Garden Curiosity

Anyone who knows me, knows I appreciate what the earth chooses to do when it comes to gardens. Each volunteer, each interloper in my well devised plans is only a plant that is seeking advantage in the only way plants can: seeds, roots that follow the sun, seek water, nitrogen, acidic soil or base... And as I watch, I am their pupil. Plants can teach us a lot of things.

Here's a weird example. Ever since moving into my home, I've worked to create gardens and remove lawns. Most are completely gone, and the feeble attempts by various grasses to maintain a foothold have been farely easy to weed away. Yet a little grass plant sprouted in a fallow clay pot, and over time I just ignored it. Then I actually admired it. And now I marvel at it. A single grass plant in a loan flower pot that has grown to the height of just over 4 feet. It's beautiful. It plays in form and grace so well against it's background of various foliage.

I wonder if a plant -- this plant -- were to bear anything as tender as a conscious-mind... I wonder if it could, if it does understand it's place in evolutionary history. How grass being the most recent invention of plantlife on earth, gave mammals the edge over other animals, gave man the foot up to establish culture. And if, just if, it does -- what wisdom would it have to share with me....