Need to give your spirits a lift? One of my favorite ways is to take a ride in the country and the rural towns. The countryside surrounds me with beauty and a sense of place. It lifts my spirits instantly and sets my imagination to soaring. Country towns often give me a lift as well. If you’re in the countryside, you can’t mistake what part of the country you’re in, and each area has its own magic. Why do so many of our cities lose this magic?
I think it is because they often have no feeling of provenance or place of origin. A mall, McDonalds, high rises, Mcmansion suburbs—they all look the same. If you were dropped into one of these areas blindfolded, you wouldn’t be able to guess where you were for sure when you took the blindfold off. I’ve been thinking about how to turn this loss around. As we landscape our towns and individual properties we could keep a sense of place by using lots of plants that are native to the area. Using materials that are local to construct paths, walls, arbors and patios would also make one feel at ‘home’. An added advantage to using a majority of native materials in any landscape is that they are the most likely to be carefree, healthy and long-lasting.
As building happens, sites are usually clear-cut and bulldozed to make construction easy. It doesn’t have to be this way. Site surveys prior to construction could specify plants and already occurring resources that should be saved. These areas to stay out of during construction should be the first step in any development. Then roadways, house sites, areas to pile soil during foundation development and grade changes would fall into place. The resulting developments or single family houses would have some healthy full grown plant material such as trees, possibly stone walls and some areas of good healthy soil. They would have a settled natural feel that would make the homes fit into their sites.
Usually though as landscape planners, homeowners or town planners we are asked to work on areas where construction care to the landscape was more on the order of a bomb going off. It’s unfortunate but not hopeless. A soil analysis will give an idea what the existing soil would support. Then we can determine which native plants would flourish and accomplish our landscape spatial needs while returning some of the regional charter to the landscape. If whole developments, villages or groups of neighbors would work together to incorporate native trees and shrubs into the landscape, the character of the whole neighborhood would take on a regional magic. Imagine the fall season with Scarlet Oak groves, or Sugar Maple as a dominate tree canopy.
So next time you need a shrub or tree or even a perennial planting, think about what native plants would fulfill your needs. There are many nurseries now that specialize in native materials. A fun place to visit for ideas as well as plants is ‘Garden In The Woods’ home of the New England Wild Flower Society, Inc. It is in Framingham, Ma on 180 Hemenway Rd. The phone number is 508-877-7630. Check it out this spring when the wildflowers are in bloom.