The Suburban Growing Season As Seen From Above
Posted by Hazel Roberts in Whole Food 101Sometimes we just can’t throw something out. It lays around for years. Then one day “bingo”! I have saved this gem from a newsletter that I long ago subscribed to for just the right moment. This is the moment. I promise it will make you wonder why you do what you do to have the most beautiful lawn in your entire neighborhood. Here goes……..
The lawn owner observed the “Winterize your lawn NOW” sign outside the garden store and asked himself a perfectly obvious question. After watering, mowing, raking and watching a lot of it die anyway, why should he winterize? Hoping it was too late anyway, he decided that grass lawns have to be the most stupid thing humans have come up with to date. He wondered why people constantly battle the dandelions and clover and many other plants that just grow naturally for the privilege of nursing a grass lawn through an annual four-step chemical dependency program.
Just for kicks, imagine a conversation about this between The Creator and St. Francis. I guarantee you will love this exchange, and the best part is you may turn your lawn into a place where nature can actually thrive. The conversation goes like this:
“Frank, you know all about gardens and nature. What is going on down there?” The Creator asks what had happened to the dandelions, violets and stuff he started eons ago. He called it a no-mainenance garden plan that would grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply generously. Butterflys, bees and birds would all be attracted to the blossoms that bloomed everywhere. The Creator noted that by now he expected to see vast and colorful gardens…….not the unending green rectangles up and down endless streets.
St. Francis explained to The Creator that when the tribes, the “Suburbanites”, settled, they determined that such plants as dandelions and thistles were “weeds” and then through great effort killed them and replaced them with grass. The Creator lamented that grass was certainly boring and didn’t attract butterflys and bees and birds……..only grubs and sod worms. He asked, “Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing?” To which St. Francis responded, “Apparently so, Lord. They take great pains to grow it and keep it green. Each year they begin the season by spreading fertilizer and poisoning every other plant except the grass.”
The Creator mused that cool spring rains made the grass grow fast and that would make the Suburbanites very happy. But, St. Francis said he didn’t think so because as soon as there was a little growth they would cut it…sometimes twice a week. And, The Creator asked if they cut it and bale it like hay?
“Not exactly” said St. Francis. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags. To which The Creator asked if the bagged grass was a cash crop to be sold. To which St. Francis responded that just the opposite was true… In fact the Suburbanites paid to throw it away.
The Creator thought about it all a moment and assumed that the Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when he cut back on the rain and turned up the heat. He figured that would surely slow the growth and save them a lot of work. But St. Francis told him that is precicely the time when the Surbanites drag out all of their hoses and pay money for more water so they can keep mowing and paying to get rid of the clippings.
The Creator called that “nonsence” and gave the Surbanites credit for keeping at least some of the trees. In his plan the trees grow leaves in the spring and provide beauty and shade from summer’s heat. As the leaves fall in autumn they form a natural blanket to protect the trees and also shrubs as they hold moisture in the soil. And, as if that weren’t enough, the leaves eventually rot, forming a compost to enrich the soil. He called it the “Natural Circle of Life”.
Well, St. Francis didn’t want to upset The Creator, but told him anyway that the Surbanites had drawn a new circle of their own. They rake the leaves into big piles as soon as they fall and have them hauled away. Then they protect the roots of the trees and shrubs with mulch they buy at the store. St. Francis went on to explain that the mulch came from grinding up trees that they cut down.
The Creator didn’t want to hear any more about the Surbanites, and when it was suggested that they all sit down and watch the movie “Dumb and Dumber” the Lord said no thanks….that he had just heard the whole dumb story in his conversation with St. Francis.
This fable begs the question: “Why on earth do we do what we do???” “What CAN we do better??”
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