Fighting Invasives all Day

 
It was a truly gorgeous day here, and I decided I wanted to spend it working around outside.

One of my goals was to get my fire ring reclaimed from the autumn olive bushes- see link below. There's a shadow from the tree trunk, but you can see my little grill sitting there in the middle. I got enough cut down that if I now spend some more time with a rake and shovel to clear away the leaves and redig the pit, it should be good to go.



I didn't take a before picture, but it looked just like this, which is the next row back. It is SO much work to remove these nasty things.



And I pulled a bunch more garlic mustard. Both the autumn olive and the garlic mustard are allelopathic. That means they give off chemicals that retard the growth of anything else. You can see how there is very little underneath the shrubs in the picture above.

There is less consensus on how strong this effect is with the garlic mustard, but take a look at this space where I pulled it up. Almost nothing is growing there. A few small violet clumps were hiding.



This little guy is not alien, but he's not allowed to grow on my property. One cute little poison ivy that I must have missed before. It's gone now.



I also cut some tatarian honeysuckle. So much horrible crap wants to grow here.

Had three ticks- all still crawling and easily dispatched.

Got a lot accomplished, but there is SO much more to be done. I never have enough mental stamina to keep up with this place.

There is no other news.

See Fire Grilled Burgers