It’s in flower now, so soon. You’re pulling it tonight so that will be good. I read the seeds are viable for a long time, so it may crop up again. If it’s easy to pull it shouldn’t be bad.
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I pulled them. Usually, I like to throw stuff like that on the brush pile, or somewhere out of sight. This time I bagged them to hopefully not spread the seed. I also swept all of the seed (or are those the flowers?) that I could with the vacuum.
Then I went to dig out some more mulberries in the neighbor’s fence, and talked to him for a while. He was showing me around, pointing out trees, and checking out the pond. I ate my first persimmon off of one of his trees too.
I’m usually not even slightly social.
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Just pulled about 40 mulberries along the neighbors fence, from small to tiny.
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Mulberries…
Feels neverending,huh?
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I know the pears aren’t native, but it’s a great food source.
Also found on the neighbors property, amur honeysuckle and tree of heaven. >:(
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Are you removing invasives from the neighbor’s property too now? Or just checking what’s there in case they spread onto your place?
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A bit of both. I’d really like to fully extend my efforts there, he has way more than me and I feel like I could really make a difference there. However, he is in his late 70s or early 80s. He’s been talking about cleaning up to move. However he ends up leaving, I’ll certainly never have the money to buy his property. I don’t know how much time I’ll have for it.
Additionally, he’s helping me hang cabinets in my kitchen (still have to finish that), and my dad and I found out earlier that my dad’s lung cancer is coming back and has also spread to his brain. He has a follow up next week, treatments to follow. I don’t know how early it was caught, but his health isn’t great anyway. I’m really worried about him.
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Oh that’s really too bad about his health. He sounds like a good neighbor. I see what you mean about the future of his property - it would be a shame to put too much work into improving it as habitat, only to have a future owner destroy all your efforts.
I realised I was unclear in the last post, will correct it. The neighbor is in great health, my dad has the lung and brain cancer.
Oh I’m so sorry you’re dealing with that. Best wishes for your dad’s treatment to go well.
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Winter is finally showing up, so there’s not much going to happen for a while. The dog has been digging out an old stump for a while.
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Not sure if that’s helping you…or the start of a bad habit…
See you next spring…the garden catalogs are soon on the way!
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We spent over $100 on native plants. Guess what attracts not only the most bees but the most variety of bees. (heavy sigh)
Anyway, good luck, Mike! Keep us posted.
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No big deal, she has fun with it.
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Should I be concerned about this mold growth? I don’t remember the host plant’s species, but it’s one of the natives I planted this year.
I can’t tell for sure but maybe the plant is wild bergamot/beebalm?
If so it’s very prone to what I think is a type of powdery mildew. As long as it happens late in the season they seem to bounce back okay next year, though I’m sure it weakens the plant somewhat. I think it killed some of mine that were too shaded, but the ones in the sun don’t get it as early in the season, and have done okay. If it’s growing in shade or surrounded by other tall plants, transplanting it to a sunny location with good air circulation might help.
I’ve never tried to treat it, but I imagine there are organic fungicides for powdery mildew available to gardeners. I wouldn’t worry about it for this year though, since the plant is about to go dormant.
Maybe bergamot. It sounds somewhat familiar, but those two are the only ones that I can’t remember what they are from this year. They are in the front most row in my front yard, one on each end with 2 New England Asters in the middle, in no shade.
I really need to keep a list of what I’m planting and where.
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Yep, powdery mildew. Luckily, there’s a fairly easy fix.
Milk. Doesn’t matter if it’s whole, 2%, or skim. (I don’t know if this works with powdered, because I can’t stand the flavor.) Dilute it with water; 1/1 is best, although you can bump it up to two parts water to one part milk if need be. Put it into a spray bottle, hose the leaves on both sides, and clear any that have fallen on the ground. Repeat as needed. No harm to beneficial insects.
It’s best to apply the spray early in the day so that it has plenty of time to dry. What it does is hit the mildew with lactic acid, and create a thin biofilm on the leaves with the milk solids so that the spores can’t get a toehold on uninfected leaves. You might have to reapply it after rain, but it’s better than having to go scorched earth with a broad spectrum fungicide.
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After work, I put the last 6 Purple Passionflower (passiflora incarnata) seeds around the brush pile. Hopefully winter will do a better job of the cold germination that those need, and they manage to actually grow this time.
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Just preordered plants for the front garden and a couple for the back yard.
Front Garden
Purple Coneflower, Great Bule Lobella, Dense Blazing Star, Cupplant, Big Bluestem, Red Twig Dogwood, Labrador Violet, Common Milkweed.
Backyard
2 Carolina Roses. I’m going to cut out the massively overgrown European Dewberry around the Eastern most concrete stand and plant the roses in it’s place.
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