Life in the Country
by Missy Janes
As property owners in the northern Virginia Piedmont, our responsibilities are great. The Piedmont’s rural landscape—its rolling green hills, pristine waters, and scenic roadways, farms, and towns—has an allure that has drawn us to a life in the country. Our collective challenge is to sustain this magic for future generations.
The following pages offer a few suggestions for living in the country. It notes some of the Piedmont’s traditional country courtesies and lists some simple ways to be a good steward of the land. These guidelines hope to promote enthusiasm for observation and respect for the natural environment and the historic vernacular that defines the Piedmont’s landscape.
Of course, the following pages offer only a start to protect the enchantment of the Piedmont. Living in harmony with nature is a learning process. The list of resources include practical, artistic and meaningful adaptations to benefit you, your community and the region.
The Piedmont region is hilly, upland country of the eastern US between the Atlantic coastal plain and the Appalachians. It stretches from southeast New York to central Alabama.
The charm of our countryside is often illustrated by the natural contours we navigate along a meandering old road flanked by fieldstone walls stacked before the Civil War. Springing from that wall are native trees and shrubs that grow into a tunnel of dappled shade. This makes a lively byway for birds, foxes and other country critters, which is commonly referred to as a hedgerow.
These diverse and symbiotic vegetative communities line our streams. Small tributaries and low-lying areas carry water intermittently during periods of rain. Naturally-occurring plant populations along a water course are like a roadway. They accentuate the curves, the contours and the balance of nature’s designs.
Beyond the visual impact, however, a vital eco-system slows runoff from large rain events, filters debris and pollutants before they reach our water, provides shade and protection from wind and weather. It nurtures a new generation of plants that provide food, shelter, nesting sites and migration flyways for the birds we love to watch. Their mating calls bring music to the landscape. These are known as riparian buffers.
Water soothes the land and contributes to the symphony of the landscape. Where soil composition does not favor good drainage wet areas can provide the ingredients for a wetland mosaic or bog garden. When encouraged to reproduce, the drama of color from pink joe pye weed, red monarda, cardinal flower, blue pickerel weed and blue flag iris attracts red wing blackbirds, great blue herons, egrets, wood ducks, spring peepers, wood frogs, turtles and dragonflies.
Why would anybody want to opt for the muddy ruts of lawn mowers and tractor wheels to keep grass in such wet spots or shear the grass around pond edges when such a carnival of activity could grace a small patch of wet lawn or paddock?
If you’re eager for shorn grass and an organized look, mow, but follow the natural contours of the land. These riparian buffers will give you vistas and recapture more water by slowing runoff and minimizing erosion. An added benefit is the habitat corridors for wildlife movement.
Over time roadsides and water courses, open fields and wildflower meadows revert back to forest. A managed tall uncut field or meadow will sway with the breezes. Left uncut, a monoculture of fescue eventually gives way to patches of copper and blonde bluestem grass and an assortment of milkweed and purple asters. Butterflies and birds dart over this new patchwork of food and shelter. The moisture is retained by the shade of the taller grasses which encourages the first seedlings of future landmark trees.
As the picturesque Piedmont captures your heart, look to nature for lessons about what is happening in the woods. Look around water to learn about eco-systems at work and the natural designs waiting to be enhanced.
Look at your property large or small with new eyes for possibilities. Use the mower and weed eater sparingly to accentuate the soft edges of a wetland, meadow, hedgerow or watercourse. Define the contours of the land and the meander of the stream.
Encourage hedgerows by mowing less. Mow only one side of a fence line rather than both.
Artistically redefine your landscape by minimizing mowing and experimenting with tall grass sweeps. Natural patterns evolve from these trails. Mow only one mower width along your drive or just the area of lawn where you walk. Grass pathways are more inviting, mysterious and visually pleasing. The rewards will be astounding. Local critters will relish the cover, the seed pods and berries in winter.
This is an excerpt from Missy Janes’ book, Life in the Country. A long-time Middleburg resident, she’s a writer and photographer whose work regularly appears in Middleburg Life.