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.

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