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

Garlic Mustard- Part 2

 
Here's more about the obnoxious garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata. This is what it looks like in flower. Each flower has four small white petals, with the flowers clustered at the top of the stem.



The leaves vary as the plant grows. It's a biennial, so there is a rosette of leaves that comes up in the fall. These are almost round.



But as the stem grows, the second year, the leaves become more heart shaped.


And the leaves closest to the flowers are triangular and pointed. The stems are smooth at the top and softly hairy at the base. If you aren't sure of the ID, just break or crush a couple of leaves and you'll get the definite scent of garlic. The seed pods are also distinctive, and I'll show you those when the start to mature.



As it turned out, I didn't pull any more of it today because we got a LOT of rain last night and it was pretty muddy. However, I did pick a bunch of leaves and make Garlic Mustard Pesto. It's good. It would be better if I liked olive oil better. However, this is what I did with it, and this was pretty darn yummy. I made a grilled cheese and pesto sandwich for lunch. Too bad it would be rather impossible to eat enough to keep it under control.



In other news: Well, um... I stayed up half the night finishing the jigsaw puzzle. It's called "The Fan Club." It was surprisingly difficult, but I couldn't stop. Four missing pieces just to add to the challenge. So I wasn't awake early.



Then I made the pesto, did a tiny bit of other yard work, and then uncovered the trailer. Contemplating how to deal with the leaking window, or wondering if it was an unusual event because of the monsoon I drove through on the way home. Anyway, everything has to come out of the inside. I knew that last summer. Remember, except for the internal bracing, everything else was just tacked together. Still, it was depressing to start taking it all apart again. Did some cleaning inside.

See Garlic Mustard- Part 1

Garlic Mustard- Part 1

 
Lots of people have been posting pictures on Facebook of Garlic Mustard, Alliaria petiolata, which is a relative of all the wild mustards. It's native to Europe and Asia and has been used as a spice, salad herb, medicinal plant and to make sauces throughout history. But it's a really, really bad plant in this country. It will spread like wildfire and take over any plot of ground where it gets a foothold, crowding out everything else.

Well, I'm sorry to tell you that I've been ignoring a patch of it on my property. Now, I have to pay attention.



It's particularly difficult to eradicate. The insects and fungi that control it in native countries are not found in the U.S. If you break the plants they just grow a new flowering stalk. If you pull them up and leave them to die, they will continue to mature from the nutrients stored in the root and go to seed right where you left them. They really need to be pulled up and burned or put in a landfill. If you compost them... they will just grow back. Not enough heat is generated in a compost pile to kill the seeds.

Yesterday, I pulled one garbage bag full. As you can see, I barely made a dent. Since it rained all day today, it should be safe to burn some stuff tomorrow.







I'll do another post about this plant, and show a closeup of the leaves and flowers. It's easy to identify because of the strong scent of garlic if you break the leaves.

In other news: I set up an online store so that people have yet another option to buy my books for those who don't use PayPal or don't want to send me a check. Then I played on the next puzzle. It's hard! I was ready for a hard one.

See Yet Another Lovely Invasive