But environmental engineering professors Nancy Love and Krista Wigginton are asking visitors to the garden to drop their drawers.
A pair of researchers at the University of Michigan put the “pee” in the peony. Instead, they urinate on spring flowers.
Environmental engineering professors Nancy Love and Krista Wigginton are normals at Ann Arbor School’s Nichols Arboretum, where they applied urine-based fertilizers to heirloom peony beds before the flowers’ annual spring bloom.
This is all part of an effort to teach the public about their studies showing that applying nutrient-rich urine-derived fertilizers can have environmental and economic benefits.
“At first, we thought other people might hesitate. You know, it can be weird. But we’ve actually experienced very little of that attitude,” Wigginton said. “In general, other people think it’s fun at first, however, then they perceive why we’re doing it and they do it. “
Love is co-author of a publication in the journal Environmental Science
Urine is a must-have nutrient like nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus and has been used as a fertilizer for crops for thousands of years.
Love said collecting human urine and creating renewable fertilizers would lead to greater environmental sustainability.
Think of it as both recycling but “urine cycling,” Wigginton said.
As part of a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation in 2016, Love and Wigginton tested complex urine treatment strategies and investigated people’s attitudes regarding the use of urine-derived fertilizers.
This is what led them to the much-loved campus peony garden, which features more than 270 ancient types grown from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries representing the American, Canadian, and European peonies of the time.
“We use the term ‘peeing on peonies. ‘And then it grabs people’s attention and then we can communicate to them about nutrient flows and nutrient potency in our communities and how to be more sustainable,” Love said.
“It turns out that other people come up with permission to drop their drawers and urinate on peonies.
“So, this year we’re going to use ‘pee for peonies’ and we probably won’t have that confusion. “
The urine-derived fertilizer researchers use in those days comes from Vermont. But if all goes according to plan, they will distribute local fertilizers next year.