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Old 22-04-2003, 01:08 AM
Vox Humana
 
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Default Keeping a Messy Garden


"paghat" wrote in message
news
You're doing it my way.

The nature-phobic gardening you describe as your friend's method seems to
be very common. I used to deeply wonder how it could ever have come about
that anyone could love flowers but hate nature. I've come to the
conclusion that the majority of gardeners are motivated by a fear of the
natural world & a need to so completely tame it that it is no longer
fearful. A minority of gardeners have the opposite approach of trying to
duplicate something of nature. Here's one of my past-rants on
nature-phobic gardening:

Lawn Loonies & Envirophobia--
http://www.paghat.com/lawnloony.html

I had to laugh at the page on moles. I live next to a wooded area and
everyone in the neighborhood has moles. I came to the conclusion a few
years ago that life would be better if I accepted the fact that there will
always be moles. I have reduced the amount of lawn I have for the moles to
destroy. That makes more room for all the plants that I just have to have
but don't know where I am going to put them once they are home.

Today the weather was warm but overcast -- perfect for digging and dividing
perennials. I decided that one of the azaleas I moved last year was indeed
dead so I got the shovel and decided to dig it and replace it with a big
clump of daylilies that had become too bid for its site. I plunged the
shovel into the ground, pushed with my boot, and applied leverage to free
the azalea. The plant popped right out and when I looked down I had a large
dazed mole in the shovel! I had to look twice as I was totally amazed to
see that I had removed both the dead plant and a completely intact animal in
a single effort.

The mole looked dazed. It barely moved. My first reaction was to drop it
and cut it in two with the shovel. I put it on the ground and poked it
lightly with the shovel. It let out a pathetic squeal. I couldn't bring
myself to kill it so I just picked it up with the shovel and tossed it a
couple of feet into the wood. It laid there for a few minutes. When I
checked back later it was gone. I thought that anyone could kill a mole,
but only an intelligent being could lean to live with them.