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["SISU!" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Bill Jones wrote:

> It's customary for Easterners to have no clue about our Western 
> gardening conditions.  "It grows on cement" because in Georgia it 
> rains 4" a week!  Westerners have never seen kudzu, because it 
> doesn't grow here.

Like I wrote in my other post, I DO know Oregon, apparently better than
you know Georgia.  We get 55 inches of rain here at my house a year, yet
I have had 2 inches in the last 6 weeks.  I can take pictures of the
cracks in the ground if you would like to compare it to your "Bone dry
summers"
Kudzu grows in places that are wetter than Georgia as well as places
that are dryer, colder, hotter, higher, lower, sandier, windier,
rockier, saltier, you name it.
Oh and btw, the reason this 'side of the continent', i.e. the Southeast,
has a problem with kudzu is because David Fairchild, a Michigan born,
Kansas reared botanist, thought it would be a good idea to plant the
stuff down here to help farmers overcome drought conditions.  (He ran
the USDA's Plant Introduction Program from 1900 through the late 1920's).
 He failed to see the long term consequences.  He is also the guy
responsible for all the bamboo groves you see. Mr. Fairchild wasn't
evil; he did have a few good ideas, like bringing the cherry trees to
Washington DC so that we could have a cherry blossom festival every
year, introducing alfalfa, horseradish, and nectarines.  He had good
intentions, just as you do, but he made a mistake that people are still
paying for over 100 years later.

Still tired and punchy, but making an attempt to be otherwise....heading
off to bed now that I have had my say..

Bev

--
Bevanron in NW Georgia          EarthNSky Farm  34.498N 85.076W
SISU! (Finnish--There is no single word in English that encompasses
all that sisu means, but it combines the following ideas: guts, pep,
determination, stubbornness, perseverance, hardiness, stamina, go, do,
nerve, spunk, pluck, and grit.  It's like "Just Do It!" & "Go for It!")
                                GO NAVY!