there was a very good article that got shared around here a while ago about how kudzu -- the weed so explosively invasive it consumed the southern US – is actually not that big of a problem, and that it's mostly just prolific in the bad soils, bright sunshine and polluted air of roadsides, so you see it from the road. when you learn more about it, it turns out kudzu isn't a weed, its a pioneer plant – it thrives in nutrient-poor soil, extending roots deep into the ground to dredge up otherwise inaccessible nutrients to make them available for other plants. in its normal habitat, it produces richer, more welcoming soils that other plants take root in, and eventually it gets shaded over and dies back, its job done. the reason they're "invasive" is because its job is never permitted to be done. you provide ideal habitats – barren sunny roadsides or golf greens with nutrient-poor soil and one hyperspecific cultivar of grass – and it dutifully colonises it to begin enriching the ecosystem, only to be beaten back. the kudzu is removed, restoring the habitat back to its barren, pristine state, primed and ready for the kudzu to come again. so it does, and you end up locked in sisyphean battle that only the kudzu can ever win.
we don't have kudzu here but dandelions are considered the most noxious of weeds. but dandelions thrive in nutrient-poor soil, extending roots deep into the ground to dredge up otherwise inaccessible nutrients to make them available for other plants. in my garden, they relentlessly spring up in the old cracks in the concrete, defiantly growing in even the tiniest available space. ive begun to understand that they are not nasty little pests; they're vanguards, holding open the space within which others might one day grow. the cracks have grown wider over the years, forced open by each new year of dandelions. i think i might stop fighting them.
