Whether you have a balcony, a backyard, or a back 40, a wonderful Way to Care for Creation is to plant native shrubs, flowers, and tree species and observe them carefully throughout the seasons. The website audubon.com is zip code specific with native plant suggestions, or you can just clear an area of non-native plants (including grass), and be surprised at what comes up! The app Seek will inform you as to native or non-native plants. “(Saint) Francis asked that part of the friary garden always be left untouched, so that wild flowers and herbs could grow there, and those who saw them could raise their minds to God, the Creator of such beauty” [LS 12]. The plants that have evolved for this area of Tennessee over millions of years are the ones that most benefit the soil and all its tiny creatures, as well as the natural insects and birds, and continue the cycle of life as intended.
For more information contact Mary Tankersley ([email protected]) or the OLOF Care for Creation Ministry, or laudatosimovement.org.