“This mode of life gave health and vigor to my body, and amusement and instruction to my mind; and to this day I well remember the delicious sleep which succeeded my labors, from which I was again called at an early hour. If I were now asked whom I consider to be the happiest of the human race, I should answer, those who cultivate the earth by their own hands.”
– William Roscoe
I was reading Washington Irving’s The Sketch-book of Geoffrey Crayon, and he was talking about meeting a man named Roscoe, and how great this Roscoe person was. He went on and on about Roscoe being a man of genius and talents, and finally I had to look him up. Well, now I know who William Roscoe is (smart guy from Liverpool, lived 1753-1831), and while I was perusing his Wikipedia page, the above quote was included. Me, who spent that entire morning ripping invasive Asian vines out of my yard, and has recently been engaged in increasingly greater amounts of earth cultivating activities, thought that this was a special quote, from a considerably smart man.
Reading this Sketch-book of Geoffrey Crayon, by the author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, I think he (Washington Irving) is a genius too. This guy can write, man.
So, yesterday I was looking out of the window, looking at the dark green leaves of the tree in front of me, and seeing the little green berries, and thinking: What is this tree? What kind of leaves are these, what kind of berries? It’s weird that it’s evergreen. Anything evergreen is suspect, now, because so many of the invasives are evergreen, and that gives them an advantage as they have longer growing season.
Lo’ and behold, it was not part of the tree at all, even though the branches were so large that they seemed like branches of the tree. They were actually coming from a vine, an extraordinarily massive and entrenched vine wrapping around the tree and producing enormous branches. This mega-vine turned out to be, of course, non-native.
A horrible invasive from China — Wintercreeper.
In terms of weight of total plant matter, the Wintercreeper in my yard might take the cake, for an invasive. Looking around, I saw it everywhere, smothering almost all of the trees in the yard, and also laying a mat of dense ground cover in the backyard. This invasive, killer vine from Asia. Then, this morning, I was sawing away at these beastly vines, down at the bases, severing them, and I cut something off that turned out to actually NOT be Wintercreeper.
Oh no–did I kill a native, Tennessee vine?? I identified it, and, oh, not to worry. Just another invasive vine, competing with Wintercreeper to kill these trees. Wonderful. (That’s the English ivy.)
I’m conducting a great purge. None of these invaders will survive. They must all go. In the name of the great state of Tennessee, this land will be reclaimed!
With the discovery of these invasive vines on the trees (and all along the ground, and covering the entire fence lining the driveway), there can’t be much more for me to purge. After the Japanese honeysuckle in the front yard, these massive vines, and with me cutting down some of the last giant Amur honeysuckles and Chinese privet, the purge must be nearly complete. There simply aren’t very many plants left in the yard that I haven’t identified now. I even know about the trees (maybe) – I think three of them are hackberries, one’s a maple. And if you guys want to see something crazy, I’ll show you. I have to take a photo of it, I’ll put it in a future post. Oh, it’s not going anywhere.
It’s a giant Tree of Heaven. And it’s right across the street. I didn’t even know they could get that big. Of course, they are a TREE, after all. But, I haven’t seen one so advanced, ever. It was only when I Googled it that I realized, they can become absolutely ginormous. And then, I was playing drums in my roommate’s room, and I was looking out of his window, and my eyes landed on a tree across the street. A strange tree, with leaves that looked like… oh my god.
It was an adult Tree of Heaven. Jesus Christ.
HAKUMUSU 