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The Rose, the Robin and The Spider

© Adriela Sakamoto

There is a window just beyond my computer. Beyond that stands a rhododendron my mother fell in love with when she was here visiting. The blooms are gone now, but it is glittering with other beautiful things this summer afternoon.

Beneath an overhang of shiny leaves, there is a spider. She is about the size of half a matchhead as nearly as I can see from here, and an orb spinner. Her web hangs as delicately as a dragonfly's wing, and not much larger. Others of her family or distant relatives have built webs here as well, and some have come apart and trail long shimmering strands that lift and float on the wind. I am delighted.

For a long time, I have tried to create a garden free of pesticides. I think beyond the aphids on the roses in early spring, move past the other insects who remain unidentified by my untrained eye. I view my garden with a broader eye, and four years after having moved to this home, the garden is a small haven amidst the neighbors' yards.

Butterflies are here and dragonflies flirting with the sprinkler on those rare days I set one out. A robin has built a nest in the crabapple tree and two fledglings grow more bold every day. Mamma Robin roves through my garden tirelessly, snatching earthworms and slugs that are absolutely one hundred percent pesticide free.

Neither does she walk on weed and feed or pull her offspring's dinner from a lawn polluted with chemicals.

Stop for a moment and think about what you are putting on your garden. Do you view your little slice of the world as an island? Do hummingbirds drink at the flowers you have drenched with pesticide to rid yourself of some bug? Do butterflies track chemicals back to where they lay their eggs?

If that doesn't deter you let me put it other terms. Take that gorgeous lawn you are so proud of. It comes at a high price, not only to your environment and the living things that may stray there, but to you as well. Not only does a lawn under a regime of chemical fertilizers leach excess nitrogen and other chemicals into our water, but it ultimately is bad for your soil. Bad soil equals poor lawn, and so you are out there every weekend, dethatching, liming, fertilizing, killing weeds.. and on and on and on.