expanded. Onward Benjamin. I wrote my book to make folks as uncomfortable as I felt. I wrote it to question horticulture, landscape design, and all environmental movements. I wrote it to invigorate the discussion and get us to grapple with humanity in ways we avoid in order to protect ourselves from the reality of our lost love. I wrote it in order to unearth aspects of environmentalism I thought weren’t explored enough. I wrote my book out of depression, fear, and anger in order to discover a strength we all possess — the ability to go against the force of history and culture and risk some aspect of ourselves we assumed was better for us. Gardens are places of activism in a time of mass extinction and we need to start using them as such. And if gardens are art, if that’s the primary viewpoint about them that we’re stuck with, then remember the long tradition of art based in activism and making folks uncomfortable for a purpose.
March 2018 Hi Benjamin, I apologize for being slow to read your book, but I’m glad I brought it to the top of my book pile. I thoroughly enjoyed A New Garden Ethic. I worried at the outset that it might be full of redundancies, but when there were similar claims, “We proclaim ourselves right in a wrong world…” (p.56), each new argument augmented your case. Rarely did I feel like you were talking down to me. On occasion, there were annoying passages, such as, “Native plants are a threat to an entire Western culture…(p 59). But here’s what I got out of your book.
Surprisingly, I enjoyed your bits about “pretty” and “beauty.” It reminded me of an undergraduate course in Philosophy of the Mind. Your subject is complex but well written. However, I still like “pretty” and don’t agree that “pretty,” as a premise, need be “arrogant.” I don’t think I’ve ever gardened for “human supremacy.” I was heartened, when you briefly backed off and said, “Of course a garden must be pretty.” “Pretty” concerns me because that’s how we primarily judge the worth of a garden or landscape — I just want us to redefine gardens, especially in the context of mass extinction. What is pretty to the silent majority on this planet, to wildlife? I don’t think many of us garden for human supremacy in a conscious way, but when we go outside and say “I want this maple tree right here” we are practicing a form of supremacy since we are placing our desires over or onto the landscape, whether we’ve researched the tree and ecosystem or not. Now, I’m not explicitly saying such actions are good or bad, per se. I’m saying we must think more critically about our actions, and that if we don’t we are propagating an arrogance that has led us to the assumption we are at the top of the pecking order and can do no harm. This is what’s created a 6thmass extinction — privileging ourselves over other species and landscapes. We do it every day in small, subtle ways and in massively overt ways.
I was glad to read the chapter: More than Native Plants. Your sentence on p. 52 is magnificent: “Every place we touch is a garden, no matter its size, and the economic, aesthetic, and emotional lessons we learn in one landscape are practiced in others.” Good stuff on feelings: denial, grief and loss. And, more good stuff: wisdom is evolutionary (p.66); “ethical amnesia” (p. 78) and “compassion fade” and “psychological numbing” (p.81) This was my favorite chapter to write and research, chapter three; it’s the heart of the book, and I think out environmental crisis (and other crises, like race, gender, guns, etc). There’s a lot of psychology at play in how we view ourselves, one another, and the world around us. There’s a lot of guilt and shame. There’s a lot of self-defense that’s totally genetic and human and natural that we have to understand, identify, and process more thoughtfully. For example, when someone proposes native plants instead of hosta, it’s easy to feel defensive because we’re being exposed to new concepts that both feel constrictive and carry greater ramifications for the environment, and those ramifications influence how we perceive ourselves as acting or thinking ethically. Change is hard — learning new ideas is hard (especially when they go against the cultural / social default). Emotionally and psychologically evolving as fast or faster than the changes we are forcing on the plant is really hard, if not nearly impossible. I wish you’d go easy on red cedars (p.79). I love red cedars! But your red cedars aren’t aggressive thugs, right? I like them, too, but boy do they destroy our prairies. It’s all about regional context, and in the U.S. there’s lots of nuance. We burn trees in Nebraska, we don’t hug them. And there are the useless plants… I don’t agree with your statement: “Gardens composed of both native and exotic plants constitute a precarious balance.” (p. 83) I am NOT grief stricken, although you might argue I’m in denial. Yes, I would argue that. Denial is one of the five stages of grief, and processing grief is both an exercise in preserving the self and accepting the new self that is forming. It’s a conundrum we carry into our landscapes — our emotions dictate a lot of what we do behind our fences.
