Green Thoughts: The Phytophiles Amoung Us
By Rebecca Hammond
NATIVE PLANT PARTNER-IN-CRIME MARLEIJA FOREY recently recommended on Facebook the book Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, an inspiring phytophile (plant lover). This is the only book I ever read that I refused to completely finish, being too sad.
The author writes as both the holder of a PhD in botany and from her Native American background, and revealssecrets of plants most of us are blind to. We do notice beauty from plants wec hoose for that purpose, and the hassle of removing plants we don’t, but relatively little is known in the scientific community about how they interact, even less outside it.
Four local (and rather different) phytophiles who are always on my social-media radar weigh in on plants in their lives:
FERNDALE RESIDENT GRETCHEN ABRAMS turned her yard native long ago, and recently discovered the health benefits of house plants. “I thought my house was too dark, so for years I have cultivated outdoor spaces, at home and in schoolyards. I love gardening and have studied much the impact on children, anxiety, ADHD, etc., only recently have I spent time learning more about house plants. I work at a historic house museum with 87 acres of land on Lake St Claire, and we employ a full-time garden staff that includes two horticulturalists. Since I knew much about the physical and psychological benefit of being outdoors, hiking, and generally spending time amongst the green, it only made sense that bringing the green indoors could have similar benefits. My research had confirmed this hunch. Now I can thrive on green and gardening all year long.”
ROSS SANDELIUS is about to go native. Finding an antidote to a stressful job a few years back when he stumbled on a few cardboard tomato seed pods in a clearance aisle, a few months later enjoying the harvest. A few YEARS later he found himself with 25 plants in five-gallon buckets, started from seeds inside. “From that point on, learning how plants grow and how they ‘live’ became a full-on obsession.” He and his wife Julie bought their first house last August. “This spring/summer is probably going to be a lot of landscaping, making flower beds and getting the first year of perennials in and situated. My goal this year is to get a solid foundation down. Figure out what the soil is like, what my realistic options are, getting everything as neutral and healthy (naturally) as possible.
“Some fun little projects are installing a screech owl box on a nearby tree, creating a specific zone for pollinators that provides food and water for them, starting a worm farm and laying down the groundwork for a water feature and turning my garage roof into a water reclamation system that will provide at least 50 per cent of the water for my garden. And I’m a nerd, so naturally I want to automate that as much as possible. I hope to learn how to strike a balance with my obsessive nature and channel that into providing a natural, balanced and sustainable environment for plants and animals around my house while also providing a stress-relieving outlet for myself and my wife.”
DAVE ASSEMANY’S GARDEN in Pleasant Ridge is downright famous, locally. “As a 55-year-old man, I have found that gardening has not stopped being a major source of pleasure for me, but it has also grown to be a way that I interact with my community. My actual family is not into gardening or nature, but my gardening family is huge and brings me much joy and love. From a very young age I have needed to be outside as much as possible. I was fussing around in fields and creeks in Farmington where I grew up when I was barely in school. As I grew, gardening seemed like a natural way to channel that impulse. I get so much enjoyment just watching stuff grow. Even though I love showing my garden off, I would garden no matter what. I don’t do it for the results, as much as I love them, I do it for the process which brings me peace and joy.”
Like Gretchen, MARLEIJA has been involved in community projects, working with several local urban-forestry groups. “I became interested in tree planting around 2012 when I went to my first planting with The Greening of Detroit. I thoroughly enjoyed the smell and touch of soil and walking through forests so it went well together.”
She’s now helping start The Social Forestry Project. “Our main focus in this very early stage of a new non-profit is to be the ‘hands’ for established environmental organizations throughout SE Michigan. An organization we have been close to, for instance, is ReLeaf Michigan. They have the space and the trees and we come in to do the dirty work. We are starting to focus on saving saplings and growing them ourselves. We are on the lookout for oaks, red maples, gingkos, sycamores, London plane tree, crabapples. We have a few amazing green thumbs on the board.”
Marleija got a pleasant surprise and headstart for this year’s garden when she cleaned out the space behind the garage last year. “Someone had been dumping their yard waste back there for decades and it was perfect compost. We’re going to put a whole bunch of hostas back there and maybe some ferns because it doesn’t get much light.”
Common vines wound through each passionate statement, especially gardening’s benefits for mood and health, and the opportunity for community service and connection.
From Braiding Sweetgrass: “In a consumer society, contentment is a radical proposition. Gratitude doesn’t send you out shopping to find satisfaction; it comes as a gift rather than a commodity, subverting the foundation of the whole economy. That’s good medicine for the land and the people alike.” All around us are people cultivating good medicine. I’m grateful to these four for sharing theirs.
Becky Hammond lives and gardens in Ferndale.
