While out at Heronswood last week, I noticed the unexpected beauty of garden litter. I enjoyed the natural, flocking effects the earth-toned confetti gave the large, flat leaves of Petasites japonica and the glossy Darmera peltata. Our magical paths and border margins are covered with debris. It reminds me that a lot more is going on in the garden besides our careful, hand-tending cultivation.

Public gardens are particularly emphatic about keeping beds and paths litter free. If a needle-sized weed appears, it’s gone the next hour. Tiny flecks of dead leaves or other plant parts vanish in midair. Where did this obsession with garden cleanliness originate? The FBI? I doubt pathology is the issue. It probably stems from either the military experience of old school botanists or their ex-military parents, combined with Depression-era habits.

The cleanest places I have ever seen were a couple of Army bases I used to visit when I was going to language school in Germany. They actually posted “Don’t Walk On The Grass” signs. Their sidewalks were immaculate. This Spartan approach was a sign of no-frills uniformity, deference to the priority of national defense, masculinity and general codified behavior. But why not have a park with some flowerbeds? Army bases would make terrific botanical gardens. The great military traditions of the past included live-action battle music, which persists today in ceremony. Why leave the militaristic approach to ornamental horticulture entirely to public botanical gardens?

In any case, the fastidious beds and borders found in the typical botanical garden seem artificial, and the spaces surrounding them are so controlled that they seem paradoxically sterile and Stepford-like. This overwrought, stage-like and stiff feeling should be offset by the welcome trend to combine botanical gardens and zoos. Good idea! Certainly, interest would be enhanced by mixed settings, considering that many rare plants and animals originated from similar regions in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Public garden administrators should lighten up a little bit. The gardens in Kingston are so void of weeds that I forget what they look like. The dangers of invasive plants are real in some cases. However, only the most destructive ones need be controlled with “DEFCON” style methods. Perhaps the Cold War, including the related UFO scares, insinuated itself into the sub-consciousness of 20th century horticulture. Maybe today’s gardeners and botanists are expressing an ultra-high level of xenophyllophobia.

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