Friend or Enemy?

My social media feed has figured out that I love trees and moss and native plants, (along with cats getting into boxes and dogs pushing buttons of course). Recently a post came up in a “Native Plants” group, with the photo a plant with tiny purple flowers I see all the time in my yard. The poster’s question- was this plant friend or enemy? Now I’m a native plant lover from way back, and I understand the harm that invasive plants can do as they push out native plants and all the critters that depend on them. But the post stuck with me- is this the enemy? It's hard for me to think of any plant as my enemy.

I’m pretty sure I have that plant, or one of its siblings in the front patch between my sidewalk and street, and based on how fast it grows it probably is invasive. So at the risk of being cancelled, I confess that a couple of years back I took (with permission) several of those plants from my neighbor’s front patch and planted it in mine. Why? Because another invasive plant, Lesser Celandine, had so thoroughly taken over my front patch that when it dies back with the first heat of summer, it exposes the bare soil which runs off quickly in the rain. Then in the July droughts nothing grows and there are no plants to hold in the water. I needed a plant that didn’t mind that challenging soil between sidewalk and street and could fill in quickly when the lesser celandine died back. I think of that plant with the little purple flowers as my friend, because it protects the soil, and helps hold water in the tiny patch.

I’ve tried planting clover and grass in that patch, but slugs think baby clover is the most delicious thing. I definitely thought of slugs as the enemy for a long time, but last year I decided I was really going to figure out how to get rid of them, and as I paid attention to the slugs in my yard, I began to notice how the parent slugs would bring their babies to a brand new basil plant to help them get a good start in life. Sigh.

Squirrels were my first enemy in the garden, as they stole all the bird food from my squirrel-proof feeders, but the more I watched the more I saw families of baby squirrels emerge from neighbor trees, delighted by their antics. I noticed that those same squirrels who stole the bird food defend the territory from mice and rats. Now these families of squirrels are old friends.

It turns out that plant with the little purple flowers is called “ground ivy” which has been a traditional medicine for headaches, colds, and a bunch of other conditions. Yes, it’s also invasive in some places. So is it friend or enemy? Perhaps it’s just a neighbor. It's hard to be alive in this world, hard to feed yourself and your family whether you are a person, a squirrel or a slug living on my block. Neighborhoods are complicated networks of beings with strengths and weaknesses. What I love is life- all the things willing and able to live and grow and fill barren places in the community of being where I call home. It feels like a gift of the spirit to watch relationships deepen as we know each other better, contemplating this web of life as I sit on my porch is a practice that grounds me and restores my spirit.