If you give a local some land...

You will end up with a jungle! And they will keep planting, and planting, and planting!! Now that we are country dwellers, we see some very strange things as the city folk move out here! Our two neighbors are local northern Chinese folks, one is a Tianjinren and the other is a Beijinger. They must be in some competition to see who can plant the most in their small yards. When I left for the summer, the Beijinger had a very nice yard with proper sod and a few trees. The Tianjiner had clearly outdone him with a tree that required a drip (yes, there was an IV put into the tree for about a week) and a forest of plants and flowers randomly placed in any dirt that was available! Since we have been back, the Beijinger has basically ripped out all of the expensive sod and replaced it with large plants, tress, and shrubs! They both only come out on the weekends and then spend all of their time in their gardens. I understand that the reason they have gone plant crazy is simply because they can, but I'm a bit concerned about the trees when they grow bigger and have no room for their root systems. For now I'm just going to enjoy watching them compete with one another and be thankful for the occasional vegetable that they produce and bring over!
This all used to be sod - now there is wood, mud, and some sort of vegetable!

The poor tree that has no leaves was the one with the drip!!