National Geographic: The Savage Garden Page #5

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truth about the garden.

To me, my garden was

filled with sneaky,

willful creatures that seemed to enjoy

getting my dandruff up.

And worst of all,

they didn't respect me.

So I didn't respect them until

I learned to pay attention...

close attention.

Now that's harder to do than you think

Now some people can have their eyes

wide open and see nothing.

Other people can have their eyes

closed and watch reruns of Bonanza,

but that's not a problem

I want to discuss right now.

Or you can have this eye closed

and this eye open.

Or you can have this eye closed

and this eye open.

And either way it gets you... nowhere.

As I was saying, respect your garden.

Watch it closely.

I wish I had learned

these lessons sooner myself.

At the time, some lessons were too

elevated for me to learn.

Even above my garden,

trouble was brewing.

The acorn weevil was back.

Sure enough, she found my oak tree.

She's looking for a good meal.

And when it comes to acorns,

she knows the drill.

What a "schnoz"!

It's longer than her body

and tipped with tiny jaws.

Reminds me of my first agent.

After a three-year fast,

she's eating my acorns.

Kind of like my second agent.

There goes the next generation

of oak trees, I mean.

Her little jaws are smaller

than a printed period.

Helvetica twelve point.

Through her strawlike proboscis,

she sucks up liquid fat from the acorn.

It's a perfect diet for a weevil,

but don't even think about it

if you're on Jenny Craig.

Next she'll lay her egg inside,

but only if this is the one kind

of oak tree that suits her.

Finicky, this little pest.

Ah, evening was coming.

A heron approached my pond.

Don't even think about fishing here!

Sometimes even the darker side

had a gentleness about it

unless you're a slug.

Dusk was the time for creatures

large and small to rest

and enjoy the harmony of our domain.

Especially the lucky few

that had escaped my iron-fist policy.

What a piece of work is man-tis!

One of the so-called "good" insects,

he excels at inactivity:

he spends two-thirds

of his time motionless

much like my third agent.

Still, he's an alert animal,

with two big goggle eyes

and three extra gemlike eyes.

He spends over an hour a day grooming

every part of his spiny body.

Why?

Because he can.

This evening, my garden was about to

disappoint me as it never had before.

I heard a strange new sound.

It was a hungry bat,

and she was about to

shatter my peace of mind.

The mantis takes flight

at just the wrong time.

The bat hunts with a kind of sonar.

From her nose, she

beams a high-pitched sound.

Listening to the echoes tells

her the position, speed,

and direction of the mantis.

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