Weeds and More Weeds!

I spent a good chunk of Saturday morning removing weeds from my front and side gardens. Because of all the rain as well as the extreme heat, the weeds had grown to giant proportions. I was especially having a rough time with the crab grass, which laughed at the mulch I had put down to keep the weeds at bay, spreading its tentacles like an octopus, sending its roots everywhere. Between that and the sour grass, I filled three garden bags. There’s also some plant I’ve not seen before that was everywhere. But it all looks so much better…for now!

This isn’t my first battle with weeds. One of the previous owners of our home had the misguided idea to plant Canada thistle in our back yard. My mom and I spent half a day ridding the yard of every trace of the weeds. Within a week, they were back as if we had never removed them. We finally got rid of the problem by taking all of the soil they were growing on and putting it into our empty fish pond. Pete and I went through each shovelful, looking for the tiniest root, which would start a new plant.

Another nasty weed we have is nut sedge. It grows everywhere in our yard; it’s only redeeming quality is that it is very easy to pull out – if you could call that a redeeming quality. We’ve also fought morning glories, dandelions, and some viney thing with lobed leaves.

It always surprised me where weeds could grow – and how proficient they were in taking over.  Give them a crack and they’ll take a yard. Some plants are so tenacious that they will grow through anything including man-made materials. I suppose I should count my blessings that we didn’t have any of those plants. Japanese knotweed is capable of growing through pavement, walls and buildings as the picture to the left shows. Granted, it will take a few years to do so, but grow through that weed will.

I wonder how many gallons of salt water (my grandmother’s solution to weeds) would be needed to take down a Japanese knotweed? A Gordian knot indeed… perhaps Alexander’s sword would do the trick.

Until next time!