"Houses Covered in Kudzu"

Kudzu is a climbing vine introduced into the United States -- from Japan -- in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Expo. It was intended to be a forage crop and ornamental plan. In the early 1950s, however, the U.S. Department of Agriculture actually encouraged farmers to plant the vines in order to help reduce soil erosion.

Now fast forward a couple of decades later, and kudzu has become a fast growing weed that infests about 11,000 square miles of the southeastern United States. It costs around $500 million every year in lost cropland and removal/control costs.

Jack Anthony has a photo gallery of abandoned houses in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina that have been taken over by kudzu. I thought I'd post the link here since, in a way, they do -- as he said -- make "interesting natural sculptures". Enjoy!

-Jon
posted by Jon at 3:31 PM  I   I  0 comments