What's the Point of Gardening? A Gardening Ethic for Our Times

Why do you garden?

If you're like me at all (and I suspect that many gardeners are), you probably have several reasons you garden - several passions that gardening feeds - several functions that gardening performs in your life....

I garden because it makes me feel good to see flowers blooming around my home.

I garden because it's a form of exercise that I enjoy and it gets me outside, in the fresh air.

I garden to increase our property value (I hope).

I garden to provide some good, chemical free food for us to enjoy.

I garden because plants and animals fascinate me in their infinite variety.

Most of all, though, I garden because it's my way of doing something very concrete, very local, and very specific to make the world healthier and more ALIVE.  I garden, and I garden the way I do, because it's my way of helping to heal the life force on our planet, which seems to be in serious danger from the increasing human assaults on it over the last 100 years or so.

"Okay, Cynth, " I can almost hear you sigh.  "What brought this up?  Can't we just look at pretty pictures and move on?"

Well, of course you can.  But I read something the other day that really got me thinking about my role as a gardener.  Ben Vogt of Nebraska, who blogs at The Deep Middle, posted a commentary that struck a deep chord with me:  "Is There Any Difference Between a Land Ethic and a Garden Ethic?"
Hmmm.  Is there?  Why DO I garden?  Why do most people garden?

Ben started his thought-provoking post by quoting bits and pieces from Aldo Leopold's wonderful statement about developing a land ethic, as written in A Sand County Almanac.  Leopold finished writing this small, but important, three part book in 1948, just before he died.  The book was published a year later.  I think the most concise statement of Leopold's land ethic is actually written in Leopold's own forward to this book, "We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.  When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."  (My italics)

Filling the last 25 pages of A Sand County Almanac, the entirety of Leopold's "The Land Ethic" is certainly too long for me to quote here, but it's well worth reading...and rereading.  In it, he moves from showing how we humans have developed our ethical codes, first working on the relationships between individual humans and later developing codes such as the Golden Rule and democracy for how the individual relates to society as a whole and how society relates back to the individual.  Now, Leopold believed, it had become necessary to develop another layer to our ethical codes to govern how humans related to the land and to the plants and animals that shared it with them.  Otherwise, in Leopold's words, "There is no other way for land to survive the impact of mechanized man...."

Aldo Leopold wrote in 1948 and presumably developed his ideas even earlier.  What would he say about the way we treat the land, and the plants and animals on it, now?  I'm rather glad he's not around to see what we've done and, even worse, what we're in the process of doing.

Because I am around to see what we've done and what we're currently doing, I try to treat our little 10 acres according to Leopold's Land Ethic, adopting this ethical code, to the best of my ability, as my gardening ethic.  I try to treat our land, with its associated plants and animals, with love and respect, thinking of it as a community that I belong to rather than as a resource to maximize.  Realizing that communities - like most complex things - are healthier when they have all of the parts that they should have, I am trying to reintroduce plants that have disappeared over the last 150 years while this parcel of land was being extensively and intensively farmed.  I'm hoping that, as the plants reestablish, many of the smaller animals will find their way back too.

My goal is to have as stable, as healthily functioning, a prairie community on our 10 acres as I possibly can.  Someday, perhaps, the plants and animals that remain on this tiny piece of land will serve as a source to move back out into the wider landscape as a whole, helping to heal it as well.

Towards the end of "The Land Ethic," Leopold talked about a schism among folks who work with and on the land - he called it a cleavage - that divided people into 2 camps which deeply affected their relationship to the land they worked with:

In all of these cleavages, we see repeated the same basic paradoxes:  man the conqueror versus man the biotic citizen;  science the sharpener of his sword versus science the searchlight on his universe; land the slave and servant versus land the collective organism.  Robinson's injunction to Tristram may well be applied, at this juncture, to Homo sapiens as a species in gelogical time:

Whether you will or not
You are a King, Tristram, for you are one
Of the time-tested few that leave the world,
When they are gone, not the same place it was.
Mark what you leave.

As a gardener, which cleavage do you belong to:  the conqueror or the citizen?  Is your garden your slave and servant or a community that you belong to?  When you are gone from your garden, what will you leave for the future?  What mark will you have made?

