The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Earth Day offers evolving landscapes initiative
By Sheila Pursglove, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: March 20, 2008
As gardens and lawns emerge from under the winter blanket of snow, people's thoughts turn to grass seed, fertilizers, watering, and mowing.
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Gardeners might like to try a more planet-friendly approach this year.
As part of the Chelsea Earth Day celebrations - set for April 26 at the Chelsea Depot - organizers are promoting an "Evolving Landscapes Initiative."
"The idea is to get people excited about doing something different with their landscape, encouraging plant diversity," says committee chair Cathy Muha. "We would like people to reduce the carbon footprint of their landscapes.
"We will be encouraging them to do something that requires very little watering, and that attracts wildlife, butterflies. They could have prairies, rain gardens, use native plants."
Information and resources will be available on Earth Day and beyond, including on the group's website at www.chelseaearthday.org.
"In August, we'll have a picnic where all participants will come and share pictures and stories of their experiences with their lawns," Muha says.
Muha is joined on her committee by Chelsea resident Scott Morgan, who inherited his love of gardening and the natural world from his father, Grant Morgan.
"We had a large yard, about 2-1/2 acres, and Dad was always starting a new garden bed, tearing up an old one and putting it into lawn, trying grape vines and fruit trees and tearing them out again," Morgan says.
"When I got my own yard I began to garden in earnest, at first focusing on vegetables, but planting many trees from seed or seedling, Kentucky coffee beans, black walnuts, pin oaks, pines of all kinds.
"When we moved to our current house, I was thoroughly sick of black walnuts, but still liked Kentucky coffee beans and proceeded to start several from seed gathered locally."
Understanding that certain plants do well in Michigan while others struggle, Morgan first began to focus on things that grow well in the Wolverine state, and are from northern nurseries. He bought a lot of stock from Gee Farms near Stockbridge.
"I became interested in what grew locally in the woods and fields around Chelsea," he says. "I became involved in restoring woodlands at Friends Lake Community that were overgrown with invasive shrubs and vines and for a while that was a passion."
When the family first moved to their home on Darwin Drive, the garden was completely bare, brand new with hydro-seeded lawn over raw clay.
Someone loaned Morgan a copy of "Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards," by Sara Stein. Morgan tried to emulate - without much success -- Stein's idea of islands of native plants surrounded by strips of lawn
"The islands of trees and shrubs were a dismal failure, becoming weedy, with lawn getting into the islands and plants getting out into the lawn," he says.
"The only successes were the trees and shrubs themselves and the two large islands of prairie plants, the one in front of mostly plants that like dry sunny areas and the one on the side with more edge environment species.
For the first couple of years he was kept busy weeding, as he had lots of clovers and even alfalfa, as well as ragweed and other annual weeds.
"Now I just pull the few Queen Anne's Lace and sow thistles that pop up," he says.
"I first consulted the local noxious weed ordinance, as I had heard horror stories of people who converted their lawns to garden coming home to find it mowed and a bill from the local government for the mowing!
"Chelsea's ordinance focuses on particular species that are agricultural weeds. The vast majority are invasive European weeds that I didn't want anyway."
To further help gardeners stay "green," the Garden Mill at 110 St. Main St. in Chelsea will hold a free April 26 workshop, "Composting: Recycling Nutrients for Your Garden." The store also will have a sale on earth-friendly products including compost buckets, journals made of recycled paper, bird feeders/houses made of recycled milk jugs, scrap metal garden art, and solar lights.
Sheila Pursglove is a freelance writer. She can be reached at bingley51@ yahoo.com.
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