Roots

2014

1994

No there is no Kunte Kinte here. Maybe couldn'ta, can'te. A few months ago my neighbor came to me and suggested that I let him cut down the giant schefflera tree that was growing on our property. When I planted that thing twenty years ago, I was only familiar with schefflera trees that I had seen in pots growing in homes, offices, and malls up north. I had no idea that here in Florida they grew into monsters and that even if they didn't topple during a hurricane and crush your house, the root system would wrap around anything that even remotely oozed moisture. That was what my neighbor, a native of Florida, was worried about. My tree hung menacingly over both his house and my house, and in his pitch to get rid of it he kept repeating, "We gotta kill that thing". He was right, the roots had spread under the sidewalk and were pushing my back porch up on an angle. Over by the air conditioning, schefflera roots had encircled the cooling units and were sending tendrils into every possible crevice looking for water. So yesterday the neighbor fired up his chain saws, I pulled on my big boy pants, and together we killed that thing. It is all gone now but for the stump and the roots. The plan is to drill holes into the stump and inject stump killing poison into it. I'm not sure exactly how environmentally sound that idea is. I am assuming that the stump poison is safe, because surely the government wouldn't let them sell that stuff if it wasn't. Right?