I love daffodils and peonies, among many other non-beneficial plants. I get your point and respect your radical approach. I know you don’t think there’s a perfect world as long as humankind is here on earth. Oh I wouldn’t go that far. I firmly believe humans can be part of a thriving, balanced, biodiverse global ecosystem. But as is — given our extraction-based cultures that privilege humans — it’s not working. And the argument that nature will find a way is sort of bogus — I don’t want to live, and I don’t want my kids to live — in a world where nature is in the process of finding its way. Drought, famine, disease, dirty water, no fish, plastic in every bite we take… We could still be in a relative Goldilocks era if we woke to the world right now. I’m glad you threw a bone to the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)for promoting a planting spectrum that includes a large % of native plants. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to plant challenging exotics and natives that I am curious to grow. I will endeavor to try and be more attentive to what’s under foot and around me. You’ve inspired me. I’ve got tons of natives, even a faux prairie, but I’m a one-trick pony. I’m a plantsman, far from a naturalist. You’ve encouraged me to dig deeper. Microbes are in my future. Go go go Allen! We’re all taking steps even if I wish (and other species wish) they were much larger and were at more of a brisk jog’s space, if not a hard sprint. My favorite chapter was Urban Wildness and Social Justice. You made me think of Thoreau leaving Walden Pond to take his laundry to his mom. “(If we expect to be selfless”… p.120). Louisville needs to work harder (p. 125). My friend, Louisville tree activist, Mike Hayman is planting trees as fast as he can. Mike is the role model I suggested for you. Talk about selfless! I hope you’ll keep pushing harder, even when you hit headwinds. It is very hard because it seems that all I hit are headwinds; such is the role I’ve apparently chosen for myself. I know you’re working your way toward your dream of your own prairie compound. Paradise? But don’t turn your back on the people, and the soulless suburban gardens, you might leave behind. On the other hand, an ascetic life has some appeal. I still design urban and suburban meadow gardens for clients, some of whom are removing their front lawns. I am desperate to live on a prairie away from mowers, to create an oasis among the corn and soybeans. I don’t think I’d live ascetically, only as a way to restore and revive my soul so I could have the energy and focus to ramp up to get back into the fray. I am a massive, massive, massive introvert, and it’s still going take me a lifetime to discover how that’s a strength and not a liability.
While I was reading your book, I was also reading a book of essays by Wes Jackson, whom I admire tremendously. Your earnestness reminds me of Jackson. As I have argued, I think your most convenient prey (prairie novitiates?) might be your neighbors. They can’t be more intransigent than the rest of built America. You could do prairie grass roots door-to-door? Have you seen my yard? https://www.houzz.com/projects/1968383/front-yard-makeover I know you’re working your way, eventually, toward your own prairie farm. If you do, I worry you will be turning your back on the people and the wretched suburban gardens you leave behind. However, I understand. Life as an ascetic has always had some appeal for me. Can you become both a missionary—hunker down and save souls in the suburbs—and escape, as Thomas Merton did, to a cloistered outpost and write down, as it was said about Merton, every thought you have. (You’re a very good writer!) Merton could be as petulant as he was gifted. He remained a constant pain in the ass to his abbot at the Abbey of Gethsemani. Maybe you will become the artist, activist, pain in the ass and save souls. I hope so! You’ve got options and a bright future. You’ve written an absorbing and provocative book that reminded me of the cultural unraveling that Wendell Berry described in Unsettling of America. That’s high praise indeed! You know I’m a Berry Fan. Thank you, Allen, for an insightful and warm conversation. Let’s have more of these in the garden world.
Photos courtesy of Benjamin Vogt and Monarch Gardens. A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Futuremay be purchased at Monarch Gardens.
