Great Lakes, Great Plants
The last couple weeks have kept me occupied with work and being a part of the Great Lakes - Great Plants three day event at The Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park. I can not say enough about our Botanic Garden. All of you that have contributed know who you are and should be very proud of what’s been built and will continue to grow. Our Executive Director, Matthew Ross, put the event together and has for the last three years. It’s a great way to get like-minded people and their love of plants to come together. The speakers that are invited have come from all across the nation because of Matthew’s connections.
This year there was a speaker from Columbus Ohio, Nick, showing some of his amazing garden works and honestly as a landscape designer I was blown away; a speaker from the Madison Wisconsin area spoke of recycling anything wood and in the plant world everything is wood. Erin showed creative ways through art and function how to use what most consider waste; and one from Martha’s Vinyard, Tim is the curator of Polly Hill Arboretum. His knowledge, pictures and banter with the participants was wonderful. Because Matthew and I were also speakers I was able to share time and dinner with the speakers the night before the event, we talked of many subjects and of course we talked plants and the many gardens they have visited. Part of the three-day event included day two of garden tours, day three hiking the Empire Bluffs with Matthew and a visit to Four Season Nursery for a tour. I have planted many trees throughout the nursery that are really starting to come into their own. It was a well-attended event and I was grateful to be part of it. Consider it on your ‘to do list’ for Sept. 2027.
If you don’t see Matthew while wandering the wonders of the Botanic Garden it’s because he moves so quickly, you will only find his shadow. But he is there and fully engaged in making our smalltown Botanic Garden a destination for those near and far. If you do find him, shake his hand, give him a hug and say Thank You. These gardens are for our own eyes and senses and for those of the future generations that call Traverse City their home.
And now I go off on a tangent but it ties back to the above and it’s what inspired this journal entry.
I wake up every morning with a song in my head; don’t know why, never question where it comes from but I do ponder,”what brought that on”. Four days leading up to the Great Lakes - Great Plants event I had a song that kept repeating every morning. I thought I knew the meaning of the song; about a girlfriend, a lost lover. Usually 70’s band members write about woman, a reoccurring theme with male rock bands. So why was this song in my head? Maybe because it was a song I completely misinterpreted and in the recesses of my mind I knew I really needed to listen to it. It reminded me of something I said during Matthew’s and my talk,”get into your garden, listen, watch, become part of it”.
The lyricist, Randy Meisner was writing about a woman but not a girlfriend or a lover but about humanities Mother, Mother Earth. It was an environmental song.
Fifty years ago when the song was written he may have just read Rachel Carson’s or Aldo Leopold’s book. And, here I am 50 years later waking up to the song in my head. Randy was one of the founding members of the Eagles, the album is One of These Nights from 1975. Here is the refrain and the name of the song, To Many Hands.
And there's too many hands being laid on her
Too many eyes will never see
That it's dragging her down
But you won't hear a sound as she turns round
When you understand the ‘her’ and ‘she’ are Mother Nature this refrain becomes clear. We need to realize this is the only planet that support our species and if we continue to drag it down, “we will pay with our lives for our greed”, a quote from a Don McClean song written in 1970.
Your garden, my garden, my nursery, and the Botanic Garden represent how we can nurture and encourage our world around us in a positive way. Mother Nature doesn’t need us but we need her. Keep gardening, keep observing the small things happening around us in the natural world. Then you’ll witness the wonders and appreciated Mother Nature a little more.
