But one thing I will not ascribe to is, well....HERBICIDE. The obliteration of any given species of plant JUST because it happens to BE that species. That's a racist attitude, folks! Of course I pull bittersweet out of the rock garden when I see it, but by the same token, I am in GREAT appreciation of it when it has the wherewithal to climb a dead utility pole and turn it into a living 'tree' and produce x number of square feet of 'leafdom' which, in case ANYONE's forgotten, is part of the reason we can still BREATHE.
Another case in point are the 'weeds' of the animal kingdom. The entire time I've been writing this, the Squirrel Circus has come to town right outside my window in the huge mulberry tree. Now these are the SAME guys I have been bellowing at, BEATING on the walls with shoes to scare them out of the crawlspace, and just SURE they're going to burn this cottage to the ground with chewing on some hot wire. But for right now they're doing their Flying Rodent Brothers routine and scarfing up all the mulberries that are making THIS barefoot goddess look somewhat like Lucille Ball in a vat of grapes. (Did you know you can actually EAT mulberries while hanging by your toes??? I didn't know that) Squirrels can be damaging bad news when they get into your house, but squirrels aren't bad because they're SQUIRRELS, nor are Dandelions bad because they're DANDELIONS.
Put the TROWEL DOWN for a minute and take a good look at that plant slated for destruction. Has it NO virtues? Sit down and have a little talk with it, you just might see something interesting, and weediness is indeed in the eye of the beholder.
"Plant Police? In my office, NOW! I want to have a WORD with you guys!"
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