Time to “Rethink Pretty” in the Garden by Allen Bush originally appeared on Garden Rant on June 13, 2018. Via Gardening http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://wendyimmiller.blogspot.com/2018/06/time-to-rethink-pretty-in-garden-by_18.html June 19, 2018 at 02:34AM
Mostly Shrubs for a Low-Maintenance Superstar Garden by Susan Harris
There’s nothing like working to improve city landscaping to turn you into a realist, having abandoned what you really want for what’s most likely to happen, given the usual constraints of manpower and budget. In my last post I showed readers the sad, unweeded state of one of my town’s most prominent perennial beds and suggested it needed to be returned to turfgrass. (Please read about the constraints of the site before freaking out.) But this post is a happy story already because just across the parking lot is our equally historic Roosevelt Center (named because the town was created as a project of the New Deal) and here the beds look great with almost no maintenance – thanks to full-grown shrubs. Yes they’re the common ‘Anthony Waterer’ and even commoner Nandina domestica, which probably wouldn’t be chosen today, but it’s thriving and a popular place for birds nests.
Misplaced hostas don’t seem to stop people from loving this spot and occasionally using it as a backdrop for portraits. Here we see the cut-flower farmers I profiled in this post, with the farm. They were in town this week and posted this photo to Facebook, clearly enjoying the chance to dress up a bit and show off some fancy red shoes not suitable for the farm.
In this view I’d love to see some low shrubs here instead of these common daylilies, which look fine to me when they’re blooming and like crap the rest of the year. People see this small garden at such close range, there’s no room in it for mostly-crappy-looking plants.
On the right in this photo is the sunny little ex-weed patch in its second season after I rescued it. And here too I think it needs fewer perennials and a couple more shrubs. The Sedum groundcover (S. takesimense) is a big hit and I plan to let it spread, though last summer I worried for its survival in this spot. Passersby were letting their dogs dig and uproot whole chunks of it, so I’ve moved it away from the sidewalk a bit and now I’m feeling optimistic about its survival, dogs be damned. Mostly Shrubs for a Low-Maintenance Superstar Garden by Susan Harris originally appeared on Garden Rant on June 15, 2018. Via Gardening http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://wendyimmiller.blogspot.com/2018/06/mostly-shrubs-for-low-maintenance_18.html June 19, 2018 at 02:34AM
What’s your corpse flower’s name? Ours is Morty. by Elizabeth Licata
via Blogger http://wendyimmiller.blogspot.com/2018/06/whats-your-corpse-flowers-name-ours-is.html June 19, 2018 at 02:34AM
Mostly Shrubs for a Low-Maintenance Superstar Garden by Susan Harris
There’s nothing like working to improve city landscaping to turn you into a realist, having abandoned what you really want for what’s most likely to happen, given the usual constraints of manpower and budget. In my last post I showed readers the sad, unweeded state of one of my town’s most prominent perennial beds and suggested it needed to be returned to turfgrass. (Please read about the constraints of the site before freaking out.) But this post is a happy story already because just across the parking lot is our equally historic Roosevelt Center (named because the town was created as a project of the New Deal) and here the beds look great with almost no maintenance – thanks to full-grown shrubs. Yes they’re the common ‘Anthony Waterer’ and even commoner Nandina domestica, which probably wouldn’t be chosen today, but it’s thriving and a popular place for birds nests.
Misplaced hostas don’t seem to stop people from loving this spot and occasionally using it as a backdrop for portraits. Here we see the cut-flower farmers I profiled in this post, with the farm. They were in town this week and posted this photo to Facebook, clearly enjoying the chance to dress up a bit and show off some fancy red shoes not suitable for the farm.
In this view I’d love to see some low shrubs here instead of these common daylilies, which look fine to me when they’re blooming and like crap the rest of the year. People see this small garden at such close range, there’s no room in it for mostly-crappy-looking plants.