Community Rules: Prairie Larkspur and Friends

Neighborly generosity ruled on Friday evening - Sid, one of my fellow Master Gardeners and also a fellow Clearwater-ian (?!), had called that morning to tell me he had prairie larkspur (Delphinium carolinianum) blooming in his pasture.  Did I want to take a look?

Did I want to take a look?  Heck, yes, I wanted to take a look! I wanted to take a couple pictures, too, if he didn't mind.  He didn't, so we set a time in the evening, when the light would be good, for me to drop by.  At the appointed time, my camera and I made the journey over to Sid's house and off we went on a tour of exploration. 

Sid is a descendant of one of the original homesteaders in the area.  Even more amazing to me is that he and his wife live on land that was actually claimed and homesteaded by his pioneer ancestors.  In a culture often characterized by rootlessness, Sid's roots run deep, right where he, himself, is planted. 

The first thing Sid pointed out to me were three trees, 2 of which he planted as seedlings about 25 years ago.

On the left is a bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa), in the center is a catalpa (Catalpa speciosa), and on the right is an osage orange (Maclura pomifera).  The differing growth patterns of these tree species are so beautifully highlighted here:  the lighter green, large-leaved, upright catalpa in the middle; the young, but soon to be rugged, dark green presence of the bur oak; the gently arching, bright green dignity of the old osage orange, allowed to grow into its natural form, rather than having been hacked back into tortured crippledness.  I'm hoping to get invited back in the winter to take a photo comparing their bare branch structures.

Sid led me up to the catalpa so that I could take a couple photos of its flowers.  They were high enough up in the tree that I couldn't get too close, but Sid snagged a couple individual blooms to let me take in their sweet, rich fragrance.

As we walked on, I saw purple poppymallow, yarrow, spiderwort (with its flowers done for the day), cats claw sensitive brier, and many other prairie natives.  There were several blue Baptisia plants and one large cream Baptisia whose blooms were done for the year.

Then we came upon the prairie larkspur...

and I realized that I had seen it before, from a car window whizzing by as we traveled 60 mph down the road.  However, I'd mistaken the dainty, white spires for a small species of Penstemon.

Up close, the spurs of "larkspur" were obvious in the blossoms

and the dainty, fern-like leaves also reminded me of my domestic larkspur. 

How in the world do those fragile leaves collect enough energy to send up such a large and glorious bloom spike?

In the same general area as the larkspur were many seed heads of another prairie plant it had taken me a long time to find and recognize: Junegrass (Koeleria macrantha).

To be sure that I was identifying this grass properly, several years ago I'd finally purchased a couple plants at the Dyck Arboretum plant sale and placed them in my flower beds.  They've done well there and it's become one of my favorite native grasses to garden with - not too tall, nicely clumping, with attractive seedheads that hang on throughout the year.  It's one of the few cool season grasses in the prairie, too, so it greens up, flowers and seeds earlier than most other grasses here.

There were many other interesting plants in the prairie, but the last one I'll share with you was a glorious blue wild indigo (Baptisia australis).

Walking back up to the house, I happened to see an older blue baptisia bloom spike that was developing seed pods, highlighted against the sun.  In the larger pods were what looked like drops of water - seeds just beginning to develop?  I don't know, but the richness of the colors and the image made me happy, so I'm sharing it here with you.

There is so much beauty around us: in nature, in friends, and in communities.  Here's a mental toast to that beauty in all its many forms!

Helen Jane's rose

Helen Jane, the mother of one of my Clearwater friends, was the town's plant lady.  She was the only florist for many, many years, but more than that, she truly loved plants - all plants, as far as I can tell, not just flowers.  She came by this naturally, as her mother had always been fascinated by plants too.


About 3 or 4 years ago, Charlotte (my friend) had the sad duty of clearing out her parents' home before selling the house.  She invited me over to rescue as many of the plants as I could before she put the house on the market.

Sadly, my flower beds were new and not very extensive at this point, so I was only able to take a small number of the plants available in this wonderful woman's yard.

