When I was just a kid, quite young in fact, nature spoke to me in the midst of the urban jungle. A small patch of dirt, some shrubbery, a little bird, a cast of players neatly framed within a concrete boundary. Despite the oddity, something mysterious happened that day, leaving its indelible mark upon my consciousness… an epiphany, I suppose… rooted in life itself. The subtle essence of that moment remains… even today.
As a young adult, I worked in a nursery… surrounded by a sea of foliage and bloom, with winged ones coming and going, hiding in the cover, dipping into flowers, splashing in the water, scratching at the dry, hot soil, or lighting upon some random perch. Yet, while the creatures and the scene were a testament to bounty and abundance, there was little there, otherwise, in that backdrop to do more than merely appeal to the eye. Few flowers even had a fragrance. Many required a rigorous effort just to maintain their visual display. There was too much fuss over breeds which wouldn’t have survived their displacement without copious intervention.
The wealthy folks living in that neighborhood brought their patronage. They were concerned largely with appearances, or the cause of the yellow leaves they had in a sealed plastic bag, or how to kill whatever pest was spoiling the show. But, it is the conventional practice… to coddle the useless, needy, and even the poisonous fodder, by selling any of a plethora of chemicals available to control every conceivable ill, or to kill any possible invasion. It is the way things are.
Full of idealism, I saw the dichotomy and I didn’t like what I saw. A conflict arose in support of more natural means. So, thirty years ago, my imagination and my reality, attempting to align, conjured up some ‘What if?’ scenarios. What if… we promoted a more wholesome approach to landscapes? What if… we incorporated more organic methods which have been around longer than any of us? Now, I’m not suggesting we turn back the clock of progress here, but, what if… we returned more to our roots, to a more practical time? Will our society even consider these idealistic musings, or are we simply too seduced by the new and the easy?
I wonder why we continue to waste our energy on the poorly suited, non-native flora which don’t give anything back, aside from appealing to our discriminating minds. What is the harm done by encouraging the use of the beneficial and the edible? And, whatever happened to the compost pile? Or, what is the harm done in picking a tomato worm off the vine and feeding it to the birds, rather than spraying some pesticide that kills everything in its wake?
Yes, I’ve been a ‘greenie’ all my life or at least since She spoke her silent words to me those many years ago. I can only hope that now, and for as long as it lasts, that the ‘It’s cool to be Green trend’ leads to something meaningful, worthwhile and lasting in the long run. So, to a more sustainable future, I ask, “Is Green Hot in Your Garden Yet?”
Comments(11)