May 25, 2016
Fleeing military conscription and a "landless" future in his
native Denmark, Jens Jensen fell in love with the vast though
fast-disappearing prairies around Chicago, his adopted home. He saw
democracy embodied in these open spaces. His life-work became
growing "American Gardens" with these American (today we call them
NATIVE) plants, bringing nature into the burgeoning city, as a
source of public good.
Earthworms welcomes filmmaker Carey Lundin to talk about her
story of legendary landscape designer and public parks
advocate, Jens Jensen The Living
Green. Jensen (1860-1951) incorporated
native plants into sought-after landscape design in an era when
gardens here had merely mimicked the formalities and plant types of
Europe. He appreciated and popularlized the natural beauties
of prairie even as Chicago's growth gobbled up its prairie
outskirts.
A free St. Louis screening of this film will celebrate the
50th Anniversary of the
Missouri Prairie Foundation. Carol Davit, Executive Director of
MPF, also talks with Earthworms, about this organization that
conserves, studies and helps restore the biodiverse native
grasslands that once covered central North America. Sponsored by
Roeslein Alternative Energy, a company researching
sustainable-energy use of prairie biomass, The Living
Green will fill the outdoor Public Media Commons of the
NineNetwork for Public Media on
Saturday, June 18 at 7 p.m.
Music: Big Piney Blues, performed by Brian
Curran live at KDHX, December 2015.
Related Earthworms Conversations: Prairie Power,
March 30, 2016.
Wes Jackson: Growing Our Food Crops as Prairies, September 2, 2015.