What Did You Do In The Garden?

[akroberts]

This is a little bit of my potato harvest this year

 

[flowerbug]

weeded some and watered.

while going out i noticed the thistles in the south field are getting fuzzy and hoped the neighbor would be willing to get out and mow them before the fluff starts flying.

i gave him a call and sadly, no, he now says that he won't mow it again (before when we talked he said he would mow it again) because he can't mow down below 12 inches according to his environmental easement.

he is ok if i go over there with a weed wacker and knock them down as then i won't be disturbing the grasses, but that means i'll have to get out there soon to do it if i want to make much of a difference in fuzz flying. do i even have that time?

the general problem though is that the thistles are all along the roads here too so it won't be eradicated unless there is a concerted effort to get it done and i don't see that kind of effort happening or likely.

sad to say that if it gets so bad to where i have to spray all the time then i'll likely move. i didn't just put in 20+yrs of organic gardening to end up with this...

 

[digitS']

Would flame weeding or

using your lawn mower be okay?

 

[heirloomgal]

weeded some and watered.

while going out i noticed the thistles in the south field are getting fuzzy and hoped the neighbor would be willing to get out and mow them before the fluff starts flying.

i gave him a call and sadly, no, he now says that he won't mow it again (before when we talked he said he would mow it again) because he can't mow down below 12 inches according to his environmental easement.

he is ok if i go over there with a weed wacker and knock them down as then i won't be disturbing the grasses, but that means i'll have to get out there soon to do it if i want to make much of a difference in fuzz flying. do i even have that time?

the general problem though is that the thistles are all along the roads here too so it won't be eradicated unless there is a concerted effort to get it done and i don't see that kind of effort happening or likely.

sad to say that if it gets so bad to where i have to spray all the time then i'll likely move. i didn't just put in 20+yrs of organic gardening to end up with this...

Are these thistles an invasive species?

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

Yes, Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) is considered an invasive species in many regions. It's a perennial plant that spreads aggressively through both seeds and

Canadian thistles by the US park service.Thistles can be picked and pickled in a jar for salads .
Like stock like the pink flowers.

Edible Thistles (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

 

[flowerbug]

Would flame weeding or

using your lawn mower be okay?

no, the field is in an environmental easement now (and the area i'm concerned the most about is 3 acres to the south and southwest of us) so what he can do is limited by that contract. he did talk to someone about how to control them a few months ago when this first came up and he did mow it then and said he'd mow it again. now he isn't...

it is too large an area for me to mow with a push mower and also he said something about not mowing lower than 12 inches. i got a good chunk of them knocked back with the trimmer and blade when i went out for an hour before the rains yesterday. he did ok me doing that as they are an invasive species and they really do cause a lot of extra work for me to deal with. i probably spent a week this season of weeding going around and getting them out of the rocks and gardens and there will be more of that this year too, but with me knocking them back before they got airborne i think i avoided hours of future weeding.

before he put it into the easement and when the guys who were farming it abandoned it there was a patch of thistles along the edge to the SE that i was mowing regularly as i did not want those invading our gardens and i'm glad i did that because now there are no thistles in that area at all. none. i was mowing it right back to the ground at least once a week or so.

he can mow and spray to eliminate the thistles, but there are limits to what he can do with the entire field.

it looks a lot nicer now even with the thistles in it than the condition it was being kept in by the guys who were farming it. they weren't getting very good harvests and spread the thistles all over. now at least it does have mostly grasses and some other plants growing in there. i'm just trying to prevent it from being completely overgrown by the thistles and then having those seeds coming here (which they will anyways but if i can cut down on the amount it will help me a lot).