Arundo Excavation

GARDEN MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
June 27, 2012




I just had a mind altering experience on the Rim of the Arosa Canyon. I went out today to do some compost work with Chef Jem. We have a standing date for Wed late afternoon.

My first sight of the Arundo, on the Rim of the Arosa Canyon, was disheartening. I can pay others to snap the fast growing reeds, but when I come back four or five days later, no matter what work I have done myself, or asked others to do, the plant continues to grow at a most prolific pace.

This is the fastest growing plant I know. There must be plants in the Rain Forest that grow this fast, but the growth of the Arundo is astounding.

My mind has no focus in this moment.

I am back from an Arundo experience.

After spending about 30 minutes cutting the green shoots of this grass that can grow more than 20 feet tall, a bit with the help of Chef Jem, I abandoned all strategy to get down on my knees and start digging with at one root. This is the second time I have described such an experience.

There is an entire fertile ecosystem below the surface.

There is a world of intelligence here, something that needs to be approached with a sense of suspension of belief.

Below the top surface that is dry, I come into moisture. The plant collects water. It breeds fertility. It makes rich soil.

At first I thought maybe I could loosen up one bit of root. I swayed from my normal approach. I began to hit at a bit of root I had exposed. I broke off a piece. I may have shocked the plant. This is not my normal approach. I take time to commune with this livingness.

Then, I started to remove more and more soil. Truly I was in some kind of investigative dig. I would hit at the root on occasion, just to jar it and make some kind of vibration that would loosen some of the root structure.

I realized that the more I did this, and the more I removed soil, I could see that each root was connected. I would loosen one part of the root and begin to shake it. Gradually as I removed some soil from a part nearby, I could see movement. The entire length of the root would move. One part was connected to the other. I worked an hour at least. I revealed more than one foot of interconnected root. This was all attached. It was getting dark.
I had a full five gallon bucket of fertile soil that I had removed and a hole.
Truly this was taking on the dimension of an an investigative dig.

I was wondering what kind of art object I could find if I get going at these.

My neighbors across the canyon, who own this plot where I have invested my soul for many years, play horse shoes on occasion. They seldom come over to this side of the canyon. They have their sport. I have the Arundo to dig and come to terms with. I am not sure how much they are thinking of this patch now.

I have done my best to trim it, but it is about to take off again, It is becoming large in one area of the hillside. I am not sure how much of this I can cut within the bounds of everything else on my plate.

There is more here to deal with that I can do if I take this head on.

RIght now I am in a trance for digging for more than an hour.

I am tired, and I would like to rest.

It is amazing what I am putting aside to spend this time.

Working in the Arundo has completely swayed me from any focused purpose. I only know there is a very huge root, all connected. Perhaps the entire hillside within five feet is connected. It would be an enormous Art Project to unravel this mystery.

I will take some photos tomorrow. Working in the Arundo is taking me far from where I imaged I wanted to be.

There is definitely therapeutic portent here.

it reminds me of a Journal entry by Thoreau.

I am not sure I can find it, or take the time...
I will look. Maybe it will jump out at me if I find the book.

I could spend the entire summer doing this, and still there would be little results other than what might effect eternity.

9:27 pm
Wednesday June 27, 2012

Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable. No day will have been wholly misspent, if one sincere, thoughtful page has been written. Let the daily tide leave some deposit on these pages, as it leaves sand and shells on the shore. So much increase of terra firma. this may be a calendar of the ebbs and flows of the soul; and on these sheets as a beach, the waves may cast up pearls and seaweed.

— Henry David Thoreau, Journal, July 6, 1840


http://www.wisdomportal.com/Emerson/Thoreau-Journal.html

OTHER PLANT YOUR DREAM BLOGS AND LINKS

ARUNDO WRAPUP

http://plantyourdream.net/?p=9771

THE BLOG OF HENRY DAVID THOREAU

http://www.facebook.com/iThoreau/info







 

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