There is a jungle in my backyard. In the dense foliage and among the pools and streams, the trees and shrubs, wild cats roam and nocturnal foragers forage (the Raccoons and Opossums). There are small monkey-like mammals called Squirrels jumping around in the trees. There are Doves and Mockingbirds and Cardinals, occasionally Hawks and Owls. There are screaming Blue Jays that sound like Macaws. There are millions of microbes living in the soil and the water, they are part of the jungle too. They’re all part of the jungle.
Years ago, when my neighbor’s daughter was small, still living in the age of wonder, we would go on safari, crawling thru the Ragweed forest and pretend to be lost. Ha ha. That Ragweed forest actually moved, summer by summer, from over by the fence to over by the pool. I could see exactly what it was up to - getting closer to the water. Who can blame it?
The Ragweed forest is gone, I pulled it out of the ground last Spring, hundreds of aspiring young plants. It was cruel but not without reason, I was starting to suffer from the pernicious pollen they release into the air. I figured the neighbors would probably appreciate it too.
But there is new stuff always showing up in the jungle habitat. A Chili Pequin is growing over by the Papyrus. It’s developing its small, red, intensely hot chilis and hanging them like Christmas ornaments among its beautiful green leaves. I love that plant. Me and the Mockingbirds. They are the ones who planted it. We share.
Next to the pool where the running water flows, lies the groovy nook half hidden beneath the Possum Haw and the Hackberry trees. There is a bench, bartered from a neighbor, where I often sit to observe and witness (kind of the same thing) the green screen of tangled foliage and the swamp beyond filled with Elephant Ears and Saw Grass. Impenetrable. If you were a Frog you could find refuge there. That’s where they used to hide and even laid their eggs but Kybo the wild cat got em when they came out to feed. It was sad. The Toads remained but who wants to eat Toads?
Where the swamp (aka bog filter) empties into the pool there are dozens of orange and white Goldfish, each with their unique designs and colors. They have been swimming around in there since I brought them home from the Walmart aquarium 10 years ago. There are no chemicals in this water (it’s a biosphere) because it’s filtered in the bog. It’s a bog filter. It purifies and aerates the water without chemicals. Yay! How does that work?
Microbes. Nitrosococcus and Nitrosomonas live in the bog filter (I call them Soco and Somo) and they transform the waste products of the fish people into plant food. Microbial magic. They are a big part of the Jungle. I’ve identified those two but who knows how many other species of microbes are floating around in the pool with the green algae and the dragonfly nymphs and the dark skittering minnows?
I know my jungle is small, it can’t compare to the Amazon or even a dinky forest but there are also millions and zillions of unknown, unseen microbes in the soil doing things. The fungi are digesting wood and turning it into dirt and connecting the roots of the plants so everybody can share. All kinds of things are going on down there. I could probably google it if I wanted to. Microbes run this place. They’re the foundation of the food chain. They make dirt and fix the nitrogen in it. If you don’t fix the nitrogen nobody can use it.
The Willow tree leans out over the pond, its green leaves fluttering in the breeze, it leans without falling, it leans as if her arms were about to embrace her lost child and below this embrace, on the back porch, I sit. I can see the whole jungle from here. I can think jungle thoughts. I can see my lost child, somewhere back in the dense foliage. Hey Rohn!
And this is also where I try to practice symbiosis. What do you need? How can you help me? That’s symbiosis, that’s how the biosphere works. You see it everywhere: the microbes filtering the water, the bees and the flowers. The trees and the humans breathe out and breathe in with complimentary effects, exchanging oxygen for carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide for oxygen. There is harmony and flowing energy (the breeze and the scents on the breeze), there is green and blue in the canopy, there is bark and brown on the ground, there is filtered light all thru the jungle.
When I have jungle thoughts my jungle gets bigger. It gets as big as a three year old might see it, towering plants, huge trees, bugs flying thru the air as fast as your eye can see, green water and 10,000 skittering minnows swimming around, the Hydrilla and flowering Pickerell Weed over at the shallow end of the pond where the Dragonflies alight. In the Groovy Nook the climbing vines and the soaring canopy are as mysterious as any medieval forest ever was. The elves and fairies and spirits of the air, seen only by the three year olds, are there. I’m pretty sure.
Everything that can be seen is hidden and everything that is hidden can be seen. That’s the trick to my backyard jungle. If I told you all the stories I would have to write a book. Oh yeah I did write a book.
Twilight comes and everything changes. Crepúsculo. The enchantment. Dawn comes and the deep shadows flee. It’s endlessly entertaining.
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