As Charlotte went around the yard, pointing things out to me, she pointed out a large, overgrown rose bush.  It was mid summer and the bush had long since quit blooming, but Charlotte said that this had been her mother's favorite rose.  I obviously couldn't dig up the entire bush, so I tried digging up a start from a low-lying branch that had developed a few roots.  I also weighted down another branch with a brick, after doing a partial cut across its diameter, then went back later to dig up the resulting start.

I don't remember which of my two attempts took, but one of them did and now, 4 years later, the shrub rose to the right of the obelisk is the result.  (The one to the left is a Knock-Out.)  Without the blossoms loading down the branches, this rose is actually much more rounded - taller, rather than shorter and wide.

It's a big, beautiful, vigorous rose that has received absolutely NO special care once it was obviously established, even last summer.  There are very few thorns along the branches.  It blooms once a year in the spring and, as you can see, it is truly loaded with highly fragrant, pink blossoms when it blooms.  The blooms average just over 3" in diameter.  I've had no problem with black spot or any other malady, specific to roses or otherwise.

For any rose people out there...do you have any idea what this rose might be?  I call it Helen Jane's rose, after Charlotte's mother, but I would be interested in knowing its "real" name, if it has one.

Whatever its "real" name is, I will forever think of Charlotte's mother when I see (and smell) this rose.  I just wish I'd had the opportunity to know this special woman.

Potting Day

Today is Potting Day for the Sedgwick County Extension Master Gardeners.  It starts in an hour, meaning I need to leave in about 30 minutes.  With 30 minutes to fill, I decided to share photos of what my offerings look like in full bloom.

Larkspur.  Yes, it's an annual.  But, if you put it (in full sun or light shade) where you'd like it to reseed, it will come back reliably year after year.  I'm not sure what the species of my variety of larkspur is, so I can't say for certain whether or not it is native.  It certainly needs no extra care and seems to attract bees readily.

Aromatic aster (Aster oblongifolius).  I originally planted both 'October Skies' and 'Radon's Favorite', which have long since cross pollinated.  The species is native.  This somewhat washed out photo is from last fall, towards the end of our horrible heat and drought.  It shows the aromatic aster underplanted with gaillardia along my front walkway.  These plants got very little water all summer, yet still they bloomed beautifully.  Word of caution:  aromatic asters look like yellow-green mounds of nondescript shrubbery (about 2' tall and 3' wide) for much of the summer, but they are covered with purple blooms in the September-October time frame.  They bloom for a long time and are some of the last flowers to come into bloom in my garden.

Wild bergamot/beebalm (Monarda fistulosa).  I have seen this species growing in the middle of a hot, dry prairie in SW Iowa, so I am going to transplant some into a similar locale to see how it does.  So far it's doing very well in my garden bed, where it also got almost no extra water last summer.  The clump has expanded to a large (3') diameter over several years, but it has not "run" like many of the other Monardas do for me, so I do not consider it invasive or particularly aggressive.

Sand lovegrass (Eragrostis trichodes).  This beautiful, relatively small prairie grass is wonderful, although it will seedreadily, so watch for seedlings nearby and pull them if you don't want a clump in that spot.  Sand lovegrass tops out at about 2', with a light airy seed head, looking very much like a smaller, refined version of switchgrass.  This photo was taken 3 months ago, in January.

Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis).  Judging from the number of seedlings that I have under my "bird trees", this relative of elms is one of their most popular foods!  It's reputation is that "everything eats it, but nothing kills it".  The leaves are rather rough and ready, but the overall form of the tree is attractive, it's hardy, and (did I mention?) the birds love it!  I do not, however, have a photo of it at this time.

Early, deep/bright purple iris.  A passalong from my father-in-law, this iris has done exceptionally well for me.

So that's this year's line-up of passalongs.  I'll be curious to see which ones are most popular!

So What Kind of Citizenry Are We Aiming For???

I feel grinchy, but more and more these days, it feels like we're trying to raise a nation of citizens suited best for hand-to-hand combat, or plowing fields without machinery, or running the Pony Express without the ponies.  I don't know the numbers, but it seems like even our colleges and universities are more likely to award "scholarships" based on athletic ability than on scholastic ability.  Really, folks, let's call these "athletiships" and at least be honest about it.

