attitudes
As I once again sat resting in the shade of the old fig tree, between bouts of deracination of the grass, weeds, brambles and briars, it occurred to me that these garden pest plants had different philosophies of life. Grass is not real smart and will hardly ever enter an intelligent conversation, it just grows as fast as it can, spreads as much as possible and then puts out the maximum amount of seed for the next generation of garden headaches.
The weeds are a little different and make themselves so annoying with their variety of species and aggravating habits that I don’t even take time to talk to them to find out their thoughts about anything. I just hack them out and leave them gasping for dirt because I know they would probably just lie about why they were there in the first place – my advice is don’t trust what weeds say on any subject.
Then we come to brambles, one of my least favorite plant growths, even though I almost have to admire their tenacity and stick-to-it-iveness. These wild blackberries can overgrow an area almost in one season because they grow runners in several directions for 3 to 6 feet, then where the tip of each one of these touch the ground, they root themselves to the soil and send several runners of their own out in several different directions.
They just have a very sneaky attitude in that they sort of wink at you and by that they say, turn your back on me just a while and I will show you what I can do. I pulled up one the other evening that started with one plant and the runners had not had a chance to root and I had in my gloved hands about 40 feet total of sections of thorny stems. All this and if you leave just a short piece of root in the ground, the plant will sprout from that and start all over again.
This leaves the briars, the champion root grower of them all. As I was deracinating today in the garden, I spotted a small group of four briar sprouts not over 3 inches tall. Being familiar with how they grow, I started digging around these to get out the root knots. It took almost 30 minutes to finally dig out these connected knots. The longest of the root knots was 36 inches deep in the ground and it felt like quite the trophy as I held it up by its sprout.
The thought process of the briar (if it had one) would be to grow a big root first, with a minimum amount of sprouts and leaves, then when the root is big enough, send vines up to the top of the tallest tree nearby – wise philosophy. On one border of my property, I have seen them at least 20 feet up any growth that would support them – down on the coast I saw them up 50 feet and more.
I tend to personify these plants for my own entertainment but I’m still amazed at the way God created them to survive in most any climate and condition. I say again, God does all things well, even though I do have to keep these bad entities pulled out of my garden. ec
The weeds are a little different and make themselves so annoying with their variety of species and aggravating habits that I don’t even take time to talk to them to find out their thoughts about anything. I just hack them out and leave them gasping for dirt because I know they would probably just lie about why they were there in the first place – my advice is don’t trust what weeds say on any subject.
Then we come to brambles, one of my least favorite plant growths, even though I almost have to admire their tenacity and stick-to-it-iveness. These wild blackberries can overgrow an area almost in one season because they grow runners in several directions for 3 to 6 feet, then where the tip of each one of these touch the ground, they root themselves to the soil and send several runners of their own out in several different directions.
They just have a very sneaky attitude in that they sort of wink at you and by that they say, turn your back on me just a while and I will show you what I can do. I pulled up one the other evening that started with one plant and the runners had not had a chance to root and I had in my gloved hands about 40 feet total of sections of thorny stems. All this and if you leave just a short piece of root in the ground, the plant will sprout from that and start all over again.
This leaves the briars, the champion root grower of them all. As I was deracinating today in the garden, I spotted a small group of four briar sprouts not over 3 inches tall. Being familiar with how they grow, I started digging around these to get out the root knots. It took almost 30 minutes to finally dig out these connected knots. The longest of the root knots was 36 inches deep in the ground and it felt like quite the trophy as I held it up by its sprout.
The thought process of the briar (if it had one) would be to grow a big root first, with a minimum amount of sprouts and leaves, then when the root is big enough, send vines up to the top of the tallest tree nearby – wise philosophy. On one border of my property, I have seen them at least 20 feet up any growth that would support them – down on the coast I saw them up 50 feet and more.
I tend to personify these plants for my own entertainment but I’m still amazed at the way God created them to survive in most any climate and condition. I say again, God does all things well, even though I do have to keep these bad entities pulled out of my garden. ec
posted by mreddie | 12:17 AM
5 Comments:
Even the briar has its place in the overall scheme; just not in your garden.
Thanks for your comment. You and I both need one of those dual control cars.
I like that you personify the plants. It's fun.
What always amazes me is that even these annoyances to us give Glory to their Creator!!!
Oh, you have yet to discover the extensive reach of the bindweed, or morning glory. Resolute little climbers, sprawlers, and indifferent to context. They'll wind themselves around an old rusted watertank out behind the garage or around your magnificent damask rose. Once a visitor, you'll never get rid of them. They'll make themselves at home.
I suppose God didn't intend for us to get lazy here in his garden.
granny - True - I like to control what grows in my garden and briars are not one of the choices.
jayleigh - Thanks. Weeds are just growing the way God created them, I am just booting them out of my garden. :)
bonita - The morning glory is tough, I did a post a while back about them. This is one of the pest plants that I am fighting right now - they are just onery. About the only thing worse is kudzu.
brenda - True - it doesn't take long for the weeds and grass to take over and choke out any veggies a person tries to grow. ec
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