Monday, February 16, 2009. It’s pre-dawn and I’m listening to the light rain outside. I love hearing it drip from the leaves of the oaks onto the leaves of the giant philodendron outside my office window, and the birdbath beside it.  As I took a walk around my yard yesterday before sunset, I noticed the mulberry tree has little green sprouts shooting out on all the branches.  Two days ago it had none.  The bamboo is taking off and all my arbicola and turk’s cap cuttings made it through the cold snap.  My trees and bushes don’t know whether it’s spring or winter with this weather.  Mine were all lucky to have survived the cold snap, even the banana tree.  My loquat trees are all beginning to fruit as well.  With last night’s rain, there should be mega growth on everything by end of daylight today.

In November I’d cut back about 1/4 acre of palmettos down to their stumps, and the fronds/fans are just this week coming back in full force.  I’d wanted to change the look of my yard and knew by cutting the palmettos back just before winter, I’d have a good 3 months of bare stumps.   That let me peek all the way into my east back lot, where I have some turk’s cap and arbicola taking root.  If I see it, I’ll remember to water it.  I’d like to make a nice decorative hedge in front of my neighbor’s privacy fence back there.  It’s all under the canopy of a very large oak, and both plants like the high shade.

When the neighbor behind me dug his pool, they threw the dirt onto my lot, so I have this nice high mound now.  There are several seasons of oakleaf deadfall on the ground, so it’s a nice area to hang out in.  In the past, I’ve pitched my tent there.  The oak tree above has a spiral staircase arrangement of branches, making it easy and fun to climb.   Also against that fence are loquat and a big silver necklace pod bush, crepe myrtle, arbor vitae and what’s left of the orange bush.

I learned a big lesson with the unnamed orange bush with the broad, heavy, veined, ovate leaves.  My neighbor behind me was pruning his back bushes one day years ago and I asked if I could have his cuttings.  He said sure, and cautioned me they’d take over.  That was what I’d hoped for.  I thought.  I planted them and they quickly grew into a nice hedge, but also began popping up in other places outside the garden area.  I didn’t worry about it, simply snipped them off or ran them over with the lawnmower.  Then I began spending time in my east garden and simply don’t go back there for several months.  And when I did, suddenly I had a third of my back yard overrun with this big, beautiful bush.

So I did what I seldom do: I sprayed Round Up on the outside band of bushes.  I didn’t spray it too heavily, nor was it a strong concentration.  I knew the roots were all connected, like the chinese tallow.  I did consider, before I sprayed, what if I killed the entire bush, the entire organism, instead of just the half I had let encroach?   I prepared myself for the consequence, but didn’t think I had anything to worry about.  My model for comparison was the air potato vine that begins to invade after springtime.  That’s what I buy the Round Up for and I use a double concentration.   I go right up to my property line and spray every green tendril that I can see.  I walk the property searching for the evidence, sometimes on hands and knees under palmettos, because when these vines take hold, they choke out all the native plants.

And it’s a shame, because they have such beautiful large leaves, like a big green ivy.  But everywhere a potato drops, more miles of vines takes hold.  Every small potato taken by a bird and rejected elsewhere, becomes a vine to start a new patch there.  A friend of mine and his cousin are both resourceful types who have lived off the land for years.  If it can be grown naturally and has nutritional value, they will find a way to prepare it.  And the air potato even has them beat.  They could not make it remotely palatable.

My one neighbor is such a nature lover that she encourages the potato vine growing on her fence.  I know what she means.  It is not encroaching on any of her other plants so she hasn’t see what it can do.  I told her about mine, but I don’t need to be the one who gives her that lesson.   I think it’s hard sometimes to do something that is so tempting and seems so harmless.  Tempting because you didn’t go out and buy that vine, it just came up out of nowhere and started winding its pretty self around your fences.  Besides, if it is true that it causes problems, then I’ll just catch it before it gets out of hand and I won’t have the same experience.  Right?

I used to really feel people and schedules and responsibilities encroaching in upon my space.  I learned to distance myself from anyone who was toxic to me.  Since it’s a familiar pattern to me, I’ve gotten used to doing it, so I admit it comes rather easily.  I mean, it may take me a while to realize those lovely green tendrils are tying me to the ground and keeping me from light, but as soon as I realize it, I extract myself quickly.  If I wasn’t vibrating there on some level, it never would have occurred in the first place, so there’s no one to blame.  Ah, if only those beautiful green leaves weren’t so tempting to look at…

But back to the beautiful unnamed orange bush that I’d sprayed just a small amount of a dilute concentration of Round Up on just the outer band of the bush.  Four months later, the entire big expansive plant is dead.  I really thought I might lose up to half the plant and I was ok with that, but had no idea it would all go and change the entire landscape of my back yard.

I thought I was only getting rid of one pesky plant. I didn’t give full consideration to the underlying system of that organism.  Just as in breaking contact with toxic friends, make sure you weigh the consequences, make sure you know who all is connected to whom and what will be the result of the break with all of them.  Are you prepared for any possible backlash there in case people take sides and edge you out?

If those things matter to you, then you’ve got a lot to consider.  If you simply know it is the right thing for you to do, no matter what the cost, do it and move forward.  If friends fall away, then you’re just not vibrating there anymore and new ones will come to replace them.

The root system, the ripple effect, the butterfly effect, call it what you will, it behooves us to remember that we are all connected and our actions will affect others down into who knows how many generations?

And right now I’m going back to bed because when I am rested and happy then I exude that and everyone around me is happy, and then everyone around them is happy and then everyone around them. And so, frankly, this is part of my job, going back to bed as the sun comes up before my real day begins and just lounging around to feel good while I start the day.

You’re welcome 🙂