On the right in this photo is the sunny little ex-weed patch in its second season after I rescued it. And here too I think it needs fewer perennials and a couple more shrubs. The Sedum groundcover (S. takesimense) is a big hit and I plan to let it spread, though last summer I worried for its survival in this spot. Passersby were letting their dogs dig and uproot whole chunks of it, so I’ve moved it away from the sidewalk a bit and now I’m feeling optimistic about its survival, dogs be damned. Mostly Shrubs for a Low-Maintenance Superstar Garden originally appeared on Garden Rant on June 15, 2018. Via Gardening http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://wendyimmiller.blogspot.com/2018/06/mostly-shrubs-for-low-maintenance.html June 16, 2018 at 01:58AM
Senate Farm Bill Committee Draft Reflects Young Farmer Needs
On Friday afternoon, the Senate Agriculture Committee released its long-awaited draft of the 2018 Farm Bill. In stark contrast to the hyper-partisan approach of their House counterparts, Senate Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) offered a bipartisan alternative, the product of months of negotiations and consensus-building. The result is a bill that, despite a challenging fiscal and political climate, contains significant wins for young farmers and ranchers. The Senate bill includes many proposals outlined in NYFC’s Young Farmer Agenda. And it’s clear that the tireless work of young farmer leaders throughout NYFC’s farm bill campaign has paid off, and those voices have been heard. No bipartisan bill is perfect, however, and we’ll highlight some areas for improvement below. The Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduled to amend and approve the bill on Wednesday, June 13th. Here’s a summary of what they got right and what NYFC members and supporters need to get changed: Via Gardening http://www.rssmix.com/ via Blogger http://wendyimmiller.blogspot.com/2018/06/senate-farm-bill-committee-draft.html June 13, 2018 at 05:09PM
Victory in Colorado! Bipartisan Apprenticeship Bill Becomes Law
Over the last year, NYFC chapters and members across Colorado testified, authored op-eds, met legislators in Denver, and brought legislators out to the farm to talk about the importance of supporting beginning farmer education through apprenticeships. SB18-042, a bipartisan effort to create an Agricultural Workforce Development Program is the result of their efforts. Today, Colorado Governor […] Via Gardening http://www.rssmix.com/ via Blogger http://wendyimmiller.blogspot.com/2018/05/victory-in-colorado-bipartisan.html May 25, 2018 at 03:11PM
Container rules are meant to follow, bend, or break by Elizabeth Licata
I love this shape for smaller pots. In a recent column, Washington Post gardening columnist Adrian Higgins addressed the long-hallowed “thriller/filler/spiller” theory of container gardening. He defended it and debunked it at the same time, which seems right to me. While it’s true that the drama of a tall plant is heightened by contrasting plants that spill over the sides and fill in the middle, there are plenty of other ways to create great containers. One big beautiful plant—papyrus, coleus, colocasia, banana—or a colorful array of dense annuals can be glorious in a good container. Ordinarily, however, I do like color contrast. My favorite contrasts are various permutations of yellow/purple/white, and green (light green). It tends to work better if the contrasting plants have different forms and textures, so you find yourself following t/f/s almost by default. There are other elements where I agree and disagree with the how-tos. Soil 
This (the little black one) is the smallest container I’ve ever planted. Probably not in there for the long haul. Containers Please note: the whole idea of putting shards, gravel, packing peanuts etc. in the bottom of pots for drainage has been thoroughly debunked by our friends, the Garden Professors, many times. Just google it. 
Milk delivery box Goofy containers I know that some gardeners think of containers as high maintenance or otherwise troublesome. Not me. They’re excellent vehicles for experimenting with new annuals, enjoying tropical outside, and having fun with color. Agree? Container rules are meant to follow, bend, or break originally appeared on Garden Rant on May 22, 2018. Via Gardening http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://wendyimmiller.blogspot.com/2018/05/container-rules-are-meant-to-follow.html May 23, 2018 at 02:13AM
Kentucky’s Secret Gardens by Allen Bush
Looking for inspiration and information? Catch a glimpse of Kentucky’s Secret Gardens. Author Tavia Cathcart Brown hosts the documentary, sponsored by Kentucky Education Television (KET). I was flattered to be included in a small piece of the first round of Kentucky’s Secret Gardens, and I enjoyed the show more than I had imagined. Videographer and Co-Producer Frank Simkonis shot some beautiful footage. The drone shots of the prairie are way cool. As soon as I walk into a garden I can tell if it is loved or not. I’m partial to gardens that are tended hands on. Passionate and committed gardeners have created vastly different Kentucky Secret Gardens. See for yourselves.
I’ve never been to these Kentucky secret gardens. (Where have I been?) I’m ready to pack the car for a road trip to Woodford County, Lexington, Newport, Berea, Eubanks and Louisville. I’d love to visit them all. The program held my attention from beginning to end. Rose enjoyed it, too, but thought that, clocking in a little shy of one and half hours, it should have been divided into two or three segments. You can tape the show, if you’re in KET’s range or stream it from anywhere. There’s a good chance, based on early feedback that the success of the documentary might lead to a series of half-hour shows. I am all for that, as there is no shortage of beautiful Kentucky gardens.
