“Let your garden grow” is an interesting perspective on how we treat our immediate environment and, indeed, how we treat ourselves. Do we really think about how our immediate environment affects us, and how we affect it, or do we merely conform to the norms of the society we live in, however short-sighted they may be. “Let you garden grow” is the title of an article written about someone one who moved from the U.S. to Britain in 2018 and, for the first time, encountered a different way of looking at gardens. I think it is instructive for all of us, and has implications for our lives way beyond the actual subject matter of gardens. It is also fun to read, and I love the picture above where the owner of a 30,000 square foot garden almost disappears in it.
When Mr. Ligunas moved from up-state New York to Scotland he encountered a movement to let gardens grow naturally. In a trip to Somerset, Mr. Ligunas met locals who were participating in the “No-Mow May” campaign, organized by Plantlife, a conservation charity. Plantlife works with 95 British counties and has more than 5,000 households in support of “No-Mow May”. The “No-Mow-May” campaign was is designed to make a statement about how unnecessary they think it is to mow your lawn and keep it looking immaculate. “May” is the month they chose to admonish their followers to not cut their lawns for a month.
Monty Don, is a writer and host of U.K. TV’s “Gardeners’ World” and one of Britain’s celebrity gardeners, all of whom are in favour of ensuring lawns are at least a little shaggy. Don debuted the trend of shaggyness this year at the Chelsea Flower Show, the country’s most prestigious gardening event, and a reliable barometer of changing tastes.
The New York Times article by Mr. Ligunas asks, “So if the manicured lawns of Britain’s past are giving way to a more disheveled future, could America’s go wild, too?” I should add that the article’s author postulates that the reason American laws are expected to be so immaculate is that that idea was brought across from Britain to its then-colony, many years ago!
Penny Covington, 72, a retired financial adviser, (picture above) is a good example of this trend. She has let about two-thirds of her enormous garden grow wild, for ecological and aesthetic reasons. “I just plunk things in” she said. She mowed pathways through the grass, which is taller than her golden retriever, and through patches of valerian and lavender, which are interspersed with elderberry trees, potato beds and beehives. She doesn’t know many of the names of her plants, and that seems to be part of the fun. “You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to enjoy it”, is her philosophy. “I love being surprised because you’re never quite sure what’s there,” adding that she once found an adder, a slow worm (a legless lizard) and a mouse living together in her compost heap.
Mr. Ligunas said that he grew up surrounded by a sea of turf – his family had a big, empty lawn, front and back. They did use it, very occasionally, but for 99% of its life, it served no practical, recreational, agricultural or ecological purpose. Its aesthetic appeal, to put it kindly, was also limited. “Even back then I wondered if we owned the lawn or if the lawn owned us”, he remembered.
Surveys have shown that 45% of American said they felt happy or motivated about lawn care, while 15% felt “exhausted”, 14% “frustrated”, and 11% “drained”. Ken Ligunas asks, “What are we so afraid of, a dandelion?” I would suggest it is more likely that we’re afraid of the ire of our neighbors or the interfering busybodies that make up most community HOA’s (Home Owners Associations).
There is hope. “Wild Ones”, a non-profit based in Wisconsin, has some 100 chapters across the country. I live in Colorado, where water is in short supply and the natural environment is high-plains desert. Yet there are innumerable vivid-green lawns that cost a fortune in scarce water to maintain, let alone the huge effort to keep these sprinkler-soaked surfaces mowed and tidy. If you stop and think about it, it’s madness, and ecologically unsustainable. I think Penny Civington has inspired me to throw off the restrictions of my neighbors’ contempt and go native, at least as far as my garden is concerned??
