Now that the calendar says that summer has arrived, we can begin to do all of the marvelous summer activities that we love so much. Many of these involve being outdoors, and because of that they provide an opportunity for us to interact with the natural world. When you plant, mow, weed, mulch, fertilize, water, or prune you are taking an active role in selecting how the plant life around you will look and behave. What would happen to a cornfield if nobody touched it for a whole summer? What if nobody touched it for a year? A decade? How long do you think it would take for the cornfield to revert to a state that was not recognizable as a cornfield?
