The Green Beet: Thomas Berry and Dandelions

Posted on: June 7, 2009 | jenaransom | 1 Comment | Print Article | Rate Post:

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To the children

To all the children

To the children who swim beneath

The waves of the sea, to those who live in

The soils of the Earth, to the children of the flowers

In the meadows and the trees in the forest, to all those children who roam over the land

And the winged ones who fly with the winds,

To the human children too, that all the children

May go together into the future in the full

Diversity of their regional communities.

-          Fr. Thomas Berry (1914 – 2009)

I was first introduced to the works of Thomas Berry at the Centre for Earth and Spirit on Vancouver Island. In a video showing the aging Berry walk along an Eastern farmland much of what I knew in my heart about the Earth and much of what I had been taught about my faith finally collided in Berry’s mode of living and thinking. I couldn’t wait to learn more, reading not only The Great Work (from which the above quote is taken) but also The Dream of the Earth and, my favorite, The Universe Story, which Berry authored with mathematical cosmologist Brian Swimme.

I was saddened by Berry’s death last week, though I knew it inevitable; he was 94 when he passed away surrounded by family in North Carolina.

Berry believed now more than ever in Earth’s history we are experiencing a moment of cosmological grace. As we begin to comprehend the damage done to our planet by our present way of life we are challenged, gifted even, to be part of the creative process that will lead us into a more symbiotic relationship between we human children and all the other children of Earth. We are able to be co-creators of a new Earth.

I thought about this as I spent much of the afternoon pulling dozens of dandelion weeds from my front lawn. If they were growing with the grass I’d say ‘the heck with it’ and let them be, but years of the previous owner’s appetite for chemical fertilizers and the shock the lawn has endured now three summers without its chemical fix has left little in the grass department and a whole lot of weeds. Last night I picked well over 200 yellow heads before they had a chance to turn to seed; this morning there are 50 more blooming.

I’ll admit it. The temptation to use chemical fertilizers is great. My neighbor’s grass gleans a green shimmer every morning, mine a dead dull brown with a few sprouts of sickly green. But I know that the unnatural green comes with a cost – she’s let me know more than once how great the weed’n’feed chemical fertilizer from the hardware store down the road is. A soft green lawn can be had without such measures; I even have one in the back of my own home, as the previous owner did not use any chemicals there in order to protect her dogs, the canine children of the Earth. Even our wild space in the backyard has only a few dandelions, as wild roses, fireweed, lupine and trees like alders, birch and spruce allow little room for anything else.

      We live a block and a half from the Kenai River, and the aquatic children are a regular reminder that what I put on the lawn ultimately comes to them, via the sewer system draining into the river. And of course my own child is considered: How could I put chemicals on the lawn and then let her crawl all over it, especially when she’s so apt to put blades of grass (or, more likely, dandelions) in her mouth at any given moment?

And so I practice patience as I work more organic means into our front lawn, knowing it will most likely be years, not days or weeks, before I can walk softly on a plush carpet of green, with only a few of the yellow flowers for my daughter to pick.

By the way, pulling dandelions, or any weeds, requires more than just haphazardly plucking away at any given section of your lawn or garden. It’s important to start in the area you most recently finished weeding so new weeds don’t have a chance to take, as they will live longer than the weeds you haven’t even gotten to yet. It can take a few years to fully eradicate your visitors, and even then, one neighbor with a batch of newly puffed dandies will bring seeds right back into your lawn. A better bet is to have a strong patch of grass, cut long, so that the weeds don’t have a place to grow in the first place. But how does one get there from here?

For our lawn, I’m having my soil tested, and depending on the Ph I’ll add either lime or sulfur to bring it to a more optimal level (dandelions love a Ph of 7.5, grass thrives at 6.5). I’ll continue to add organic fertilizer every three weeks or so for the summer, and this fall I’ll spread a thin layer of compost with hopes to revitalize the nutrient-deprived dirt into something that more closely resembles nutrient-rich soil. A fresh dose of seed will also help, but only after the soil nutrients is up. Baby grass isn’t going to grow very well in dirt even adult grass can’t thrive in. Until then, I’ll continue to take a flathead screwdriver to the dandelions, as both my husband (just let them grow) and my neighbor (kill them quick) shake their heads. At least it’s an excuse to be outside in the sun.

http://www.thomasberry.org/

http://www.richsoil.com/lawn-care.jsp

http://www.uaf.edu/ces/

Jen Ransom holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Education and Communication from Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. Raised in Seward, she now lives with her husband and daughter in Soldotna.

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