The documentary is dedicated to the best-selling author and secret gardener Sue Grafton who passed away during the production of Kentucky’s Secret Gardens. There’s much more to see on Kentucky’s Secret Gardens. (You can cue the segment on our two-acre Salvisa prairie at 40 minutes.) Tune in.
Photos courtesy of Kentucky Educational Television Kentucky’s Secret Gardens originally appeared on Garden Rant on May 19, 2018. Via Gardening http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://wendyimmiller.blogspot.com/2018/05/kentuckys-secret-gardens-by-allen-bush.html May 19, 2018 at 11:40PM
Making Gardens Safer from Ticks: No More Wildlife Gardening by Susan Harris
I recently wrote about how gardeners freaked out about Lyme Disease are supposed to dress for gardening. It’s NOT a pretty picture and to prove that I’ll be posing for a shot of me in near-hazmat attire, ready to tackle a few gardening chores in my garden. Today we explore the tick-prevention changes we’re told to make to our gardens, a subject that’s even more depressing.
How Ticks get on Gardeners About 70 percent of people that contract Lyme disease catch it from ticks in their own yards. So how does it happen?
Here’s what we’re told to do to make our gardens safer:
Yet this illustration and a comment about it demonstrate that “ticksafe” zones are far from foolproof.
That may just be one anecdote but neighbors have tell me they get ticks just from walking on mowed grass, so I’m assuming there’s no safe height for turfgrass. Can we Still Have a Wildlife-Friendly Yards? I found one source addresses this obvious dilemma:
Meadows are safer than what – shrubs? – but not as safe as open lawn, except around the edge. So if we could transport ourselves into the interior of a meadow somehow, we’d be safer than…. oh to hell with it! The take-away here is obviously that “Little information is available,” to which I’d add “but it’s obvious that wildlife gardening is the opposite of tick-safe gardening.”
About the suggestion that people spray “to protect your yard,” another source says: “To treat your yard or other outdoor areas, a product called SEVIN can be applied. Sevin Wait! Readers are concerned about the smell and the cost but not about what else Sevin kills besides ticks? What about those 500 “pests”? More on spraying: “Consider removing shrubbery and flowers from the base of your house or treat those areas with Sevin to prevent ticks from being in close contact with your home. Removing shrubs will also discourage animals from nesting or bedding there.” Sure, while I’m removing most of the damn plants in my yard, why not all the foundation plants, too? And oh, this makes me crazy: “Consider making your pets either inside pets only, or outside pets only.” Coz it’s easy enough to do that, right? What’s it Safe to do in the Garden? I still haven’t found an answer to this question about everyday gardening: What, if anything, can I do in the garden without gearing up in protective clothing? Having found no answer to that question, here’s my plan: Just water. Touch no plants. Which makes this gardener just so sad. Sources: State of CT, LymeDisease.org and TickEncounter.org. Making Gardens Safer from Ticks: No More Wildlife Gardening originally appeared on Garden Rant on May 18, 2018. Via Gardening http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://wendyimmiller.blogspot.com/2018/05/making-gardens-safer-from-ticks-no-more.html May 18, 2018 at 11:40PM |
We all need to be bigger pains in the ass. Especially if those asses are the right ones (you know who I’m talking about).
Above is a panorama shot of the most common pedestrian approach into Roosevelt Center on the right. You can see there’s still room for clumps of perennials here and there, though not all of them like it. The worst are the hostas in this sunny spot; they’ll look burned-up from late June until frost.
Above is a panorama shot of the most common pedestrian approach into Roosevelt Center on the right. You can see there’s still room for clumps of perennials here and there, though not all of them like it. The worst are the hostas in this sunny spot; they’ll look burned-up from late June until frost.
seems to have the least offensive chemical odor and is recommended for killing ticks. It can be applied to your dogs bedding area to help kill ticks that may gather there. Carefully follow the directions on the label. Sevin is usually less expensive than some of the other products on the market.”
RSS Feed