ecology – Gardening with My Homi

You accept death. You don’t take plants out, because they still look good. And brown is also a color.

-Piet Oudolf

Columns of tawny grasses and brown remains of perennials dominate my garden in November.

As a novice gardener who was short on time, I had never managed to do a proper fall cleaning—cutting back dead stems, deadheading spent flowers and removing decaying leaves— a standard horticultural practice. I felt guilty looking out at my garden full of brown seedheads, drying flowers, and leaves. But at the same time, I was moved by the beauty in the skeletal remains. There were various forms of seedheads– spikes, globes, fluffs and gossamer threads in many shades of brown from dark chocolate to pale beige. Then I found out about Piet Oudolf, a visionary Dutch garden designer who pioneered a naturalistic garden style. His gardens (I have been to a local one, the Highline, in Mahattan) evoke open meadows full of grasses and flowers. And as quoted above, browning flowers and seed heads are beautifully celebrated.

Spikes of Liatris spicata seed heads complement lavender aster flowers in my fall border. One often sees goldfinches dining on the Liatris seeds deftly balancing themselves on the swaying stems.

In recent years, a movement toward more ecologically sensitive gardening practices-including doing away with a meticulous fall cleaning-have been slowly gaining popularity. We are recognizing gardens play a role in promoting biodiversity and preserving the living world of both plants and animals. Fallen leaves provide shelter for butterflies and other insects, seed heads feed birds throughout the winter, and decaying plants feed the myriad microorganisms in the soil. So now when I gaze at the stark beauty of seed heads and brown remains of my winter garden, I see a landscape teaming with life.