INTERSTICES: an intervening space, esp. a very small one. ORIGIN: late Middle English:from Latin interstitium, from intersticere - 'to stand between', from inter - 'between' + sistere - 'to stand'
INTERSTITIAL: of, forming, or occupying interstices "the interstitial space"
.......from the New Oxford American Dictionary
City dwellers know it well. The jumbled, disonant urban landscape. Trees from Africa, flowers from Europe, shrubs from South America. Each of these well tended within our own individual private properties. Each planted with little or no thought about what is around them. And in between, are the leftovers. Small parcels of forgotten dirt. Hemmed in by concrete and asphalt. Usually owned by the City and sprouting a motley assortment of whatever will grow there. In Seattle that typically means himalayan blackberry, ivy, holly and laurel. Dense, blanketing vegetation that smothers most every thing else. Here, only the strongest survive
Seattle, like just about every other city, is filled with them. They are invisible, yet are everywhere. These interstices are the only green component of our urban mosaic. This concrete jungle..
In the larger parcels (west Queen Anne green belt overlooking the Magnolia Bridge) stands of Big Leaf Maple fight a slowly losing battle against the creeping tide of Cape Ivy, eventually succumbing to the inevitable
But here and there one can find a few exceptions to this rule. A few brave individuals have chosen to buck the tide. Instead of focusing on only their own little private parcel, they have looked beyond their borders and planted out one of the interstices in the neighborhood. A sight for weary eyes. The power of urban landscaping, to relieve the blight of our concrete jungle, lies in the interstitial.
The best example of this is at the north end of Magnolia near the Ballard Locks. It’s on West Government Way, near the abandoned Giles Landscaping buildings. It’s a small triangular parcel bounded by sidewalk and streets. Filled with waist-high salal and several very healthy arbutus mensezei trees, it lifts my spirits every time I drive by.
Do I think that there will ever be a time when every interstitial space in Seattle will be filled with native plantings, carefully manicured by civically minded neighbors? Of course not. But it’s fun to imagine what the City would look like if it were.
Please visit us at www.discoveryparkhabitat.org for more information.
