A Passion for Green

Ok, I am going to admit some of my extreme greeness here.  Today, being green means being ecologically sensitive;  but for me, being green means loving plants, you know, the way people love their dogs, their kids, maybe their houses.  I’ll blame my mother who let me buy the book The Secret Life of Plants when I was a pre-teen, and my gardening dad can share some blame too.  So…I feel really guilty when I don’t take care of my plants properly…and…..although I love some of the extreme bloomers that Earl May and K-Mart sell these days, sometimes I wonder if these plants feel abused, their genes pushed to the extreme for the sole pleasure of humans, kind of like ultra thin models or 3 year old beauty queens.  Maybe we as humans just need to change our point of view and see the natural beauty in some of our native plants.  I know a lot of ecologically green people are doing that these days.  So here are some close ups of plants from yesterday’s rain garden.  Aren’t they beautiful?

If you live in Ames, have you wondered about the “weedy looking” lot next to the Ames Public Library? I stopped by there to take some photos last Saturday.  My understanding is that it is an example of a rain garden, planted for the purpose of slowing down water runoff during hard rains.  Remember the flooding of 2008 in Iowa? Some blame the changing landscape that has eliminated “weedy looking” areas, but these native planting alternatives to traditional lawn grass are much better at catching rain water, holding it, and keeping it from running and collecting in such a way that increases flooding.  People usually keep lawns, parks and highway landscaping mowed.  Shorter grass means faster runoff.  Another thing a lot of people never think of: when you mow frequently, the heavy equipment will compact the soil, making it harder and harder over the years and less able to absorb rainwater.

Think about what rain water will do if it falls on this

instead of this

Hmmm, I thought I had a better example of a closely cropped lawn, but you get the idea, right?!

If you visit our library, take a few minutes to escape to the prairie, walk the little path, run your hand through the fresh smelling sage, chatter with the wasps, bees and butterflies and think about the rain, where it comes from, where it goes…

I also love the Ames Public Library wild area because it reminds me that I’m not in Anywhere, USA, I’m Iowa, a state the was once over 80% prairie!

I don’t understand why every year I forget how breathtaking spring is. In the winter, I yearn for it, I day dream about it, but when May comes around, my breath gets taken away again, as if it’s the first time all over again. I’m not working full time right now, and that adds to my feelings of urgency to fully take in this brief flush of new life. I have the same feeling when I look at the children in my meeting, so young, new, sweet but fragile; and, the closer you observe, the more amazed you become. I love to take close up photos of flowers, to get the veins in the petals, the stamens, the puffy yellow pollen. I cut these crab apple blossoms from the trees around my apartment complex. The close up shows how perfectly designed each blossom is and yet with one bump or gust of breeze, all the petals come tumbling off and the showy beauty disappears. That reminds me that it’s all about the seeds. The fragile beauty slips away, but the seed producing core remains and pulls all the sunlight’s energy into it’s important task. Knowing this helps me look forward to summer and not mourn spring’s passing too much. The leaves on the trees are growing bigger and stronger every day now, rustling in the breezes, the tree flowers are mostly gone and summer is slipping in.