Asthetics Versus Practicality………………
Whilst I was at the Eden Project, a thought crossed my mind. I was looking at a patch of uncut grass with bits of flowers and weeds in it – all in it’s natural form. It had an explanation next to it about where there are places around Cornwall where they don’t prune and cut anything so as to not only keep it natural but also so that all of the seeds go back into the ground in order for the cycle of growth to continue, year after year. It was wild and looked beautiful – not tampered with.
That got me thinking about all of the people who cut their grass and add things to kill of the weeds so that it “looks nice.” How many people like trimmed grass? How many people spend hours and lots of money to make their gardens aesthetically pleasing? It’s not natural. Nature wants grass to grow but some of us like the short cut feeling. Why?
In our heads, if we see a wild unkept garden, we tend to look down on it. If we see well trimmed grass with neat outlines, we are in ore. Why? Why can’t there be any flowers in a lawn? And why does it all need to look neat and tidy?
Somebody somewhere has decided that cut grass looks better and now we are targeted with thousands of products to “maintain” our gardens. There are recommendations on how long it should be, what colour it should be, what thickness it should be etc. I saw nothing wrong with the patch at The Eden Project. In fact it was refreshingly pleasing to see a site that you don’t really get to see much nowadays – especially near where I live. Hmmmm food for thought…..
