Saturday, May 22, 2010

Nature is Winning

It's gardening time! We are all in the throes of it. And that includes me. I'm planting, moving, raking and especially pulling.
I've pulled up so many mini trees that I'm starting to feel bad about it. Perfectly good maples, poplars and birches are being dug up and tossed. Seems rather odd when I know my daughter is on the other side of Canada planting trees as fast (faster) than I'm removing them from my yard.
It's not only trees but weeds and even perfectly good plants.
But I'm losing the fight.
Everywhere I look there are more and more. It's something like the Mickey Mouse cartoon where he cuts up the broom and suddenly thousands of little brooms pop up from the splinters. So I can just imagine what would happen if I simply did nothing for a whole summer.
The garden would begin to creep up onto the yard, the grass in the yard would grow probably up to my shoulders, the trees would be popping up everywhere. Now imagine what would happen if I left it for a whole year......I would have a veritable forest on the go!
You see, for all the damage humans do to nature, nature just takes the knock but knows, without too much difficulty, nature can win the fight. Just leave her be for a couple years and our roads, sidewalks, pretty patios and decks, even our houses would soon be engulfed into her green embrace.
Like so many other gardeners out there, I'm trying to assert my authority over a square patch of land I call my own. But really, nature is the boss. She's a I know you told me to sit down but I'm standing on the inside type, much like my son. We would all be smart if we just learned to work with her instead of against her.

2 comments: