I'm a live and let live kinda guy, so much so even that my backyard looks like a jungle, hindering the human beings wanting to reach my back door. The kids' chihuahua's don't mind, they play in that jungle just the same. And I don't really mind the neighbors complaining, but tonight I had a hard time getting the garbage container out of that chaos to put it on the corner like always....

So despite my reverence for life, something had to happen: in about five minutes flat I ripped out the proudest and tallest of the crowd, filling the green bin to capacity. And I noticed that some life requires very little roots indeed: a wad of hairlike roots onlytwo inches long apparently is enough to support a plant about two feet high, and about two feet across! And it is not that the plant I am talking about requires only a little water: it's leaves and stems literally drip when you squeeze them.

Their defence mechanisms against eradication are equally impressive: some come out roots and all, ready to find fertile soil wherever you take them. Others have built in breaking points, that leave most of the root underground intact, ready to sprout at a moments notice. Yet anoher species has fastgrowing roots, that surface sometimes several feet away from the original plant. Other fast spreader grow above ground, but anchor their progress every foot or so with a new set of roots. And yet others generously distribute their seeds the moment you try to pull them out.

This way these 'wild' things grow faster and bigger than cultivated plants, and to me they are not even that much uglier than their domesticated brethren. But enough is enough, so the coming time  my green bin will be filled every two weeks, until there is a nice void again. Not that I have the green thumbs to fill that with anything to my liking, but I have noticed that if you strip a plot of land bare, the next batch coming up is usually radically different from the last one. Who said there was no diversity in Nature?

Love the wild,

Dre'