Can We Talk 2

Invasive Vines

         I have something that looks like a grapevine that wraps around trees, shrubs, ladders, telephone wires and grows upward and crosses over to other things. You have to pull it up out of the ground. But it will grow back!

         I had an extension ladder behind my shed that I couldn't move because this vine had wrapped around it tightly to a nearby tree. I tried pulling the ladder to break the vine, but that didn't work. I severed it from the ground, but discovered I had to keep cutting it all the way up. It starts out thin, green and flexible. It gets very thick and brown, almost like a snakeskin pattern. It twists all around itself and puts new shoots out in different directions which twist around other things. That makes it very hard to pull it out of shrubs or out of tree branches.

         I thought at first that it was confined to one area of the yard, then discovered it in more areas along the edges. Getting it out of my holly trees was a sticky situation! Now it's all over the yard, which is a little too big for me to do by myself. I noticed for the first time that the leaves are turning colors and it's putting out some colorful berries.

         I asked a gardening friend, who volunteers to keep the church yard up along with many others. She gave me the name which I can't remember. The berries draw the attention of the birds who eat them but can't digest them. So, they excrete the berries all over the place which is why the vine is so prolific.

         So now when I am wringing wet with sweat and bleeding from broken branches puncturing my thin skin, I listen to the birds who no doubt are complaining about me taking away their berries. But it's their fault my trees and shrubs have so many dead parts. It's not a lovely vine. It's a killer. While building up a huge brush pile, I'm thinking of stories for Halloween, about the killer vine that can't be destroyed! I am only seeking justice and revenge against the vine that wants to devour and destroy Mother Nature in my vicinity.