Weekend update

Wow, time is just flying by and I realized this morning that neither of us had posted since last week.  It was a busy weekend, beginning on Friday night with a graduation party for MacKay. Saturday and Sunday were hot and sunny, with the humidity doing a slow climb yesterday.  It was hot, sticky and buggy last evening by the time the sheep, hens and ducks were ready for bed.  So, the weekend...

On Saturday morning, I jotted down a relatively short to-do list (5-6 items) for the day, hoping to contain my new propensity to get side-tracked.  I knew I needed to water any newly planted seeds and transplanted plants (done); finish weeding and mulching the last quadrant of the circle garden (done); transplant the climbing hydrangea and a climbing rose I had planted next to the covered walkway in the rock garden to the new "parbor" (done); and dig the thistle and wild parsnip out of the rock garden (this area has been my nemesis since I moved in) - I don't recall what else I had on the list. Jim graciously agreed to help me tackle the latter.

I should have taken a "before" photo, but was too focused on the task at hand.  The bed is sloped, filled with small boulders (hence the "rock garden") and is approximately 10-12' deep at its widest point and 15' or more feet long.  It was thickly overgrown with 3' tall thistle and 4-5' tall wild parsnip.  In other words, it was a small jungle filled with plants that could either prick you or cause blistering similar to that of a 2nd degree burn.  Wild parsnip, although edible (root only) and not an unattractive plant with its yellow umbels (see below), is highly invasive.  The problem with removing it, however, is that is contains a substance called psoralen, which can cause a condition known as "phytophotodermatitis."  When the sap/oil from the inside of the plants gets on the skin, and the skin is exposed to sunlight, the result for many people can range from a rash to blisters and burning type pain.  For people who act severely to this plant, the burns/blisters can last for months with permanent discoloration to the skin.  This is a plant with an attitude.  Think "Aliens" and "acid for blood" only in innocuous plant form.

So, not only did we need to attack and remove this thicket of unwanted plants, but we needed to do so covered head to toe to prevent contact with the oil of the wild parsnip...on a day in the high 80s...in the direct sun.  How special.

But we're troopers, so we marched in and got it done.  Jim started the initial attack with the scythe, leaving only 6-8" of plant in the ground.  We could now at least see where to dig.  Well, the digging lasted about 10 minutes (if that) before we realized it just wasn't a workable approach.  It would take an eternity to dig out all of the roots, especially working around rocks and in narrow crevices and then we would still have to heavily mulch.  We discussed other options -- controlled burn (seriously I was ready to dump gasoline and take a blow torch to the area), 50 gallon barrel of Round-Up poured liberally over the area -- but saner minds prevailed and eventually we decided on a less dangerous, more environmentally sound approach.  We buried the entire area (rocks and all) under a thick cover of landscape fabric, cardboard and mulch.  There is little chance any sunlight is penetrating this area any time soon, and since I want to make sure these plants are good and dead, I plan on leaving it covered for at least the next 1-2 years. I'll just keep layering on mulch. I felt a huge sense of relief once this particularly unpleasant job was finished.

The natural mulch is covering  a small area I cleared last year (and again this year).  I still have a single potentilla and a creeping juniper (the little green mound) that survived the onslaught of the thistle and wild parsnip jungle. Only the brown mulched area was "smothered."

On Sunday, I finished weeding the other side of the rock garden.  That side has never gotten as out of control, and I thoroughly weeded, dug up roots, and mulched last year when I planted some potentilla and the climbing hydrangea.  So it really just needed some spot weeding.  For the first time since we moved here, I can walk out into the dog area without having to turn away from the eye-sore that was the rock garden. Some day it might even be covered in dog-tolerant plants (the dogs walk through this area as though it were an extension of the yard) and look like an actual garden.  I'm thinking a mix of potentilla, rugosa roses and ground phlox or heathers would be nice.

The little spots of green are potentilla, creeping juniper and near the bridge, a 2 year old climbing hydrangea that still hasn't done much.  It's supposed to shoot up by its 3rd year.  We'll see.

The bulk of Sunday was spent weeding the vegetable garden and pumpkin patch.  Things are finally starting to grow.  It's been nice being able to pull lettuce from the garden to satiate the lettuce-obsessed ducks.  I also picked a bunch of shell peas this morning that I can't wait to eat.

Nora, meanwhile, spent some time on Saturday and Sunday in her own 7th circle of hell.  She was determined to get the new strawberry bed weeded (again).  It's been a grass-fest in there;  thick mats of robust grasses that manage to grow right up through and around the base of each plant.  Even mulched, this bed has been time-consuming.  And Nora is a very thorough weeder, following each blade of grass from its base down to the tip of the sometimes quite lengthy root, and digging every bit of it out (or at least making a valiant attempt to do so).  She was feeling a little frustrated and quite defeated by yesterday morning, but she too "got it done." And she even resisted the urge to begin ripping plants out of the ground, and setting fire to each plant and their progeny.  As a result of her efforts, the bed looks fabulous and the plants are very large and healthy.  Unfortunately, at this stage, I don't think she cares :)