Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder


 As I grew up, I was often reminded of this simple concept: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is a truism that I embrace. In a world so focused on outer beauty, it is a concept that needs more embracing. The media constantly bombards us with ads designed to sell us products to enhance how we look to the world and almost nothing that challenges us to beautify what's inside of us. Sadly, the world of horticulture does the same.

So many landscapes are "sold" to us for their outer beauty. We grow up believing that there is beauty in a well-manicured landscape of "perfect" turf grass; one without weeds or bare spots, one that is lush, forever green, and needs constant tinkering to keep it that way. We plant for color and interest with no consideration for other attributes. As we proceed with this model as the norm, we've spread a lifeless covering across the areas where we live and work - without a clue as to what we've done. It is time that we looked at the inner instead of the outer beauty of our landscapes.

I see beauty in what a plant contributes - its inner beauty. The role a plant will play in bringing life to my landscape is its real beauty, not the color of its flowers or the intrigue of its foliage. That's not to say that many of my plants have outer beauty as well. Many of the species I've added here have seasonal beauty that I await with anticipation each year. It's just that this beauty is much less important to me than the other roles these plants play. 


The hawthorns (Crataegus spp,) that I've added throughout my yard produce exquisite blooms each spring, but these provide vital nectar and pollen for a great number of the insects I have designed this landscape for.  The fruit they produce feed birds and small mammals and the thorny stout branches provide cover. They are not a vacant beauty queen like so many of the plants currently in use around me in other landscapes. 

If we are going to have any impact on the now-startling loss of biodiversity in the world around us, we need to look to the inner beauty of our landscapes first and foremost. There is nothing beautiful about a plant that doesn't feed the world around us or that is a cultivar with its utility bred out. They are no better than plastic. Not every native plant has great utility and not every nonnative has none. It is our responsibility to choose wisely from all the choices we make. For the most part, it is the native plants, adapted to our growing conditions, that will provide the most utility. Embrace the inner beauty and do not be lured by the other model. When I now watch the wildlife that lives with me in this once suburban desert, I realize how significant our landscape choices are.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wildflower Meadows - The Importance of Grasses

Image
A Natural Wildflower "Meadow" - Apalachicola National Forest I grew up in the prairie Midwest and was fortunate to have been caught up in the prairie restoration movement that blazed brightly in the last few decades of this past century. Very little of our original prairie ecosystems remain as the rich prairie soils were quickly converted to agricultural uses as European settlers swarmed their way over the continent.  These ecosystems are extremely diverse, regardless of where they occur. From the tall-grass prairies of the Midwest to the rockland prairies of the Mid-South and the true dry prairie systems here in Florida where I now reside, there are several universal characteristics - they are some of the most species diverse systems in the world and they are dominated by grasses. Grasses, in all their many shapes and forms, are what form the foundation of any "meadow." That must also be true for all the "wildflower meadows" I see extolled on s
Read more

The Ethics of Collecting Seed

Image
I've been writing lately about seeds and using them to create what is often called a pollinator meadow. A great many of the plants in my new landscape were grown from seed. Frankly, I have always loved sowing seeds and watching them sprout. I started in early childhood and I've been doing it since. It's rewarding and the anticipation of waiting for seeds to sprout is difficult to match unless you play the lottery. I rarely purchase seeds. I collect them. When I can, I purchase a few plants of a species I wish to add to my landscape and I then collect their seed after they bloom. If a plant doesn't prosper sufficiently to set seed for me, it is not a plant I wish to continue to grow. Over the years, I've tried a great many plants that I've failed to adequately provide for. Today in my landscape, I'm trying a few that I've never tried before. The exceptions come from plants that are not available in the trade. To grow these from seed, I need to collect
Read more

A Pollinator Garden is More than Wildflowers

Image
A natural grass-dominated meadow in the shade Splitbeard bluestem - Andropogon ternarius Lopsided Indiangrass - Sorghastrum secundum Sites on social media that are promoting pollinator gardens are rife with posts about wildflowers. Folks seeking to make their landscapes pollinator friendly seem to be almost-universally focused on wildflowers. What these well-meaning people seem to not understand is the importance of native grasses. Meadows, prairies, and other wildflower-dominated systems are mostly grass. Grasses form the backbone of every one of these plant communities. It isn't the wildflowers. They simply provide most of the color - but a living landscape is not about color, it's about creating habitat, and this habitat requires us to incorporate native grasses. It is true that the vast majority of grasses, and their graminoid relatives, are wind pollinated. They do not provide nectar and pollen for the most part, but despite that they are significant. More s
Read more