I learned a long time ago that a weed is any plant growing where you don’t want it to grow. Some people like wildflowers, for example, and others think they’re worthless. There are weekend warriors who invest a lot of money on the eradication of dandelions, while their neighbor looks out from the kitchen window and admires their own yellow carpet. Clearly, in my example they don’t live in a neighborhood with a homeowners association. Weeds are a topic of conversation at the association meeting in many places, as in who isn’t keeping up with them.
We have a habit of deciding that what comes naturally doesn’t look good enough for our taste. The old joke points out the irony that where God created leaves to blanket the earth under the trees, which helps control weeds and retain ground water, we rake up the leaves, fight the weeds on our own, and then pay the water and sewer authority handsomely to help us water the ground. Common weeds themselves are actually pretty amazing. They can grow readily where our pampered hothouse flowers and shrubs struggle to survive. We like the extra work, apparently.
I have the pleasure of working in one of the most beautiful spots on St. Simons Island: the grounds at Christ Church, Frederica. Our historic cemetery is an interesting mix of cultivated and natural landscaping. Over the last 150 years all sorts of things have been planted on and around the burial plots. We cut the grass regularly and whack down the azaleas to a manageable height every so often. Some of the shrubs get regular maintenance, while others do not. And then there are our trees. Some were there long before anyone thought to create a garden, and others have been strategically planted over the decades. Either way our arborist loves it when we call for our annual tree work.
I suppose it’s all a kind of partnership. We work to tame nature, as it were, which works to varying degrees. Having grown up in a rural farming community I know very well that too much rain and too little rain each bring their own problems. Late frosts can be a killer too; literally. We really can’t tame nature, but we try as hard as we can. In the end, it’s usually worth the effort, so long as the effort is enjoyable. There are beautiful yards and gardens all over the Golden Isles to prove the point. There are also places like Cannon’s Point where we can hike through the quickly vanishing natural landscape of these islands we call home.
Fortunately, we do recognize that God is a pretty good landscaper too. Efforts like those of the St. Simons Land Trust, who are steadily adding protected acreage to their holdings, are preserving the natural beauty of Georgia’s coast for generations to come. Without such efforts, it would become harder and harder to find and appreciate the beautiful and unique flora and fauna that are so easily cleared to make way for development. Once those lands are gone we won’t get them back again.
Just like we call unwanted plants a weed, I suppose we should have a name for unwanted buildings too. Perhaps the most hotly debated topic around these parts has to do with development. It’s not as easy as one would think to determine exactly what and how much development is good for a community like ours or when we’ve cross the line and built too much. I suppose it’s more honest to say it’s not easy to agree on such things. There are certainly a lot of opinions.
Another old joke tells of the country pastor who stops by to see a new member of his flock who had purchased some land in the county the year before. The farmer had worked hard to clear the land, put up barns, and plant the crops. As the pastor greeted the man he praised his efforts, “Hello, Brother! God certainly blesses us with a fine creation. This land looks wonderful.” “Thank you,” the farmer replied, “but you should have seen it when God had it all to himself.” In truth, the joke is on us if we forget that it is indeed a partnership between God’s creation and us.
Partnership means balance. There is give and take. There is compromise. It means each appreciating the other. It also means recognizing that what may be considered a “weed” and undesirable, whether the naturally growing or the manmade brick and mortar kind, is relative. Weeds aren’t always worthless. As A.A. Milne said through the wise words of Eeyore, “Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.”
