Posts Tagged ‘garlic mustard’
Early Sprouts
Into the woods we headed, Cyndie with a plastic bag in hand, Asher and I tagging along randomly behind. It was a multipurpose jaunt to give Asher some free time outside, to take advantage of some welcome sunshine, and to eradicate as much invasive garlic mustard as possible.
We had just come from having pulled up a thick sheet of black plastic that had covered a poison ivy patch beside a pathway for two growing seasons. I thought we would find nothing but black dirt beneath, but there was a bleached-out layer of a dead, straw-looking mat of grasses that remained.
Since I tend to get overwhelmed when the invasives we are after show up everywhere I look, I let Cyndie focus on the garlic mustard, and I kept an eye out for vines on tree trunks. Even though I felt sure I had already scoured the area we were in for vines visible at the base of trees, I kept finding a remarkable number of cases.
During a pause in my efforts, the thought occurred to me that I should have taken a picture of what I was finding. The reason that hadn’t happened was that each time I would see vines, I jumped into action, yanking them off the tree and pulling up the other end from the dirt as far as I could before it broke. I think there is a fear that if I look away for an instant, I won’t be able to see it again when I look back.
I think vines might be shape shifters. There may be a secret technique to getting rid of them, though. It seemed to work for me. I decided to finally take that picture of them after thinking of it, and lo and behold, I wasn’t able to find a single instance of any more vines on trees in that area of our woods.
Speaking of that part of our woods, it is an area with a lot of ash trees, all of which are gradually succumbing to their inevitable demise via the emerald ash borer beetle. Have you seen what it looks like when an ash tree gets stressed?
They sprout sucker growth in a last gasp attempt to regenerate. Does this ever work for a tree? We don’t expect any of our ash trees to survive, but their demise takes a drawn-out 3-5 years. It’s an ugly thing to witness.
On a more beautiful note, the lawn of our backyard is sprinkled with more than just grass because we have little pink flowers that accent much of the slope, and the first blossoms of the year have begun to appear.
Thank goodness those little beauties haven’t been declared invasive and needing to be pulled by the roots. Our turf sports a natural look not found on sports fields and golf courses. Wildflowers are welcome here.
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Pushing Back
Cyndie put in a heroic effort yesterday to win back our river stone patio on the side of our house. The ground cover growth had overtaken the surface with such gusto that it looked like our property had been abandoned.
Our summer weather has been very friendly to growing plants this year, both the wanted and the unwanted.
I pulled in the driveway after work one day last week and came upon a curious row of garbage bags filled with plant remains. My first thought was, now what?
Earlier in the summer, after our visit from the regional DNR Forester who taught us about the importance of controlling the invasive garlic mustard, Cyndie did a super job of focussed eradication. He emphasized the requirement of bagging and discarding the plants that have been pulled from the ground, because if you leave them lay, they will simply put down roots and regenerate. So bag them, she did.
I was going to be shocked if this large new collection of bagged detritus lined up on our driveway was from a previously undiscovered patch of garlic mustard.
Upon my inquiry, Cyndie described thinking she was just going to pull out some wayward unwanted growth under the pine trees in our front yard. Turned out to be a massive woven web that went on and on and became a full-fledged landscaping project in its own right.
To be safe, based on what we learned about the garlic mustard, she decided to bag it, just in case.
Yesterday’s growth wasn’t so threatening, just prolific in an open area of river stones.
Luckily, the recent heavy rain (3-inches on Thursday) has softened the soil to ease the extraction of unwanted growth. Cyndie produced impressive results reclaiming our patio area in the high heat of a classic July day yesterday.
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New Information
Sixty years ago today, before I was even born, the best thing that could ever happen for me took place. With eternal gratitude to Fred and Marie Friswold, today, June 4th, I boast to the world that it is Cyndie’s birthday!
Happy Birthday, my love!
After a jam-packed weekend of social events and more, we begin this week with new information and new energy.
First, after a scheduled appointment for our vet to visit and give the horses their spring shots, we came up with a plan for how we will proceed into the summer grazing season. Both Cayenne and Hunter are showing signs of good health with their sensitive laminitic front hooves. The diet of reduced portions has their weight under control, and more importantly, it has been achieved with minimal evidence of angst from the horses.
Going forward, we are going to work on getting them used to wearing muzzles to slow down their pasture grazing. We will then feed them dry hay in the morning to fill them up and give them muzzled access to a previously mowed (shorter grass = smaller bites of cake) pasture in the afternoons. They will be confined to the dry paddocks overnight, with no added hay available until the next morning.
Most important for us will be the attitude the horses have about their situation. If they are okay with it, that will be the definition of acceptability. If they balk over any of it, we will work to adjust accordingly. Our goal is to keep their weight down, yet give them some time to enjoy the freedom to move about in the open pasture and “graze” as close to normal as possible.
The next big thing that we learned came as a result of a visit from our local DNR Forester yesterday. My key takeaway from that consultation was the value of cutting trees beneath the canopy of mature trees we favor. Growth that reaches up to encroach on the lower branches of the favored tree should be removed.
He asserted that the primary focus is on providing the most sunlight to encourage growth, but protecting lower branches from competition will also help keep the mature trees healthy.
My first inclination is never to cut down any tree, but our Forester convinced me that cutting some will enhance others. I need to get more comfortable pruning entire trees, in the way I am comfortable pruning a few branches to shape a single tree.
He suggested clear cutting some areas, like stands of aspen, to open up sunlight and entice energized bursts of new growth to expand the grove. It seems so counter-intuitive. I want more trees, not less. Apparently, a little loss now, produces bigger gains later. In his mind, it doesn’t take that long.
Time is a relative thing. I’m not feeling that patient.
I was surprised to learn that he felt our highest priority should be to work on removing invasive garlic mustard. I did a quick Google search and the response was rich with states battling the troublesome intruder. Our Forester said we should pull the plants, bag them in plastic garbage bags and throw them in the trash.
Among the many other battles we are already waging, like vines, common buckthorn, and poison ivy, we now will move garlic mustard to the top priority.
Oh, joy.
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Relative Something 