Luciole Design | blog

The rain garden, in this case a fancy word for a depressed area in the landscape where rain water can pond and slowly infiltrate back into the soil, is partially installed. The trick here is that we’re blessed with heavy clay soil, so we didn’t know if the rain garden would take days or weeks to drain. So far, it seems to empty out after about three to four days of dry weather.

Another trick is that the plants in the lower portions have to survive immersion for indeterminate periods. For this, we’re testing various meadow grasses and perennials to see what works. So far, everything appears to be thriving despite multiple immersions. The lowest point is planted with Deschampsia caespitosa and Carex pansa, with some Lupinus polyphyllus thrown in. Areas that are not normally subject to immersion have Festuca idahoensis ‘Siskiyou Blue’, Muhlenbergia rigens, Calamagrostis acutifolia, Schizachyrium scoparium and Achillea millefolium ‘Paprika’. In summer, the rain garden will become a flowering meadow adjacent to an outdoor dining area.

When complete, the rain garden will overflow into a sediment trap, then into a powered sump that will remove the excess water before the house starts to float. Hopefully with time, biological processes of root growth, burrowing worms and insects will naturally introduce organic matter into the underlying clay and make it more permeable.

Right now, it just looks like a large mud puddle, but we’re hoping that it will transform into a beautiful green area with an added ecological function.

First, I’m only talking about garden pests. Not roach infestations in restaurants or food processing centers. Just the usual bugs you’ll find in the usual garden. These are the inoffensive creatures whose only crime is being bugs in the wrong place (I’m excluding nesting hornets, and other “clear and present dangers”, too).

What I’m questioning is the need for “zero bug tolerance”. Aphids happen. They don’t last very long, since eventually the predator population builds up and reduces their population. But not to zero.

What about spiders? “Spiders are hard to kill, since they have very tiny feet,” as one pest control person, of the non-sustainable variety, said. But why do we have to kill them in the first place? Most of our spiders are harmless, and it could even be argued that they’re beneficial, since they eat mosquitoes that carry diseases that are much more harmful than the spiders.

If we’re planting things that are killed by insects, we decide that the insects are at fault – not the choice of the plant nor the environment into which its placed. So, we attack the insects, instead of just deciding to change the plant, modify the watering schedule or heaven forbid, just letting them live.

I’ve never seen an ornamental landscape plant killed outright by insects. I’ve seen them defoliated, but they recovered. Some plants have died, and insects have been contributing factors – but usually the plant was in a weakened state for another reason. However, I’ve seen many more plants killed by human error. Overwatering, frost tender plant frozen to black mush, wrong plant for the climate, acid loving plants in alkaline soil…

So why pick on the poor garden insects, spray a bunch of things that are strong enough to kill them around our homes?

Aphids, thrips, harlequin bugs, orb spiders, caterpillars… They all live in a well balanced garden, and some of them can even be kind of fun to look at as they stroll around the plants.

All things considered, most of the “bug” problems are in our heads, not in our gardens.

I was at a seminar the other day at a golf course, and was looking at all the energy consuming, toxic lawn. The lawn could probably made less toxic by applying organic growing techniques, it could consume less water if alternate species were used, or if the water applied were captured for reuse. However, it would still need mowing in order to be playable, and right now mowers use gas that could really be put to better uses.

So, here are some ideas about mowing, just because this subject came up at lunch…

Have the golfers mow the course with push mowers in exchange for play credit.

Put a counter on the wheel of the course (tamper proof, of course), and give out free play, lessons, etc. according to distance mowed.

Tow reel type mowers behind golf carts

Golf carts are electric, so they pollute less than lawn mowers. So, find a way of having them tow a reel type mower. Might have to widen the wheels or something, though.

Goats or sheep

For the real Scottish look, let animals do the job. No grazing during play, since beaning a sheep is not nice.

Hire lots of people to push reel type mowers

Have a big line of people mow the course using only human energy

That’s all we could think of before our food arrived.