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Gardening

It seems that spring is the time of year for me to spend every free hour of daylight working outside. My old rural yard, surrounded by nothing but nature has been neglected prior to us moving here. As a result, I have been pulling blackberry vines for weeks now and some seem to grow back faster than I can work. The idiot who planted English Ivy here should seek psychiatric treatment, since I cannot get ahead of that plague either. And when my friend said that her grandmother always claimed that 'only fools plant honeysuckle' I thought her grandmother must have been a bitter old lady. Today, as I wrestled through patch nr 437, it struck me that grandmother was a wise lady instead. I remember my kudzo (sp?) days from the (more) southeast. As I remember I used to cultivate my wisteria, hoping for a few blooms in my cool climate. A far cry from the outrage I feel now, when a vine pops back up after yet another failed attempt to kill the stuff. (it takes ooooooooover) I am actually developing a mild liking for the poison ivy I am killing (pulling) since it is not rooted very firmly and easy enough to remove if you are not allergic to it. :o So.... What are your garden plagues? I might consider moving to a place where there are none. :mrgreen: (northpole?)

Morgan Thu, 04/02/2009 - 23:46

You dont even want to know the jungle the old lady at this house left. completely halfhazard of all kinds of hard to kill stuff just plopped down wherever. I forget the names of most of it though, that's kind of mom's area. But I do know I have to go out and kill a few acres of sumac. :sad
there was blackberries too but we just let the horses take care of that.

Sara Thu, 04/02/2009 - 23:49

awww... I wish you could send me your wisteria! I love it, and it doesn't take over so badly here.

My woe is not so much in my garden (since I don't) but I have about ten acres of a weed my horses have selected for because, well, they'll eat anything [b]but[/b] this.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/…]

It's mayweed, commonly called "stinking mayweed". Not even goats will eat it. My only recourse at this point is to have the whole thing sprayed with round-up and re-seeded with grass. Grr.

vneerland Fri, 04/03/2009 - 00:02

[quote="Morgan"]But I do know I have to go out and kill a few acres of sumac. :sad there was blackberries too but we just let the horses take care of that.[/quote]

Sumac as in the 'tree' that makes the red 'candles' of tiny flowers in summer and the bright red leaves in the fall? (mow!) Or sumac as in smilex? the hady vine with the thorns? (I have heard both things called sumac, though I believe only the first one is)

Morgan Fri, 04/03/2009 - 00:10

hmm I looked that up, it spreads by seed and likes disturbed areas so you can mow it before it makes seeds and try not to overgraze. unfortunatly it also says seeds are viable for 4-6 years :sad
sounds similar to the buttercups we had in alabama, a pain in the butt.

sumac..umm....I'm not sure, a friend who works for the park service told me what it was. I forgot what the mature plant looked like cause we cut it last year but there are hundreds of woody stalks left, very hard and an inch or two around coming out of a fat clump and the root run on top of the ground in every direction for a truly impressive distance. (I dug one up to see) She told us some stuff that you cut the stalks at the main part of the plant and pour this on within a few seconds and it will kill it. I really cant mow this field close or often, way too much rock. I want to kill it and start building the grass up so I can work on some topsoil.
I might have remembered the name wrong but I'm pretty sure she said some kind of sumac.
edit: I dug up an old pic that shows both rocks and what's left of the plants (and the results of the icestorm lol)
[img]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y87/Da…]
most of it has been trampled and broken down since by the horses but a good bit is still alive and since I've kicked the horses out of that section it's trying to come back.

Sara Fri, 04/03/2009 - 00:11

I would definitely do that trade!

The flowers are daisy-like but not nearly so nice.

Sara Fri, 04/03/2009 - 00:16

[quote="Morgan"]hmm I looked that up, it spreads by seed and likes disturbed areas so you can mow it before it makes seeds and try not to overgraze. unfortunatly it also says seeds are viable for 4-6 years :sad
sounds similar to the buttercups we had in alabama, a pain in the butt.[/quote]

It's true that mayweed likes disturbed areas, which is why I think we got so much of it the first year after we had done all that excavation for the barn and arena. The second year there was a mixture of the mayweed and a bunch of clover (which was yummy). This year a whole variety of weeds are coming up and some I don't recognize at all. I'll seed with actual pasture grasses at some point when the time and money fairies visit but it's interesting watching the disturbed area slowly morph back into a more diverse meadow.

In my area we can only rely on pasture as a food source for a few months per year so it isn't necessarily cost-effective to seed it right now.

RiddleMeThis Fri, 04/03/2009 - 00:22

My garden plague is grass LOL

Live in a very "city like" area, and have to dig up a big patch of grass to plant a garden. Though I must say the soil is EXCELLENT! Everything that comes out of it is HUGE.

lipigirl Fri, 04/03/2009 - 05:28

Lovely pictures ! I love honeysuckle and wisteria but it is not out of control here. The problem we have in the UK is the imported Japanese Knotweed - see link not good at all when it can grow through concrete !!!

