AT LEAST IN LANDSCAPING

LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY AND SWEET WOODRUFF GROWING UNDER A WHITE PINE

Friday, 8:30 AM.  57 degrees F at the ferry dock, 52 on the back porch.  Wind variable and intermittent.  It is mostly clear with some haze.  The humidity is 83% and the barometer, currently at 30.03", has begun to fall rapidly, predicting rain perhaps later today and definitely by tomorrow.
   I have been around long enough to realize that change is the only constant.  A landscape that was born in the sun turns shady; trees that were head-high sixteen years ago now tower over the house.  The sun loving species and cultivars that I planted in the beginning are being rapidly replaced by shade tolerant plants.
   The white pines, firs, sugar maples, red maples and tamarack have become dominant in the landscape, leaving less and less opportunity for perennials, vegetables and bulbs to thrive.  It is either cut down or severely trim large trees and shrubs or watch the landscape radically change.
   Change is not always bad, and depending upon taste and tolerance can be acceptable or even desirable.  So I have opted to see tulips, daffodils and peonies gradually replaced by sweet woodruff, lily-of-the-valley, and increasingly by shade tolerant native herbs; and bluegrass by moss and ferns.
   I have learned over the years that it is a lot easier to accept the inevitability of nature than to resist its changes (at least in landscaping).