Weeds

What did Billy Bob Thornton say in Bad Santa as he began the slow and tortuous process of redeeming his humanity? ~"I think I'm making progress, I beat up some kids today."......I think I'm making real progress in the gardens, I killed at least half a million plants last week. I'm hoping that most of them were weeds. I killed mostly Garlic Mustard, Dandelions, and Rumex acetosella at home. The main problem at the Library is Bindweed, but there are also Thistles, Apocynum, and a variety of minor weeds. China Valley presented the most interesting diversity. While there are plenty of weed weeds, most of what I was killing were seedlings of accessioned plants.

Thick carpets of tiny seedlings cover the ground under Buxus, Philaelphus, Impatiens arguta, actually under many of my charges. We can be grateful that so many of our cultivated ornamentals are functionally sterile (often because they are the products of such complex hybridization that their chromosome numbers preclude sexual reproduction). And some plants don't seed if they're all alone; there's that few that are dioecious, and a handful that can't cross without a genetically different partner.

I know Bad Santa is a horrible movie, actually it's a pretty good movie that's horrible, but I love it. I guess there's something wrong with my sense of humor, but every December I watch it and every time I laugh till I cry. I don't understand how this movie worked at the box office. I mean there aren't that many people with as odd a sense of humor as I have I think.....I hope. I picture couples looking at each other and one of them says, "it can't be that bad, it's a Christmas movie.".......Miscalculation.