When Martin Quigley was hired in 2004 as the director of the UCF Arboretum, he had a daunting job ahead of him. His immediate task was to rebuild the forests that had been torn asunder by the hurricanes that swept across Central Florida that summer.
Hurricane Charley brought severe damage to the pine forest area of the Arboretum, an 80-acre preserve that is part of 800 acres of natural wetlands and forests on campus, while Hurricane Frances caused many more trees to fall.
The natural beauty of the school grounds, dominated by pine and oak trees, as well as crape myrtles and magnolias, had been destroyed by an even more powerful force of nature. But as the caretaker of the UCF campus, and a citizen of the earth, Quigley undertook his duties with relish. So he set about replacing the broken limbs with healthy trees — lots of them — and adding more plants suited to the subtropical monsoon climate of Central Florida.
But besides returning the campus to its former glory, and beyond, Quigley was driven by a secondary purpose. By establishing a landscape of native Florida flora, he would also show, by example, how area residents could create their own attractive and sustainable gardens and yards, while conserving two valuable, and finite, resources — money and water.
Quigley saw as his mission the opportunity to create an environmental and recreational resource at UCF, offering homeowners an alternative to the pristine, but impractical, lawns that have come to define suburban living. In a talk before the East Orlando Chamber of Commerce entitled “The Landscape of Community: Native to What?” Quigley challenged the fundamental precepts of home landscaping, asking the audience to reexamine not only what seeds they sow, but why.
Why do people work so hard to create a picture-perfect lawn, only to set foot on it? Why do people root out everything that grows naturally and impose plantings that demand so much attention and water? Why are shrubs typically placed against the home, creating nesting places for all kinds of bugs and vermin? “We are locked into the idea that the lawn is the identity of a neighborhood. What law of man or nature says you must grow St. Augustine grass for your neighbor?” he asked.
“Why do you spend all that time and money maintaining something you don’t use?” Why not make peace with your lawn, rather than struggling against an endless cycle of brown, dry spots; the latest attack of chinch bugs, ants or weeds; and the constant need for cutting and edging to maintain that velvety green carpet. Unfortunately, today’s lawn maintenance is often a declaration of war, killing and destroying everything that gets in the way.
“Your relationship with your landscape should not be based on a metaphor of battle,” he said. “Your duty is to fight, fight, fight nature with all the chemicals at your command.” He also questions the means by which we maintain our lawns. In a climate such as Florida’s, where little rain falls from January through May, using plants or grass that require extensive watering is a crime against nature, he said. Instead, homeowners should grow drought-resistant and native plants that thrive in this environment, he said.
Once these plants are established in the right location, most require little, if any, supplemental water, fertilizers or pesticides. “Live with the climate you’re in and you can have a much better landscape,” said Quigley, who is a licensed landscape architect with a doctoral degree in plant ecology. Another maintenance misdemeanor is the decorative touches employed in the home flower garden to keep out weeds.
He derisively termed such unnatural displays as white stone, a black plastic covering or colored mulch as the “Home Depot Weekend Special” look. “Mulch is the underwear of landscaping, not the clothing,” he said. “Do you want to see my underwear?” Rather than drawing attention to foreign elements, plants should be considered the landscaping, and should be highlighted, he said.
Moreover, the benefits of a yard bathed in naturalness extends beyond aesthetics. A garden should welcome wildlife, providing flowering and fruiting plants to attract birds and butterflies. Florida is a stopover for many migrating and wintering butterflies and birds — design a landscape that caters to these colorful, winged creatures.
A well-thought-out landscape can also help with air-conditioning bills. Position trees and shrubs strategically to improve your home’s cooling capacity. Tree shade, for instance, can reduce air-conditioning costs by an estimated 50 percent. Quigley then offered a historical perspective as to how home landscaping veered so terribly off course.
In ancient times, gardens were not about beauty but about personal health and hygiene, he said. Back then agriculture focused on spices and scents to offset the unpleasantness of rotting meat and unclean bodies. Agriculture eventually evolved into horticulture, with the French and English of early modern times separating their manicured gardens from nature.
Meanwhile, an emerging America was still a wilderness, but not for long. “God told the Puritans that woods were evil; they were dark and foreboding,” he said. From 1840-1890 all the big U.S. cities established huge parks, along with museums, formal gardens and large grassy areas. This trend extended to individual homes. “All of a sudden the lawn became the unifying theme of America. Everyone had to have a lawn,” he said.
Originally, the word “paradise” meant a walled garden, and that’s what property owners desired. But today paradise is identified with the Garden of Eden, a lush, bountiful place that is one with nature. And that’s what contemporary, ecologically responsible homeowners should strive for, he said. Have fun with your garden, he urged, by nurturing a variety of native plants.
And plant plenty of trees, just like Quigley did after the hurricanes of 2004. “We all claim to be environmentalists. So start with your own yard,” he said. “Environmentalism begins right outside your front door.”
