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"What's in a Lawn?"
Calvin B. DeWitt
Windows on Creation! Each of us has a window through which we can envision a rich and fruitful Creation-- a vista on the world made whole again. It may be an aquarium or window box, yard or rooftop, church or neighborhood, field or woodlot-- kept, nurtured, and encouraged to be what it could and should be: multifaceted, verdant, joyful. One such window in my life is my lawn.
If you were to visit our place, you would find my lawn looking much like any other-- it is green, it is lush, it is regularly mowed. But it is much more than first meets the eye. You see, my lawn has within it some 70 species of plants, and numerous animal creatures as well. The difference between this lawn and many others comes from my viewing it not so much as decoration, but more as home for a profusion of marvelous life-- both resident and transient creatures. This past fall, 10,000 migrating grackles winged to our knoll and dropped in on its green blanket to harvest the abundant acorns; In return they left behind a scattering of black feathers and 10,000 (and more) droppings of fertilizer packets, each containing life-bearing seeds ingested earlier from who-knows-where.
Then there were 30 Cedar Waxwings whose three long visits stripped our giant elderberry bush bare; as they left they brought life-bearing elderberry seeds they soon would be dropping, encased in fertilizer packets, at still other places. And there were 300 Robins, who settled in for about a week to feast from my lawn's rich larder of earthworms, laying in fatty fuel to energize their long migration south. Transient creatures feasting on organic foods. |
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Also here is a myriad of resident creatures who stay with my lawn through all seasons. Some are carried in by bird and wind. Others come from seeds I buy and still others from transplants from other lawns that have some things I do not yet shelter in mine. The birds, the wind, and I increase the variety and beauty-- together making it more joyous, more complete. Yes, it has the ubiquitous Broad-Leaved Plantain, Tooth of the Lion (Dent-de-Lion), and Poa, and it was, I recall, because of these and the joy I expressed for them that my students were inspired to celebrate my lawn with me by giving me a print of the famous painting: "A Great Piece of Turf," by Albrecht Dürer.
Sometimes, when my turf develops a weak spot in its green and rooty fabric, I seed it with clover. These plants, and other legumes-- each holding their leaves to the sun like small green crosses-- have root nodules that convert nitrogen from the air above into nitrogen fertilizer for the soil below through their resident nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Their restorative work helps weak spots gets vigorous again. And, when the native Toothworts or Anemones bloom in Springtime at the base of the oaks, I mow around them to preserve their vigor, allowing them to extend their presence here season after season. Migrants and residents. Creatures that drop in, and those that stay. Great variety in time and space, great wonder too!
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