Walking across the National Mall, I tore open a packet of wildflower seeds — sky lupine, mountain phlox, coreopsis — and scattered its contents across the grass. As I later learned, to little surprise, the seeds did not survive the regular visits of a John Deere lawn mower and applications of herbicide. My purpose was pure protest, a symbolic objection to the bland, Kermit-colored expanse that dominates the epicenter of our nation’s capital. Across the country, the millions of small, suburban versions of the Mall directly contribute to that corrosion. Conceived by Washington’s master planner, Pierre Charles L’Enfant, in 1791, the National Mall was supposed to be “​​a grand, tree-lined avenue, flanked by embassies and gardens,” as The Washington Post put it in its superb history of the Mall.

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Persons: coreopsis, John Deere, Pierre Charles L’Enfant, ​ Organizations: U.S, Capitol, Washington Post Locations: United States, Washington ,, Washington