This
year, I am concentrating on weeding out heron’s bill and other spring-blooming
weeds through the winter, after spreading leaves in selected locations all fall
to try to smother them out. This year,
most of them got started in the fall before falling leaves were even available, as we got early cool rain. Even then, most of the bags of leaves could
not be spread while gathering truckloads of them; I was gathering piles
of bags for me and my customers while the getting was good and am still spreading
them on one property. A lot of weeds got smothered; some will get through.
Today,
I will be cutting heron’s bill out of Schroeder Park’s tent campground, where
it is fairly easy to weed from the silty ground, there being little perennial grass
for it to hide in there. While I’m at
it, I will be pulling groundsel, which is already putting out flowers and seed
in many places. Over the summer, the
main target was goatheads, but I was cutting heron’s bill then, too, brought up
by cooling irrigation water in late summer.
On February 4th, there is a “Weed Wrangle” in Griffin Park,
starting at noon. It is focused on pulling out Scotch broom, an
invasive evergreen perennial shrub that is a great fire hazard. It appears that they will be demonstrating
the Uprooter, an amazing tool for pulling out shrubs. But my focus will be on heron’s bill on
the downriver side of the boat ramp, where I was cutting goat heads this
summer. There were young heron’s bill
down there then, but I was concentrating on the goat heads, knowing that the
heron’s bill could wait until now; it is not yet blooming.
Another target this time of year is
bitter cress. I used to wait until it
and many other weeds flowered to pull them, because that is the easiest time to
pull them, as the flowers show them up; their stems are strong; and the root is
reduced and pulls right out in most cases.
But they are numerous; they all want to bloom close to the same time;
and they tend to disappear into the greenery once their little white flowers
are done blooming, until they ripen and start popping seeds, when they turn
creamy yellow-white and show up bright and ugly, too late to stop the seeds from spreading.
So I’ve learned it pays to pay
attention to them and other weeds before they flower, and cut them as I
see them, under the crown, from whence all growth of annual weeds comes.
Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener 541-955-9040 rycke@gardener.com
