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TOP JOBS

This is the time of year when a few days inattention will wreak havoc on a garden. A long weekend can make for lots of growth to tend. The cukes escaped their cage, while I wasn’t looking, and have run along the fence, entwining with the lovely weeds that escaped the weed-eater and are growing nicely, thank you, on top of the heavy mulch.

Where in the world did that 18- inch high tree come from, while I was focused on something else? We are pretty lucky here in East Texas, where we usually have abundant rainfall, and plants love to grow — sometimes too prolifically.

“Nature will out!” “Time will tell!,” we like to say, or will it? I wonder! How much damage can be done to the environment before nature of some sort will reclaim it? Will it be eons or ever?

And what will that reclamation look like? We have all heard about the change in the grasslands of western Texas. Our incredible and rare grasslands that the pioneers found while heading west have certainly felt the effects of our “progress.” People thought that the grass was so abundant and lush that it would last forever.

But the environmental conditions were a bit more complex than they realized. Very simply put: first cattle were brought in and the land was overgrazed. This changed the micro-climate and the soil washed away. Changing the land by reducing the grass, which held the soil, might not have been such a good idea in the long run.

In places where farmers wanted to plow the land and grow crops, all was well for a while, until the natural nutrients that had been there for eons were used up, and the crops didn’t grow as well. Chemical fertilizers were brought in, which helped some, but then, there was a drought. The top-soil became powder dry and blew away.

I remember dust storms when I was a child in Fort Worth. One minute it was a hot summer day, and the sky would be clear and blue, the next there would be a dark red cloud on the horizon. Within minutes, barely enough time to get inside and close all the windows and doors, and place damp towels around the edges, the wind would be howling, and the world outside would be rusty black.

It was a time before air conditioning was available, and the heat was stifling. Even as a child, I thought it to be a hellish situation. When I was older and I read of “Dante’s Inferno,” I thought of those storms. When it had passed, our home would be covered with a fine, reddish dirt. We would all feel gritty and dirty, but relieved that we had made it through.

Driving through Fort Worth and Dallas on the way home to Tyler, one passes at least two gigantic garbage-filled hills placed within easy view of the freeways. They really are incredible to see and think about in their size. I was reminded of the way I felt standing before a Mayan temple at Tekal in Guatemala one summer long ago — tiny and insignificant in the scheme of things.

Then, there is the content of these mounds.

Each is placed beside a different branch of one of our biggest rivers: the Trinity. I couldn’t help but worry about all the decomposing elements in those hills and the inevitable runoff into what used to be a nice river. Those elements make their way down stream into the Gulf, and join others from other rivers and towns.

A day at the beach, anyone? How about some nice gulf shrimp for dinner?

That mankind has a huge impact on the environment is not a debatable subject. The debate is how much can the environment endure before our whole world is changed into something that is not endurable for humans. The debate is what can each of us do about it? How can we do our part to make it less inhospitable?

Of course, we can no longer hope for the Garden of Eden.

But, then, how close are we to “Dante’s Inferno?”

“What’s Blooming In Our Garden’’ is a regular feature of the Tyler Morning Telegraph Garden Page

It is written by Mary Claire Rowe, a Master Gardener with the Texas Cooperative Extension, and focuses on flowers and plant life around East Texas. To share your comments on gardening, write her in care of the Tyler Morning Telegraph

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