Category Archives: Gardening

Gardening

Knotweed Be Gone

Seven years ago we bought a charming bungalow built in 1900 and with it, unfortunately, a huge swarth of Japanese Knotweed. You can see how large in the photo above.

Knotweed, Reynoutria japonica, is an invasive and fast-growing weed from Asia that looks a little like bamboo but it ain’t. It grows quite tall and flowers, as we discovered the first year we lived here. It also doesn’t let much of anything else grow with it as its strong root system spreads horizontally. Thus, it can be destructive to building foundations. A little history: it was brought to the U.K. in the early 1800s before it came to the U.S.

I see knotweed growing along roads, rivers, well, lots of places. All the plant needs is a bit of disturbed soil and it takes root and spreads. That’s likely what happened when previous owners built an addition and garage in 1990, and just let the weed take over. Ugh. Thanks a lot.

Yes, I know beekeepers use the plant — my neighbor presented me with a bottle of knotweed honey as an amusing gift. The young stems allegedly taste like rhubarb. The same neighbor told me about a person who created flutes from the large dried stalks. I prefer to use the land for other purposes.

As I’m the person in our household that takes care of the land, I researched how to get rid of the damn stuff. So what are my options?

Learn to live with it. But, alas, knotweed is a greedy plant that wants to take over the world. 

Herbicide? No thanks. 

Cover with a tarp for five years? I tried that last year and gave up as the damn plants started spreading horizontally to escape. Besides, I don’t want to look at tarps on the ground that long.

Dig it up? Impossible to get every damn piece — knotweed doesn’t need much to grow — and besides where would I take the roots so they are not somebody else’s problem?

So, I am left with cutting the damn stuff. I figure if I keep doing it, knotweed will just give up. Or maybe I will.

I use an electric-powered weed whacker, a Stihl I’ve owned for many years that takes two electric cords, to cut the damn stuff down. (The cords are impractical but it’s what I have. We bought it when we lived in New Mexico and had different weeds to keep in control.) 

I began earlier this spring when the plants were about a foot tall. I wait about two weeks before the next cutting, which I accomplish in two days. In the photo above you can see my first day’s progress during this week’s cutting. I leave the ferns intact, and hope they will take over along with the grass seed I spread this spring. By the way, the lawn area is owned and maintained by the Catholic Church next door.

Even this blasted heat and humidity hasn’t stopped me. I dress appropriately, wear sunscreen, gloves, and a big hat, and get to work with my trusty machine. It’s a bit of a workout since the area is on a large hill, steeper near the house. Yesterday, I was soaking wet when I happily finished.

Unfortunately, the weed whacker is too noisy to listen to an audiobook. I tried. But I do a lot of thinking, some of it personal, most of it involves my writing. I believe I finally know who dunnit in the Isabel Long Mystery I am getting close to finishing. Throughout this series — Finding the Source is number eight — I solve the mystery along with my protagonist. 

And now, hopefully I will also solve the mystery about knotweed.

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Gardening, Writing

The First Dig

Ever since the snow melted, I’ve wanted to dig in the dirt. My flower beds will stay undisturbed until it gets much warmer, but my initial focus is on expanding my vegetable garden. So, yesterday, I got a shovel out of the garage and began. Like other things that I do, including my writing, it’s a matter of starting and keeping with it.

I had a vegetable garden I built at the other homes we owned. But the one we have now in Shelburne Falls has a very small yard largely shaded by large trees that thankfully keep the house cool during the summer but don’t permit much sunshine. Then there are the deep slopes and one large swarth of level land the previous owners unfortunately allowed to be consumed by the invasive Japanese knotweed that is so difficult to remove. The only spot for a garden is at the top of the backyard hill that abuts land owned by the Catholic Church next door.

So, I created a garden from the grassy, weedy spot. I removed what was growing and then proceeded to supplement the soil — I dug down about two feet — with compost and manure. In the end I had a 5-by-10-foot garden read to plant last year.

I didn’t expect much. After all it takes a while to build a soil’s wealth and there had never been a garden here. I was also warned not to grow anything the deer that wander in from the woods might like. That first year crop included tomatoes, three kinds of peppers, onions, beans, and squash, including a couple of volunteers that came from seeds from the compost. It was a decent first effort. (I also planted garlic in the fall for this year’s crop.)

My focus this year is expanding to the areas I covered with black plastic — I recycled the compost and manure bags — to kill what had been growing there. So itching to get started, on my first dig, I expanded the original plot by 18 inches on each side. Now, there are two deep, long trenches ready for compost and to be backfilled with the dirt I saved plus other nutritional stuff I will add. It wasn’t that warm yesterday, but the sun was strong enough that I shed my jacket.

Frankly, I don’t do much thinking in my garden. For me, digging is one of those “be here now” experiences. Yesterday, I forgot about finishing our taxes and other stuff on my to-do list. I pushed the shovel into the ground with my foot, shook out the dirt from the dead plants before tossing them into a hole I’m trying to fill, and lifted the soil on top of the existing garden for later. Today, I will work on the vertical expansion. Tomorrow we’re getting rain.

It’s one shovelful after another. I see similarities in my style of writing. I stay totally focused while enjoying the moment — digging one word after another as I work toward a bountiful end. And the more I do it, the better I get at it.

ABOUT THE PHOTO ABOVE: A selfie in my sunny garden.

A LINK TO MY BOOKS: Interested in my other growing project? Here is the link: Joan Livingston Books on Amazon

 

 

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