One of the great joys in writing a weekly column and blog posts - some days the only one - is the response from so many knowledgeable and thoughtful readers. I appreciate hearing what you're up to in your gardens and what you're thinking about the topics raised in my Seattle Times' columns and here on the blog...
Last week, Helga Jacques wrote in response to my pollinator pathways column in Pacific Northwest Magazine . She's dismayed at all the chemicals we pour onto our gardens, and offers an alternative, European vision of how to manage lawns and gardens...
" We need to educate the public on the evils of a perfect lawn, and on ways to have a more relaxed and natural look in gardens, a garden which invites life and does not destroy. I am from Austria and in this country, people have gone back to natural lawns and meadows," writes Jacques.
Here's what delighted me most about Jacque's email, and I only hope we can move toward the enlightened sensibility she describes....
"Your status as a home owner in Austria is not going up with a manicured look. People rave about the beauty of Austria, how everything is clean and green. But not only Austria has adopted this kind of thinking, the whole of western Europe falls into the same category."
Jacques concludes with a compelling question: " It is one world, pesticides and nitrates wind up in the ocean and circle the globe. What is sad, that we do not need that kind of perfect lawn. Who started this insanity?"
