Quote Originally Posted by enderlord99 View Post
Don't compost neighbors without explicit consent, granted pre-mortem.
Tell that to live oak trees. Those things are murder machines.

A friend bought a pair of Japanese Mulberry trees to frame her driveway entrance. One of them is fifty feet away from the trunk, and at least ten feet from the nearest branch of a live oak. The mullberry died.

She bought a replacement. Then another. The one on the far side of the driveway is flourishing. Same soil, sunlight, water. Then a local garden club advisor came to look.

"Have you ever noticed," he asked, "That the ground beneath your live oaks is bare?"

It turns out that while there are some plants that can co-exist with the constant chemical warfare of the live oak, the mulberry is not one of them.

The idea that plants are hippies who love all life is based on their lack of teeth. Plants are vicious, predatory, and speciesist. Most get murdered in infancy by larger plants just to prevent them from growing up. Plants starve, choke, and poison each other as a normal part of daily life. A plant is far more likely to be killed by another plant than by any grazer, browser, or sap-sucker.

You think middle-school is tough? Try being a seedling in a forest.