I love the outdoors. As a kid growing up in South Carolina, nature always attracted and inspired me. Carrying nets and jars, I frequently walked through the woods to creeks or ponds looking for tortoises, turtles, crayfish, snakes, salamanders, frogs, toads, caddisfly larvae (which we called ‘little terds’ for obvious reasons), and anything else too slow to escape. My mom was not always happy to see what new creature I had brought home. But she understood I was only imitating naturalists David Attenborough and Rudy Mancke after hours of watching them explore and explain wilderness on PBS.
It was all about animals then. Only the edible plants caught my attention. Wild honeysuckle flowers, maypop fruits, native grapes, and messy walnuts were happily sampled while hiking. However, most other plants were invisible to my young eyes. Of course, I had to do yardwork and help my grandfather with his massive vegetable garden; but at the time those were just exhausting chores.
Fast forward a decade plus and I’m a college graduate (Go Northwestern!!) in Chicago. Almost subconsciously, I missed the sounds, smells, excitement, and tranquility of nature. I began regularly walking through Chicagoland’s extensive Forest Preserve system. The lack of easy-to-catch fauna and a newly acquired adult perspective allowed me to focus on the trees and entire natural community instead of just a few animals. Walking the woods became one of my favorite pastimes again.
A few years later I began gardening as way to bring more nature to an urban backyard. I couldn’t always get away to the forest preserves, so I hoped to create a little piece of nature for me (and family too). I started with my ma’s Chicago backyard that had the typical patchy grass, weeds, Siberian elms, and a few daylilies tucked along the chain link fence.
I originally wanted to create a backyard habitat populated with native shrubs and wildflowers that would provide food and shelter for birds, butterflies, and other friendly fauna. From the first shovel thrust my gardens have been tended organically. The decision wasn’t made to be trendy (“organic” had yet to go mainstream). I simply wanted to restore that piece of ground to a representative natural habitat. I figured Mother Nature didn’t use backpack sprayers or granulated grow-good fertilizers.
I quickly learned that gardening is a never-ending process, a continual journey requiring constant learning and adjustments. I took the Chicagoland Master Gardener course and excelled. Soon I was teaching MG re-certification classes. To understand more about living systems and ecology I enrolled in University of Illinois Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences Masters program.
Years of courses and experiences have forced me to realize that true ecological restoration cannot be accomplished in a tiny backyard surrounded by an urban matrix. That was a great epiphany and crucial part of my evolving gardening process. I switched to a sanctuary theme. I became less rigid in my teachings and more accepting of other practices. The goal was still the same (create an aesthetically pleasing space with natural elements) but without the emphasis on complete habitat restoration.
Water gardens, koi, hellebores, dwarf conifers, tropicals, and lilies made the yard a magical oasis amid asphalt, concrete, and typical lawns. Best Management Practices kept the garden organic and “green”. After all sanctuaries should be non-toxic. Greening and gardening became synonymous.
I see gardening (which includes farming) as the anchor to the green movement with recycling, reducing, repurposing, retrofitting, remediation, restoration, and conservation being some other components. Planting and cultivating have numerous environmental benefits. Crops, trees, flowers, and turfgrasses filter pollution, increase surface permeability, reduce storm water run-off, bind toxins in the soil, reduce surface temperatures, buffer noise, provide habitat for animals, etc.
Of course there are different levels of gardening and they have different impacts. People who compost regularly (instead of dumping kitchen scraps and garden debris into the trash) reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly. On the other side, those who incorrectly fertilize their lawns and cornfields contribute to the water pollution that creates dead zones in ponds and estuaries around the world.
I believe the responsibility of stewardship sits more heavily upon the gardener’s shoulders. Because gardeners are typically more in tune with their surroundings and because gardeners’ actions directly impact their environment (for good or bad) I contend that gardeners must lead the green movement. As stewards we have to remember the old natural tried-and-true ways and also be early-adopters of new greening methods and technologies.
This all sounds serious, but greening is intuitive and fun. It is physically invigorating, mentally relaxing, and spiritually restorative. Greening is both good and good for you, like honey or red wine.
Don’t stress about it and approach it at your level. Any type of gardening is greener than not gardening at all; so don’t let pursuit of perfection stop progress. For example, it’s nice to use native wildflowers, but your neighbors, the butterflies, and you will also appreciate a planting of colorful hybrid annuals. Using only beneficial biologicals for pest control would be satisfactory; but I can tell you personally that when you have a thrips infestation it’s time to go to plan B.
Trial-and-error (lots of them) has shaped my gardening philosophy: get outdoors, enjoy yourself, and have a positive impact on your environment. Whether you are planting a hanging basket, school plot, soybean field, or prairie restoration site, garden as green as possible and have fun.
My blogs will cover sustainability, best management practices, environmental science, integrated pest management, new tools, organic certification, and the joys of outdoor life. Please join the debate as we discuss greening in the 21st century.
IMHO you’ve got the right anwser!