There Is More To Snow Than Slipping, Sliding and Shoveling
Snow is a natural fertilizer — no, really! When snow falls it collects nitrogen from the atmosphere. If the ground is not frozen the snow will melt and release the nitrogen into the soil — this will be a slow release that does not have harmful microbial effects like commercial anhydrous ammonia fertilizer. And it’s free! So that early snow we had when the ground was not completely frozen should have given the soil a boost. The snow that falls in the dead of winter on frozen ground also has nitrogen but it is likely lost as runoff when the snow melts in the spring.
But, a micro-prairie may change that equation. As you can see in the photos of the micro-prairie, the snow is deep, so it has more nitrogen per square foot than a bare grass boulevard where the wind has cleared the snow. The odds are that some of that will soak in as the snow melts. And, as I have mentioned before, the deep root system of the native plants allows more water and nitrogen to soak in versus a compacted turf grass lawn. So, snow on the micro-prairie nourishes the soil even in the dark days of winter.
The micro-prairie also nourishes the spirit in the dark days of winter. The shapes, textures, colors and shadows on the snow are beautiful in the tall grasses. I have a reason to go outside on cold days — to see the play of light and shadows on the snow and to map how animal inhabitants move around the garden. Tracks in the snow show where rabbits and squirrels and the neighborhood cat go in the micro-prairie. A squirrel visits the compost pile to check out the ruins of a ginger-bread house. I found the ginger-bread house in pieces in the micro-prairie. I wondered if a tornado in Kansas picked it up and dropped it into the micro-prairie. Was there a ginger-bread girl who picked up her ginger-bread dog and said “Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.”? Although I was puzzled by how a ginger-bread house ended up in the micro-prairie, I didn’t let it go to waste. I put it on the compost pile where the local critters can get some calories from it when the temperature drops.
But when the temperature drops I am inside with a cup of coffee and my Christmas present to myself — a digital drawing tablet. This thing is cool! My ten year-old self would be totally amazed. It is a magic tablet. I can sketch with an Apple pencil and it looks like the sketches I do with an old-school pencil in my paper sketchbook. I can add colors and do all kinds of things with it. Here is a sample sketch I whipped up the other day.
I titled it “Earthia” which means “arising from the earth” in my imaginary dictionary. I think of Earthia as an emergent being — arising from my imagination, shaped by my personal experiences and influenced by ideas I encounter and collect. The sketch is enabled by technology but I could have drawn it with felt-tipped markers and paper (which is actually just older technology). The point is that the image is emergent — I had no idea what it was going to be when I put the Apple pencil to the Ipad. This one turned out OK. There were others where I used the handy two finger tap feature to erase them — like pulling weeds in the micro-prairie. Emergence is a try, fail,try, fail, succeed process.
The concept of an emergent idea or property is closely related to the micro-prairie. The look of the micro-prairie is an emergent property resulting from the inter-play of soil, wind, rain, snow, seeds, plants, birds, bees, butterflies, rodents, micro-organisms, nutrient cycles and me. It is a complex system that produces an unpredictable, emergent result. Our towns and neighborhoods are complex systems as well. Throw in property values, tax laws, zoning, water/sewer systems, streets, sidewalks, streetscapes, traffic, bikes, pedestrians and people making a living and going about their daily lives and you have a complex system. We hope what emerges from this will be a livable neighborhood. But if we get the zoning wrong and the tax laws wrong we could end up with the financially struggling cities we see all across North America. This is the Strong Towns message that cities must be treated as complex, adaptive systems in order for strong, livable communities to emerge. And, a part of making a community livable is to have a healthy, diverse ecosystem. The folks over in Winona, MN are working on that.
Winona is home to Prairie Moon Nursery who supplied the plants in my micro-prairie. Minnesota started a Lawns to Legumes program which pays for 90% of the cost of native plants for homeowners who want to transform their yards. A pilot project in Winona called the Pleasant Valley Pollinator Corridor connects the City of Winona to forested bluffs in the Pleasant Valley watershed. The project is designed to help the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee which is now an endangered species by providing connections to suitable habitat. It is the same concept as the Butterfly Boulevard idea I came up with a couple of years ago — I just don’t have $900,000 to implement it. I can only offer to help people rip out their lawns to plant natives and to post pictures of it here in this blog. Also, this year as the micro-prairie flourishes, I may be able to provide seeds for others to use. This brings me to a related topic.
One of my readers who is a dedicated local food person wants to start a seed library here in Sioux Falls. This is a great idea for establishing a reserve of locally adapted seeds for local gardeners to use. Of course I put in my two cents and said it should include native plants as companions to vegetables. So I will have to educate myself on saving native seeds so that I can provide seed from the micro-prairie for the library. The Hidatsa kidney beans I planted last year did well and would be a good staple seed for local gardeners and a seed library. I cooked some of the Hidatsa beans for the first time and found that a cup of beans will go a long way. The beans are nice sized and have a uniform purplish-red color and good flavor. They also keep well in a glass jar. The native people who developed this bean got it right a couple thousand years ago.
Finally, a followup on the vines that took over the compost pile last summer. They produced seven nice sized spaghetti squash. They keep well in the basement and provide a couple of meals each for me. Apparently the squash I bought at the Coop were an open pollinated variety that bred true when they grew in the compost. I am saving seeds from them and will plant some in the spring to see if they are viable. If they produce well I will save all the seed next fall. This could be the start of a locally adapted spaghetti squash variety.
So, like seeds sprouting in compost we move into a new year. Seed catalogs are starting to come in — like rays of sunshine on a dark day. I will have something to read while I drink coffee at home and think about the garden. Hope is about planting seeds.
Stay well. Start planning how you are going to tear out your lawn!
