Tequesta : Number - 50/1990 - FIU Digital Collections

16 TEQUESTA
to bring in another machine. Wesley taught us the art of removing
palmettos. The saw palmetto has a reclining trunk that runs along the
top of the earth, anchoring itself every inch or so with fibrous roots, each
one as strong as a manila rope of the same size.
"You cut off the roots like you would cut off the legs of a centipede,"
said John. And he would chop along one side of a palmetto trunk with
his grubbing hoe, then turn around and chop along the other side. When
he got through he would lift the rootless trunk from the earth. "See?"
he added, demonstrating how easy it was.
Most of our planting of broadleaved trees, palms and shrubs was
restricted to the property borders when we sought to create a screen
between us, the streets and the rapid growing housing developments. In
time our acreage began to take on a park-like atmosphere. And then is
when the problems began. As new people moved into the neighborhood,
our woods proved to be a charm that attracted both children and
grownups - to play, to picnic, to ride horses, to search for firewood, to
plunk at songbirds with BB guns or .22-caliber rifles, and even to cut the
small pines for Christmas trees. Whenever we said anything, the reply
was nearly always the same: "I didn't know anybody owned this
property." I really think they failed to notice that the property, although
partly wild, was also cultivated, with a screen of plants growing along
the borders and lawn grass in the vistas between the clumps of palmettos.
Up From the Sea
Viewing the pine woods from our house, no one could have suspected
that almost solid limestone lay just beneath the surface of the
grass-covered vistas. It was a distinct formation - oolite - which
geologists have given the local name of Miami Limestone. Only the
swale, where the mixture of marly soil and sand was two to three feet
deep, could you turn the soil to make a garden or dig a hole with a shovel.
On the slopes rising gently from the swale, where the pines and
palmettos grew, the surface was covered by a thin layer of sand and
brittle weathered limerock. This layer could be removed with the aid
of a grubbing hoe, but whenever we tried to dig a hole in the white
limestone beneath, deep enough to set out even a small plant, it yielded
only to a railroad pick and a back tempered by hard work. When we first
moved to Montgomery Drive, I used dynamite to blow planting holes,
usually half a stick to make a hole large enough for a small plant. In the