Confession of an addiction

Not so innocent as they may look......

Okay, I admit it. I have been lost in my garden. It happens this time of year. Everything is growing faster than I can look at it all. For instance, each week along the roadways the wildflower theme changes. One week the theme is white flowers as the Buckeye, the daisies and multiple other wildflowers that I don't know the names of, bloom. When I say bloom, I mean cover the hillsides. Especially when it was Purple week. And, I have no pictures as I was selfishly viewing it for me. Lots of it, hill after hill. I should not have been driving. I probably was more dangerous than someone who had been drinking. Because, although my car was going one direction, my eyes were definitely going another. And for long periods of time. OOps! Someone get me an "I Brake for Wildflowers" bumper sticker in large letters so I can at least give out a warning.

This week the theme is definitely ORANGE. Orange wood lilies and orange something or others that look like orange paintbrushes on lily like stems. Very scientific, I know. Everywhere....and then this undercurrent of pink . The pink comes in fuchsia, and pastel as in the licorice candy with the hard sugar shell, and wild roses. Bushes of them, not little spit spots here and there but "bigger than your arms can embrace" bushes. And, I can't stop looking and searching to see what is next. I am hooked and I know there is no cure. ( I heard it is called Plant Lust.)

I think about the people who have grown up here and this is what they encounter every year. Every year!! And they tell me that actually each year is different; different flowers bloom depending on the weather conditions. Amazing. So, I have a new campaign, a stratagem. Stop mowing the ditches and the side of the roadways everywhere. Just stop. What would happen?

We'd use less gas. We'd see more weeds...for awhile. We'd lose less water through evaporation. We'd eventually see more and more wildflowers. And, maybe, even and definitely here, the forests would grow back. More trees, less pollutants. And we don't have to do anything. A new garden begins because we stop working at it. We could put the saved public money into something we need, like bike paths or public gardens in every town. Or clean up the junk that has been tossed into ravines in our countryside and have cleaner water. Or whatever else we dream of. But, then we might all start driving like me and not pay attention, so we would need to have a DD for wildflower crazies when we go on a binge. I like it! Can we go now?