Saturday, May 20, 2023

May 20th and the Rain are coming down after a drought

 I never finished mowing the north side of the property and seemingly overnight the perennial weeds, and woody vines of invasive weeds have shot up in record time. The grasses will be too high for one mow over them. This is when I find myself walking outside and do nothing more than pull & pull, snip and clip woody vines, hand pull cleavers in flower, rip out honeysuckle, pokeweed, nightshade, mugwort, tall grasses, bindweed, but always forgetting to cut Asiatic bitterseet then brush on a few drops of  Triclopyr, Triethylamine Salt with an artist paintbrush making sure not to spill any on the ground.  Then there's Virginia creeper on the fences, and English Ivy, errrrr. 

Yes Mid May is WEED SEASON.  It always escapes me. And it's the neverending job of chasing it as t always wins in the end. The overwintering chickweed has gone to seed and I'm sure that whatever I rake up is dropping a bazillion seeds. 

 Galinsoga is all over the open garden area even though it was covered all winter.  At least its easy to remove. The dandelions have pretty much shot their load of white balls of seeds on parasols. I tried my best to collect the seed heads. 

Welcome to my nightmare!   Organic gardeners can all relate!!!  

Yellow Sorrel

 

Wild Lettuce can grow up to 10 feet. 

Ribwort Plantain

Purple dead nettle


Red Dead Nettle 

Japanese Knotweed

Invasive honeysuckle

Himalayan Blackberry - very invasive



Pilosella known as mouse-ear hawkweed

Henbit

Hairy Bittercress


Galinsoga

Annual Winter chickweed

Asiatic Bittersweet 


Garlic Mustard



Oh and there are MANY more lurking underground for June, July, August. I feel old just lying in bed watching the rains pour down on the property, and preparing the next set of weeds to germinate. 
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Herb Garden is along an added 3 foot extension to garden using weed cloth and mulch growing in large pots

Wild Mint that came from Irene Prevel's garden in Rocky Point in 2015. It's spread over the past 9 yrs.     Roman Chamomile planted ...