But then, since I COULD mow my lawn if I wanted to... what in
the hell is going on here?
Well, what you're seeing is
not at all a “neglected” property. There is design at work here, and I actually
tend this land pretty intensively, but the general idea is: I'm intentionally
letting this landscape revert, with a little coaxing and pruning, to a more
natural, more diverse, more dynamic ecosystem. I'm "rewilding" the
landscape, to make it a more ecologically balanced home for greater diversity
of plants and critters; bees, butterflies, crickets, rabbits, and as it turns
out, the wild turkeys that now regularly patrol the estate!
Turf grass lawns are, in the
end, unsustainable, artificial monocultures that can only survive with
enormous inputs of resources; chemicals, water, fossil fuels and labor. Lawn
mowers, weed-whackers, hedge trimmers and their ilk are all obnoxious, loud
machines that fart enormous amounts of toxic greenhouse gasses. (Yes,
electric tools are a bit less obnoxious, but the electricity that powers them
is no less wasted, and comes from coal fired, pollution spewing power
plants.) So I'm done with them, and with the "Golf Course
Aesthetic" that has somehow become the norm for suburban landscapes across
much of the country.
Evolution is a competition, and
it’s “game on” here; any plant that cannot survive without me watering and fertilizing and protecting
it from predation is goin’ down to mother nature -as it should
be. “Weed”, like “beauty” is a
subjective human construct: a "weed" is just a name people call plants that grows where people don't want them to. Well, there are no “weeds” here, only “competitors”. Here, a Dandelion isn’t a weed: it’s a
hardy, edible green, with a pretty yellow blossom that attracts and sustains
honeybees -which are in a lot of trouble now, trouble that effects all of us.
Think of it as a
work-in-progress private nature preserve. Rather than forcefully imposing an
artificial, unsustainable, labor intensive monoculture on the land, I am
instead listening and watching closely, then selectively “sculpting” what wants
to grow here, what can grow here, more or less on it’s own. In order to do that, I need to pay
close attention. I need to learn
the names and ways of every plant and critter that decides to make a home here,
a challenge I relish -and much prefer to mowing the lawn! And I don’t
pretend any sort of pure, libertarian style neutrality here, by the way. I definitely
take sides, planting and encouraging certain wildflowers, herbs, fruit trees
and a few vegetables, pruning back aggressive human-introduced plants (like Privet and Euonymus) mowing and mulching paths, and so on.
Which, by the way, is
real work! My parents and
grandparents didn’t “go to the gym” to stay fit. They didn’t have to; they
worked the land with their own hands, which kept them fit and strong. So along
with the money I’m saving on expensive power equipment and fuel, I’m also
saving on gym fees!
So: Watch This Space!
Unlike a turf grass lawn, my little nature preserve will evolve and change over
time, from season to season, year to year. Without me mimicking the
effect of wildfire by mowing, the grasses that now wave gently in the wind (like
the prairies that once covered Kentucky before humans showed up and
started suppressing wildfires) will eventually give way to taller, less fire dependent plants, and ultimately, trees: Redbud, Dogwood, Sycamore, Chestnut, Tulip Poplar and so
on. I intend to enjoy watching all
that happen over time, and in the process, learning how to better live with, rather than on the natural
ecosystems of central Kentucky.
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