The Team Gets Ready for the Prairie Seed Sowing Party
Image by US Mission Geneva
Ambassador Betty E. King does the Hedgehog serving honors at the U.S. Mission’s prairie grass / garden charter inauguration. The Hedgehog is the symbol of protecting biodiversity in the canton of Geneva.
US Mission Geneva “Goes Native” With Planting of Geneva Prairie Grasses
Joins Geneva biodiversity collaboration by planting grounds with special indigenous seed mix
On April 20, 2011, the United States Mission to the United Nations in Geneva celebrated its signature of Geneva’s Garden Charter (Charte des Jardins) with a seed sowing ceremony beginning the conversion of the lawns surrounding our building to meadows of flowering prairie grasses indigenous to the Geneva region.
The conversion from lawn to prairie meadow marks the first major step in implementation of an ambitious multi-year sustainable landscape project to transform the Mission’s grounds into a series of local ecosystems that will support local flora and fauna and connect us with the larger Geneva environment.
In signing the Garden Charter, a collaborative project among Swiss Cantons, the U.S. Mission assumes a commitment to organize our land in a way that enables the survival of wildlife. This includes not using biocides, planting grasses instead of lawns, and leaving havens for small animals such as heaps of stones, or piles of branches. The Garden Charter plaque with its symbolic hedgehog will stand at our main entrance next to the Certified Wildlife Habitat sign awarded in 2009 when the Mission became the first State Department facility certified by the U.S. National Wildlife Federation.
Based on the “Melange-Geneve” blend of Geneva wildflower and grass species developed by the Canton of Geneva’s Conservation office, the Mission’s new meadow will increase local biodiversity, while also curbing water use and carbon emissions and reducing maintenance costs.
“We expect that over time the expanse of prairie grasses will become home to a host of regional flora and fauna,” said Ambassador Betty E. King, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva. “By virtue of our close proximity to other green spaces, we will be able to contribute our meadow to a chain – including gardens at international organizations and other diplomatic Missions nearby –forming a green corridor of hospitable terrain for the likes of birds, hedgehogs, butterflies, and rodents. Being a good neighbor in Geneva also means being a good neighbor to the diverse species, large and small, in our shared environment.”
The Melange-Geneve features flowering wild grasses including Salvia pratensis (Meadow Sage) with its vertical stalks of purple and blue flowers, and the white flowered umbrels of the Caraway (Carum carvi) or Medidian Fennel. The meadow will expand the habitat for Geneva animal and insect species including butterflies such as the Old World Swallowtail (Papilio machaon), many species of birds, and of course the Garden Charter mascot, the hedgehogs, which feeds on the seeds of the plants.
“Choosing to plant prairie grasses rather than a cultivated lawn helps to rebuild biodiversity literally from the ground up,” said Bertrand von Arx, Nature Conservationist for the Canton of Geneva. “I’m pleased to see that Geneva’s biodiversity corridors are taking root in international Geneva as well. Projects like this one help to rebuild food chains. That in turn has an expanded impact beyond each individual garden’s walls. Adding native grasses to your garden favors the diversity of plants and animals and can even contribute to preserving our rarest and most endangered species.”
U.S. Mission Photo: Eric Bridiers