Redefining Beautiful

Any parent knows how difficult it can be to get a child to bed. Putting a garden to bed as summer wanes used to be as big an effort. But for ecologically aware gardeners, the landscape is changing.

“It used to be like an event,” said garden expert Tovah Martin who owns Furthermore, a carefully cultivated seven-acre tract in Litchfield County. Martin, author of The Garden in Every Sense and Season: A Year of Insights and Inspiration from My Garden, as well as more than two dozen other books and many articles about gardening, said that the whole concept of horticultural beauty is changing as people begin to appreciate their connection to the Earth and the consequences of their horticultural behavior.

“My niece called me from Boston and she said, ‘I have some extra time, and I will come help you to put your gardens to bed.’ I told her, ‘I don’t do that anymore. It’s not like an event. I do it gradually.’”

And the reason that she does it gradually is that she is now more in tune with the rhythm of nature and the interdependence of flora and fauna. “I cut back as things look like they need to be cut back,” she said, “but I try to do as little as possible. I try to leave as much standing as I can for the birds for winter food. I try to leave plants with hollow stems for the insects. When I do cut back, I leave at least six inches of stubble because there are usually larvae in there.”

There is increasing awareness that human micro-management of the landscape flies in the face of nature’s intentions. As humans encroach on habitats, eradicate plants and dowse the land with herbicides, the creatures that depend on that habitat disappear. “Their numbers are being diminished,” she observed. “It’s frightening how quickly they can go from vibrant populations to almost extirpated. No one wants to ruin the world, they just don’t know.”

Martin is a member of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation—"all our nutty butterfly people are in groups like this”—a group dedicated to research, advocacy, public education and habitat improvement to reduce the threats of pesticide use and habitat loss.

“If you use pesticides, everything is affected by that,” she said. “Personally, I don’t think people know what their lawn companies do, what they are putting on their land. But they should have that dialogue and say, “I don’t want that put on my property.’”

Some of the changes are easy. As she spoke, she was looking out her window, watching some goldfinches feeding on the seeds of flowers past, a sight that brought her infinite pleasure. “The goldfinches are going crazy on the seed heads of coneflowers that have gone by. It’s like they are on a carnival ride. I love watching them,” she said.

Plants such as coneflowers, Black-eyed Susans, milkweed and ornamental grasses provide winter food for birds and insects, insulation for overwintering beneficials and prevent cold damage.

Martin is preaching a new gospel to those who read her books and articles or who attend her lectures. “I want to welcome people to a new definition of beautiful,” she said. “Beautiful now is what will serve wildlife the best. For me, I don’t look for a clean sweep anymore. Brown is beautiful and lawn is not even in the dialogue.”

She urges property owners to join in the “leave the leaves” movement. About 30 percent of yard waste goes straight to the landfill, according to the National Wildlife Federation, and even the roughly 60 percent that is composted presents issues for wildlife that depend on the leaf layer to overwinter. Many creatures, such as firefly larva and caterpillars, get carted away in waste bags.

“Leaving the leaves is so important,” she said. “When I was researching it, I found that the great spangled fritillaries (a North American butterfly) overwinter in Connecticut. They like violets so I have gone crazy on planting violets. The females are going crazy right now (feeding on violets) and then they need that comfy, cozy little pile of leaves for their larvae. I won’t allow a leaf blower on my property. They just blow all those little larvae to kingdom come. Raking is much better.”

She acknowledged that even raking is not perfect but said each homeowner “must follow their own drummer when deciding how many leaves to leave on the ground.”

“Some plants don’t like leaves piled on them, so don’t do that,” she advised. “And I’m not telling people to wade through leaves to get to their front door. Some people can’t do a whole cleanup in the spring, so pace yourself. Do what you want but consider this as a new way of gardening. You can get a gold star for being lax.”

She insists that there is a rustic beauty in the forms of plants that have passed their summer glory. “I love to look at thyme when it has frost on it,” she said. “It is so beautiful. And I love frost on the lacy foliage of yarrow.”

She particularly enjoys observing bees who spend the night on plants such as bee balm and Joe-Pye Weed. “They are so cute as they begin to wake up,” she said.

Other bee favorites for overnight slumbers—and a late summer sip of nectar—are coneflowers, goldenrod, asters, sunflowers and sedums as well as garden vegetables such as onions.

For those looking to preserve variety and color as the summer passes, she recommends a dependence on three-season shrubs and ornamental grasses with “as long a duration as possible. You get more bang for your buck.”

While not technically a shrub, she recommended amsonia which develops a dense, shrub-like form with upright, woody stems that die back to the ground each winter. Its abundant foliage and structure makes it function like a shrub in a garden, providing multi-season interest from its blue spring flowers to its golden fall color.

“Amsonia has beautiful flowers in the spring,” she said, “and turns bright yellow in the fall.” She also mentioned Iteas, shrubs also known as Sweetspire, noted for great flowers and clean spring foliage that morphs into fall color and blueberries, which flower in the spring, produce berries in the summer and bright foliage in the fall.

Flowers that continue to bring pleasure into the fall include echinacea (coneflowers), Russian sage, a herbaceous woody perennial that's easy to grow and virtually maintenance free, and asters, which she said are “great alternatives to mums.” Hydrangeas can continue to provide beauty and texture long have their blooms have dried.

“If you play your cards right, fall can be a huge last hurrah,” she concluded. “Everyone is talking about habitat and biodiversity, and you can just do your part. If you already have your garden, just change your habits a little. Redefine beautiful. If you are growing these things already, maybe don’t be so fanatically tidy.”