In our local paper (and in most local papers that I've seen), the sports section is at least as large as the national and international news, if not larger.  Tyler Teenager, awarded a minor football scholarship to a junior college, gets a huge photo and more inches of column space than some major national piece of legislation that will effect our lives for decades.  The public school systems rush to cancel arts and music programs when times get tough, but they sure don't seem to consider sports programs for any meaningful cuts.

I understand that sports are fun.  I understand that some kids do much better at sports than at academics.  I understand that parents and community members like to socialize at sports' events and cheer their kids on. That said, school is supposed to prepare us for adult life, and I just don't see sports programs preparing today's students for much of anything but Sunday quarterbacking.

Seriously, in today's world the ability to catch a football or jump hurdles or wrestle an opponent to the ground and pin them DOESN'T TRANSLATE TO FUNCTIONAL ADULT SKILLS that will put food on the table, buy a house, or help a citizen decide which candidate is helping make our country stronger and which candidate is giving away the farm.  It's these latter skills that the public school system is supposed to be helping our children be able to perform.

We're not going to do anything but spiral further down in the world economy when our community focus is more on training our children's bodies than on training our children's minds.

Personally, I think it's time to take all sports out of public schools and make them community intramural programs, funded by those who choose to participate.  If the local taxpayers want to subsidize part of the expense or give "athletiships" to underprivileged kids, that's great.  Otherwise, let's separate competitive sports from education and make realistic choices about where our money should be going.

Our schools need to return to being focused on academics, rounded out by basic gym classes, music classes, and art classes.  Homework should not be dependent on whether the kids are tired because of sports' practice, but rather on the practice needed to learn the material deemed necessary.  Standardized tests need to be minimized - a once a year per grade level, nationwide exam should be sufficient.  (The key is that the community needs to be aware of the results, especially the trend of the results, and put pressure on the school board accordingly.)  Results of standardized tests should be normed in some way, based on the number of special ed students that a school district is servicing who take the exams.   A child with an IQ of 70 is not going to be able to function on a standardized exam at the same level as a child with an IQ within normal range, no matter how much extra tutoring or special teaching he/she receives.  A school should not be penalized for serving a higher than normal proportion of children with lower academic "hardwiring."

It may be appropriate to award different levels of graduation certificates, ranging from whether a student showed up regularly and tried diligently to those that excelled in various ways.  There are many jobs where simply showing up and performing reliably is more important than being able to memorize a periodic table.    Employers might have a better chance of hiring suitable employees if they had a better way to evaluate their work ethic in this manner.

Let's be innovative and start teaching job skills at the high school level too.  For those who are geniuses with their hands, in mechanical or artistic ways, for example, let's offer appropriate baseline education in those fields.  All of us would do well with some basic mechanical knowledge, no matter what field we end up entering, just like those who become electricians or airline mechanics will benefit from basic history lessons as well.  Graduation certifications could be tailored to show competency or excellence in those specific areas.  Again, employers would reap the benefits of reliable information about the skills their entry-level employees were bringing to the table.

What initiated my rant tonight?  The article in The Wichita Eagle on Friday about more than 15,000 K-State fans showing up in Arlington, Texas, for a rally the night before the Cotton Bowl.  Now some of those may, admittedly, be K-State fans from the Dallas area - but I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of those are fans from Kansas who left their jobs, traveled to Dallas, stayed in hotels, and attended the Cotton Bowl.  No wonder kids think that sports are more important than academics!  Can you imagine any other sort of event - a job fair, an academic competition, a cultural event - that would draw that sort of enthusiastic, committed turn-out?  I'd be willing to bet that, for many "citizens," sports are more important than voting or political knowledge or community involvement or most other things that keep our country running, let alone academics.  And we wonder why our country is beginning to fall behind and spiral down economically?

I said I was feeling grinchy.  I know that the Cotton Bowl was a special time for K-State fans to have a good time, watch their team participate in a national event, and take a small break from their routine.  But my point remains:  this should have been an abnormal break, while the main focus in the day-to-day grind should be the important stuff.  The stuff that helps our lives improve from year to year.  Let's quit playing and start getting back to the real world, people.