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanse_du…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

vneerland Fri, 04/03/2009 - 07:56

Good Lord! Is that stuff really that huge Lipi? :shock:
Reminds me of the bamboo that you should not plant 'down here' either, since it gets out of control once established. Asian like the wisteria and kudzo, btw. :(

@CC. You're pesky weed sure is photogenic. :lol: (last pic almost reminds me of camomille)

Sara Fri, 04/03/2009 - 12:04

Yes, it is similar and I've heard people mistakenly refer to it as chamomile. I'm sure actual chamomile would smell nicer though!

Sara Fri, 04/03/2009 - 12:28

Wow!

[quote]Anthemis cotula is also known by a wide variety of other names, including mather, dog- or hog's-fennel, dog-finkle, dog-daisy, pig-sty-daisy, chigger-weed,[6] mayweed, maroute, Maruta cotula, Cotula Maruta foetida, Manzanilla loca, wild chamomile, Camomille puante. Foetid Chamomile or Mayweed, maithes, maithen, mathor [8] mayweed chamomile, camomille des chiens, camomille puante, stinkende Hundskamille, camomila-de-cachorro, macéla-fétida, and manzanilla hedionda.[/quote]

It definitely grows taller than 24 inches (as wikipedia states) so it must really like the Pacific NW. I see that it's native to Europe and Africa... I wonder what possessed anyone to bring it here. :x

rabbitsfizz Fri, 04/03/2009 - 14:25

It is Chamomile, just the sort we like and I do not recommend using it to make tea, either!!
It is easy to kill, but you do need to spray while it is short, before it sprouts, you don't need anything as radical is Roundup, you could use Grazon, which will not kill grass and get a pretty good result.
Be prepared to do it two or three years running to get rid of it all!!!

NZ Appaloosas Fri, 04/03/2009 - 17:08

[quote="Sara"]Wow!

[quote]
It definitely grows taller than 24 inches (as wikipedia states) so it must really like the Pacific NW. I see that it's native to Europe and Africa... I wonder what possessed anyone to bring it here. :x[/quote][/quote]

Probably the same thing that possessed English settlers to bring gorse and broom down here with them. :hammer They had no clue there were no "predators" for the stuff, and that the climate and soil were so welcoming. Lupins are another plant that's gotten out of control in NZ (but at least those are pretty!).

Diane

supaspot60 Fri, 04/03/2009 - 19:52

ragwort :twisted: :evil: none of the farmers here bother to kill it , even the grass verges have forests of it , it took me six years to clear my land and I still have to be careful as the seed can lie dormant in the ground for years

fires are banned here so cant even burn it :sad

Morgan Fri, 04/03/2009 - 20:17

Fires [i]should[/i] be banned here. I like burning stuff but seriously this is prairie land and I watched nearly the whole county burn in pieces last month. Mostly from cigarettes and farmers trying to burn off the old grass on windy days without propper control. :evil: it was extra rough because we still have all that deadwood laying around from the ice storms to the woods were burning too.

Sara Fri, 04/03/2009 - 22:42

Ah, fires are safe here because the soil is clay so as long as there is no vegetation around your fire, you're good.

My son, however, accidentally set the manure field on fire last year because he didn't know manure was flammable.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/…]

vneerland Fri, 04/03/2009 - 22:43

@ Sara. The close up picture of the fire is 'cool'. :twisted:

I had an (old) high stack of wood here (about 10 foot! containing full size pine trees) that I had to burn to get it out of the pasture. The local fire department did not see the need to come out proactively. :? They got to test their speed after the fact. :cry: It was not even windy that day but the intense heat itself drives the flames outward. Unreal. And not an experience I'd like to repeat out here in the sticks. Ever since, I manage small little fires guarded by the waterhose at the edge of the pond. Other than that? I am too chicken. :oops:

Morgan Fri, 04/03/2009 - 22:56

you lit a 10 ft stack of PINE on fire? :rofl

we had to burn pine branches and needles in florida. that stuffs so full of turpentine you better light it with a 20 ft pole :lol:
We used the needles to start all our other fires.

NZ Appaloosas Sat, 04/04/2009 - 01:22

Oh pitch pine! I've tried, for 8 years, to explain it to my hubby, without really getting the right idea across... :laugh1

Diane

vneerland Sat, 04/04/2009 - 09:33

[quote="Morgan"]you lit a 10 ft stack of PINE on fire? :rofl [/quote]

The stack was here before I moved, slap in the middle of the pasture. I begged and begged the fire department to make it a drill exersize. Neh.... Not interested. :x My 'but it's pine. 10 foot high' did not impress them before the fact. :BH One of those 'I told you so' moments. :evil: