Report From PIA – March 20
At 5:32 PM, the spring equinox, I was outside finishing some garden cleanup. As I cut down some of last year’s perennial stalks and grasses, the first two of Barry Commoner’s Four Laws of Ecology ran through my head. “Everything is connected to everything else,” and “Everything has to go somewhere.”
A gardener knows this is true if he/she is paying attention in the landscape. As the plants are cut down and the leaves are raked, I see those wispy leaves from the Panicum and the Hachonechloa grasses and understand that they might soon be used to line birds’ nests.
I know that the oak leaves that have been trapped around Baptisia stems have protected the crowns of my perennials all winter, and are intended to amend the soil from the top down as they decompose.
I’ll put those leaves and dried grasses on the side of the property where the birds can find what they wish to use, and the rest can break down into compost.
Here’s what’s important to me on this first day of spring: I want to honor the wisdom of the way Mother Nature has set things up. I’m striving to remember that I too am connected to everything else and should act accordingly.
