GARDENING : Mother Nature Can Help Get the Job Done

The vast majority of gardeners in this country are doing it the hard way because they fight Mother Nature rather than work with her, landscape designer Sally Wasowski contends in a new book.

“Your garden can look terrific all year with minimum upkeep and no toxic chemicals at all. All you have to do is start relying on those wonderful native plants that Mother Nature put in your area thousands of years ago,” she says.

She calls it just plain common sense and blames the problem on folks moving to new areas.

“Naturally, (immigrant) settlers wanted their new gardens to look civilized. And where were the most civilized gardens they knew? Why back home, of course--where they’d come from.”

So they didn’t consider that a plant evolves into a native only because it is able to cope with unique conditions such as an area’s few inches of rain a year, acidic or alkaline soil, surprise spring freezes, and the like.

“In a garden that imitates the principles of nature, there is balance and beauty; most problems take care of themselves. So stop fighting Mother Nature and let her do your gardening for you,” says Wasowski, whose book is titled, “Requiem for a Lawn Mower” ($15.95, Taylor Publishing Co.)

A landscape, she says, should be composed of only plants that would have occurred naturally on that site. She calls this the antithesis of the controlled environment found in the typical suburban yard.

“For one thing, it’s an extremely low maintenance approach; the only water plants need (after being established, of course) comes from normal rainfall.

“One plant doesn’t get in another’s way because millennia have taught them how to grow together harmoniously. And, of course, there is the welcome bonus of small wildlife, such as butterflies.”

The lawn mower of the book’s title was placed on the front curb after she and husband-collaborator, Andy, dug up the last of their lawn for a woodland flower garden.

“Purchase a plant whose provenance is within 100 miles of where you live,” she advises.

And, she adds, “if at first you don’t succeed, maybe Mother Nature is trying to tell you something.”