So I was weeding the garden this weekend and I had time to come up with a little analogy. OK, I came up with a big analogy because I spent the ENTIRE weekend weeding the garden and am still not finished... I'm still not close to being finished.
We want to do our garden without chemicals because we are going to eat the things out of it and don't especially want to poison ourselves. I like the idea of organic and keeping nature going the way it is supposed to go. With all things in balance, things get planted and do their thing all by themselves, why do we need chemicals to "help". People use chemicals so they don't have to spend their entire weekend coming up with an analogy on Morning Glory.
If you don't know about Morning Glory, they are a weed. I have heard that some people plant them as flowers and maybe there are varieties that don't try to take over the world, but every Morning Glory I have ever seen I have tried to eliminate from my garden or lawn. Morning Glories have roots that can be up to 15-20 feet deep. They can be present and dormant up to 50 years before sending out shoots. When they do send out shoots they are persistent and fast growing. I used to think that Blackberries were one of the worst weeds. I had a field of blackberries behind my house in Astoria and the Morning Glory was invading and taking down the blackberries.
The analogy....
If you want to be successful in life you have to be like a Morning Glory. First it takes deep convictions. Deep in the root of your being you have to be dedicated to your idea. Like the root of a Morning Glory, weeding and even rototilling won't touch it. Your convictions have to be so firm that they will withstand varying opinions and even insult.
Then, with a deep root system you have to go after the goal. You have to send up shoots everywhere. You spend all your energy going for the goal. With all of the resolve that you have you go for the goal. Even if it means spending all of the energy you have stored, you go for the goal. In the end you will either succeed or die trying. That is how to succeed in life, that is how Morning Glory succeed.
The Theory...
Here's my thought. The root system is the store of energy that the plant has. With that energy the plant sends up shoots. According to what I know about plant physiology, that plant cannot store energy without photosynthesis which occurs in the green leaves. So if I pluck the leaves before they open, the plant will use energy to get the shoots up there, but it will not be able to store energy because I won't let it photosynthesize. In theory the Morning Glory will eventually run out of energy and I will have won.
A couple of potential problems...
I don't know how long this will take. There could be 100 years of energy stored in the roots in my yard. That would be bad, but it may very well be the case.
I also don't know how far the roots run. What if the plant is storing energy from leaves in the neighbor's yard? I'm not weeding her yard too. That too is possible.
So I may lose the battle with Morning Glory, but in my life I will try to follow the example of Morning Glory. It's a sure route to success.
Sorry, that got a little cheesy at the end... If anyone knows how to get rid of Morning Glory without poison, let me know....PLEASE!!
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7 comments:
10 Megatons?
My neighbors have ivy which I find worse. I'm not afraid of using some chemicals and Roundup would probably take care of your problem, it doesn't do jack to ivy.
I don't think your method will take too long Sans. I have been working the same theory with a shoot looking weed that just breaks off when you try to pull it. I have had good luck, except on the neighbors fence borders. Nothing you can do there.
Just getting our seeds ready here, put them in peat pods last Friday, and my corn seeds all got this fuzzy little mold on them. Strange.
Persistence certainly goes far. I like your analogy except for one thing.
You say that the first thing we need is deep convictions. I think you are only half right. We need to have deep convictions about things that are true.
Deep convictions are dangerous if people become deeply convicted about false ideas.
The evil that happened at Virginia Tech was the result of a person who was deeply convicted about false ideas.
William Wilberforce was deeply convicted about the evil of the slave trade in Britian and he persisted for thirty years before he succeeded in convincing his fellow parliamentarians.
Anonymous-- While I see the attraction to Roundup, it is produced by Monsanto and I WILL NOT support them. For example, the farmers in Iraq (the country we are "helping"), are not allowed to save their seeds because Monsanto has a patent on them. So the farmers (in all their wealth?) are required to BUY seeds from Monsanto. No roundup for me.
Nobbynick-- I hope you are right. I did some weeding last night and it was much easier than the weekend.
Vertigo-- Right on, I agree completely. Deep convictions have to be based in truth to produce good, unfortunately the deep roots of my Morning Glory seem to be based in whatever happens to be there.
Hey - have your garden soil tested for Lead. Esp around the house. Sad fact is many urban/suburban gardens in neighborhoods that have been around for a little while are loaded with lead (from paint and stuff).
Would suck to grow some nice organic fruits and herbs in ya garden only to have them loaded with heavy metals and stuff.
Oh and yeah... Morning glories. First year in our house in Michigan i thought they were cool and pretty and let em grow. Spent until we moved out of there fighting the sunsofbitches (pretty much with non chemical weapons -ie Hands). Ya picked a GREAT analogy!
I was making headway a couple years in to the pulling.
Do it as often as possible, take as much of the root/rhizome as you can.
Do NOT EVER let them flower.
Let them grow a bit in between pulling.
ie wait till the leaves are full but not fully hardened (still juvenile). This will eventually and slowly use up the reserves in the deep roots. Don't let them grow long enough to start sending sugars back down, but just long enough to make a significant depletion in what they have.
make sense?
Best to hot compost the stuff in a sealed container.
If ya don't want to use chemicals ya gotta do the whole patience thing.
And round up don't much better than just pulling the green foliage. Morning glory's have a killer defense mechanism.
i liked your analogy. it really made me think about what my deep convictions are, and how I live my life either in support of, or against that conviction. I think it is possible to have deep conviction, but to get side tracked, and grow in the wrong spots. The plant keep trying to expand and grow where it shouldn't, even though you are sending it a message that it is doing it all wrong. How often do I ignore the messages that I get that tell me I am sending off the shoots that go contrary to the direction of my convictions? I think I do it more often that I would like to admit.
I believe in simple living, yet I have many things. I want to help the environment, yet I drive a long way to work. I believe in eating right and excersising, yet I have a hard time doing it.
Maybe I would be happier if I put down my roots somewhere and was firm in my convictions instead of just giving lip service.
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