Ph. by Luciano Movio. Sedum
by Vaprio Zanoni | Green Design
Gardener with a passion for design of “The company of thinkers”
Lodi
greendesignsc.it
We all know that three-quarters of the planet earth’s surface is covered in water, the same element that makes up about seventy percent of the human body.
Despite these truths, every day we forget the importance of this living organism, which has its own laws, to the point of underestimating, ignoring, polluting, modifying and raping it at will, with ever more serious and tangible consequences.
Between water and forest
Modern man has been able to achieve important objectives in the field of technological and IT research aimed at “progress”, but has detached himself from contact and dialogue with the planet hosting him, with nature, with Mother Earth.
The same and growing indifference has also been shown towards trees and forests. Their essential bond with water was not understood, water without which even a form of life, including human life, would not be possible.
If man alters their symbiotic relationship, lived through a continuous and complex, but natural, interchange, irreparable imbalances are created.
“Without a healthy forest, there can be no healthy water and no healthy blood”.
(Viktor Shanberger)
Responsibility, awareness, actions
In this scenario landscape architects, architects, agronomists, gardeners (like me), privileged because they are in close contact with nature on a daily basis, have the responsibility to “arouse awareness” through their actions.
How? By transmitting, raising awareness and teaching what is obvious in their eyes, but which for the public has a secondary order, positioned after consumer priorities and exclusively personal comforts.
Today more than ever, the activity of these professionals becomes a fundamental mission for the communication of a message: the combination of “water and nature” must be safeguarded.
Whether it is for a garden or terrace project, it is essential to make aware and sustainable choices, so that they become the fundamental principle of its creation, without precluding the aesthetic and functional results. A philosophy that is valid for both the designer and the client.
To this end, the actions can be multiple: from the careful regulation of irrigation times to reduce waste to a minimum, to the recovery, where possible, of the wastewater and rainwater from homes, to introduce them into the garden or terrace system, up to the choice of plants and shrubs. You want an example? Species and varieties with few water needs such as xerophilous (o xerophytes), which also survive in environments characterized by a prolonged lack of water such as broom, Hemerocallis, Sedum, mastic, olive trees, …
On the wave of a new vision
A single action seems useless, perhaps trivial, but it represents a single drop which, together with many others, allows you to create a wave, the wave of a new vision.
Well yes, through the microcosm of each person, it is possible to help reverse the course, bringing a “breath of fresh air” to our planet.
As the researcher Julian Jones wrote at the beginning of the last century:
“The era of Aquarius is the era of the water bearer, the era in which men will discover and apply the natural secrets of this element, making it rise to a higher level. In this way they will give life to a new, better and healthier world”.
So … Full speed ahead! Let us become “water bearers” to reach this new era as soon as possible.