One thing you don’t want to be in the tropics is complacent. “Gee, doesn’t the yard look nice,” is a smug statement.

Once you start thinking that way, the yard decides to sneak up on you.

We knew the sanchezia (Sanchezia speciosa) was growing nicely, and we loved the hummingbirds and butterflies it attracted. We were complacent.

This morning I realized that our lovely shrub, although still shrub-tall, had taken over the small patch of lawn in front of the house. Worse, it had laid down branches on the lovely sweet-smelling jasmine that scented the air at night.

Something had to be done!

Armed with my trusty clippers, I went out and attacked the wayward shrub. This is not as easy as it sounds since some of the branches were over an inch thick. Back to the house for the brush clippers and back to the bush.

But branches of the sanchezia like to put out roots when they reach the ground. Clipping would be no good, so back to the house for a trowel and a shovel.

This is more work than I bargained for and certainly more work than I wanted. What I wanted was to be sitting on the deck drinking sweet iced tea with lemon. What I was getting was sweaty and bug bitten.

Back to the sanchezia. I attacked it from all sides. First came the branches over the jasmine. Poor little jasmine was also being inhibited by vines, so I pulled them up by the roots. It’s no good leaving the roots, they will just grow back.

Then, with a shovel and trowel, I started to work on the rooted branches. Ever the conservator, I got as many roots with them as possible so they could be transplanted. Where? I think I have mentioned that we have a lot of road front, about 400 meters, and that takes a lot of planting, but then we have a lot of sanchezia.

So much for the front of the shrub. About an hour into digging and clipping, I needed to take care of the other side of the plant. The other side was downhill which is a little tough when the rain has made everything slippery. Nevertheless, downhill I went, clipping as I moved and grabbing unclipped branches for safety.

Another hour later and we had 50 or so baby sanchezia. Fifty?!?! I have to plant fifty ???

Ah well, nobody forced me to be a gardener.

Tip of the week. Yes, creature. A little one that helps gardeners in big ways by turning manure and food scraps into usable compost. Meet the red wiggler (Eisenia fetida) – only 2 to 3mm wide and maybe 3 to 6 cm long - that normally lives in the O layer of the forest amid undecomposed leaves and other matter.

If you want to start a compost bin, you can buy red wigglers or hunt up under leaves, fallen branches, or, as in the case of these worms, just move a flower pot. Evidently, there were just enough leaves and twigs under the pot to draw them in. Or maybe they just wanted to get out of the rain. Gloves are a good idea, as fetida means bad smell. The worms release a smelly substance when disturbed.