To weed or knot to weed

By David Hines

My mom has a very nice lawn. It was not always so. It was once full of weeds. It had dandelion and plantain, but mostly common knotweed.

I'm sure you've seen knotweed. It's that viny stuff that grows in compacted soil. It has a long tap root, as much as 18 inches in length. It shoots out branches that choke out grass. Though I've seen no documentation on it, from observation I strongly suspect that, like a lot of plants, it emits a chemical that deters competitors.

Because it taps water at low levels, below the vines is a dry and dusty desert. Knotweed grows where soil has been compacted, e.g., near driveways and places of heavy foot traffic. But it doesn't stay there. It propagates into healthy grass, killing it off.

Mom's weeds didn't disappear by themselves. Nor were they dosed with chemicals. When my dad desired some contemplative solitude, he went out and pulled weeds. I picked up the habit.

Grass has good recuperative power. Soil compaction and trampling can destroy it, but can't keep it out altogether. It can spread by seed, but in mowed and grazed areas it spreads by rhizome. Growth occurs underground, emerging some distance from the parent tuft. Remove the knotweed, permitting the soil to retain moisture, and grass will spread. In spreading, it creates its own little ecosphere, retaining soil moisture and developing the topsoil. Earthworms return, and beneficial bacteria.

A government program is a lot like a knotweed. It has a centralized tap root, extracting nutrients from great depth. Ordinary people, on the other hand, must extract their sustenance close to the surface; if it's tapped out, they suffer. A government program sends its tentacles to great lengths. Its budget will increase every year, tapping even more resources. With guaranteed subsidies, it chokes off competition. It emits a debilitating air of dependency.

We have two presidential candidates who propose planting knotweed. They love centralized systems that tap economic vitality and send tentacles out into otherwise healthy communities. To them, a healthy lawn is a tangle of knotweeds, planted by government. They don't imagine that knotweed agencies tap the vitality of a healthy populace. They believe instead that knotweed and grass coexist nicely, and feed each other. But it's not so. Government programs exist at the expense of general weal. The more knotweed they plant, the less healthy is our economic ecosystem. Their solution to fix it is to plant even more knotweed.

Though now ubiquitous, knotweed is not native to the US. Neither is socialism — which is also becoming ubiquitous. The plans of both candidates rely upon underground taxation, i.e., taking the money before people even realize that it's been taken. Either guy must inflate the currency to pay for all the plans. Contrary to popular belief, that money doesn't come from nowhere. It comes from the produce of every one of us, as our money becomes worthless.

The situation is coming to a head. Beneath knotweed government there is not healthy turf but instead a desert. If the agencies fail, the topsoil shall blow away. And they are on the verge of failing. The mortgage mess, among other problems, will consume far more resources than has yet been admitted. This is fiat money inflation coming home to roost.

A story is told of the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus. Though he set up a socialistic system, he was of the opinion that he did it right. He noted the thriving fields ready for harvest, and his strong, healthy people, and rejoiced. Our politicians look at such things and instead of rejoicing see things to be exploited, taxed, regulated, and subsidized. They see the need for more weeds.

By removing some knotweed, we could still restore some healthy turf. Instead, we have two candidates who think knotweed is beautiful. For my part, I prefer vibrant grass to weed-covered desert.

© David Hines