As I passed through the S-Curves in Delaware Park this morning, I was taken with the natural beauty of the setting. Now I’ve passed along this route thousands of times, but for the first time the parkway between the two winding streets was alive with color. Typically the lawn mowers would have destroyed this by now, in an attempt to create more of a golf course aesthetic. To me, the way it looks right now is the real natural appeal.
I love the way the flowers (most people would simply say weeds) have grown in everywhere, creating the early formations of a meadow. No it’s not a Maintained Meadow Area (MMA), but it has an undisturbed appeal that should not be discounted.
I am sure that the mowers are revving up to take this back down to a manicured and unnatural state, which means that all of the bees, bugs and butterflies will simply bypass it instead of taking up residence, but most people will not think of the habitats that are destroyed every time the mower passes by.
The next time that I pass by, this stretch will most likely look like Jack Nicklaus is on his way to tee-off. It’s a bummer, because we have been programmed to think (through lawn industry campaigns) that everything should look like a putting green, which is not what nature ever intended.