Grasshopper Invasion

They are everywhere. Thousands of them. Take one step outside my door and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Visitors are greeted by a swarm of grasshoppers as soon as they step foot on my property.

I first noticed the grasshoppers months ago, but I didn’t think much of them. Then, almost overnight, they took over. They ate my entire garden. I like to think of them as a good luck sign (their symbolic meaning is promising) and so, I have done nothing to control them.

It’s the end of the season, so I’m just waiting for winter to take care of my lucky friends. I fear I may have made a mistake though. My perennial garden has been demolished. I’m hopeful that my pathetic looking plants will make it through the winter and regain their former glory next year.

However, my lack of concern for the destruction of my garden leads me to wonder: what is a gardener? I’ve been accused of not being one, though I do “grow plants” each year. The cause for such an accusation? I don’t do much tending of my garden. I’ve been known to let weeds take over and even go to seed on occasion. Gasp! I’m not one for rules and order, and that is quite apparent when you wander around my garden. As some would say, it’s a garden without a gardener.

I plant the seeds and I harvest the bounty. What happens in between is a minimal amount of maintenance. It’s an organic garden, a garden where plants are free to do what they please and take over with ease. It’s not pretty, but it works.

So…I wonder, am I a gardener? Would a gardener sacrifice their garden just because they don’t want to intervene with nature? Would a gardener let a grasshopper invasion last an entire summer?

This one did.