Garden

We bought a house in autumn 2016. It's in an old neighborhood with lots of old, established trees and shrubs and things. I'm trying to replace all the invasive ornamental plants with native ones. Here's the progress so far:

Pulled out all the english ivy that's creeping in from the neighbor (some day, I'll see if they'll let me kill all their ivy, too), and pulled out all this viney ornamental weed in the shade garden, whatever it was (it used to cover all the ground between the house and the path below).

Despite some slug damage, the wild ginger I transplanted last autumn is doing well, so I went out to the parents' property and liberated some more, plus some other native plants, mostly for the shade garden. Scored some sword ferns, oxalis, bleeding heart

I also got a couple cuttings of salmon berry, and salal.

We'll see how they root.

This clump of dirt and moss pictured above is actually a very old sword fern that was living next to my parent's house.

Here it is the oldest photo I can find of it, c. 1985, but it might have been growing there for many years before that. The house was originally built in the '30's or '40's. Dad's been thinking of killing it for years because it blocks one of the vents, so I saved it. Let's see how it likes being a suburban fern.

On a related note, it is surprisingly hard to find out how long a sword fern can live. Individual fronds only live a few years, but the rhizomes can obviously live for decades. If anyone knows of a reputable source that has this info, I'd love to know.

Weeds

Area behind my back fence. I don't think there's a single native plant visible in this picture. Maybe in the far distance some of those trees are cottonwoods or aspen or something. (The trash-looking substance in the lower left part of this photo is cardboard I put down as temporarily mulch to keep the worst of the weeds at bay).

The vacant field behind my house is a veritable who's who of invasive non-native plants of Eastern Oregon. As someone who worked in an invasive weed eradication program, it makes me twitch every time I look at it.

Bull thistle - not too bad as far as non-natives go. Edible by quite a few different species of bugs and vertibrates. They can take over in areas, but often you see just a few at a time.

Yellow star thistle - Terrible. Has taken over huge swaths of prairie all thrughout the western US. Out competes native plants but doesn't provide forage. Not to mention, painful to hike through.

Puncturevine - Even more terrible for hiking, but not as bad overall. Creates "goat head" seeds which should be called "calthrop seeds". Punctures bike tires, dog paws, and go straight through sandals.

Downy brome aka cheat grass - "Cheats" other grasses by growing fastest and seeding out fastest, then dying and becoming a fire hazard all while not providing good graze for any animal, domestic or wild. This is a famous weed because it has caused so much damage. The seeds are, like other species of grass, "fox tails" that are barbed and once inside dog toes, ears, eyes, noses, throats, vaginas (yes), only move one way and often only possible to remove by minor surgery.

Goatgrass(?)- Interestingly, in this particular field, downy brome is not the dominant invasive grass. That dubious honor goes to this spikey grass which I'm having trouble identifying, but I think is a type of goatgrass. Confusingly, a lot of locals also call it cheat grass. It is taller than downy brome, with stiffer, spikier seedheads that, when dry, pop off the plant and can fly several feet (like directly down my dog's ear canal).

Medusahead rye - Another invasive grass that also has "fox tail" seed heads that like to get stuck in dog ears.


Diffuse knapweed - Same story, takes over, out-competes, steals moisture, not good to eat, fire hazard in later summer. (notice a pattern?)

Russian knapweed - Same story as above.

White top - Same story as above.

Skeleton weed - Not as bad as some others, but farmers hate it.

Russian thistle (aka Tumbleweed) - Made famous by every single western movie ever made. Although not quite as aggressive as some of the others listed here, it's hated by ranchers and business owners alike. It invades crops while alive, and piles up against fences and barns (and my back yard) when dead.

Kochia - A personal nemesis. Near my fence where there's water seepage from my sprinklers, it grows up to 8 feet tall and out-competes everything, including all other weeds. It also smells funny when you walk through it and bruise foliage.

There are a few others I haven't identified yet. That's the main list.


My goal for 2014 is to mulch the area directly behind my fence and plant some natives. Just off the top of my head, I'd like to see some sage, rabbit brush, lupine, some native grasses and misc. flowers. The area is about 24 x 18 yards, so it's large enough that the natives could become established and keep out the invasives with minimal management.

The city doesn't care if you do anything on the strip next to your fence as long as there's no fire hazard. Hence most of our neighbors dump garbage back there.

This is what it looked like when we moved in:







Standing on the dirt road/firebreak looking at all the lovely tall shrubby weeds.

This spring (before I got too pregnant to be useful for anything) we took two pickup loads to the dump. The spring before that I started removing the larger clumps of established shrubby weeds. This summer I've been laying down cardboard to start the mulching process. I now have a source of free wood chips, and may be getting the first delivery next week. (I really need to buy a wheel barrow). Slow and steady, right?

FOOD

It's the season. I've got food on my mind (even more than usual). Here are some links.

~Ethical meat-eater putting her money where her mouth is (Honey Rock Dawn)
~Then the New York Times chimes in: The Ethics of Eating Meat (denialism blog)
~And of the course, the always-interesting (and one of the few blogs I think I always seem to agree with 100%) Locavore Hunter: Eating invasive species really is a great idea, why aren't more people doing it?
and (you took the words right outta my mouth): Deer meat more ethical than soy burger.
~Centuries of traditional cheese making in Poland (The Big Picture)
~Small-scale agriculture: it's important, yo (Nourishing The Planet)
~What does a cage-free, free range egg look like? (Urban Chickens Network)
~Family farming 2012: cattle round up (The Pioneer Woman)
~Skipping summer gardening to conserve water, what an idea (Ghost Town Farm)
~Another book I want to buy, An Everlasting Meal
~Antibiotic residues in feather meal, (Aetiology)

Lastly, some finds from the always awesome Shorpy Historical Photos
~Family farm portrait, South Carolina, 1908
~Hand-plucking chickens, Iowa, 1936
~Small farm in Georgia, 1935 (free range pigs!)
~Farmer with lamb, Kansas, 1936
~A kid and his calf, Iowa, 1940
~Fresh Thanksgiving turkeys, 1910
~Kansas City livestock exchange, 1906

It still bothers me

I think Nathan Winograd should read this.

It continues to blow my mind that an otherwise apparently compassionate, intelligent person thinks invasive species are just hunky-dory.

Why can't we just let 'em be?

Image: English ivy devours a forest in Portland, Oregon

I have a treat for you tonight, dear readers. An internet exclusive. I am happy to share this original song written, composed, performed, and recorded by Tim Karplus. My brother-in-law is a talented musician with a background in science and a quirky sense of humor. It's hard to beat that combination.

I could rant 'til I'm red in the face about the horrors of invasive species. Funny how putting it into simple song has so much more impact.

May it move closed minds and hearts where facts and logic have not.

Click here to listen.

(If you're using Internet Explorer, it will probably ask you to download. I'm sorry that you use a browser that sucks eggs).

Lyrics:

Invasive species
Why won't we let 'em be?
Invasive species
Don't seem so bad to me

If they can outcompete and beat our native plants
Then I won't miss them
But what about that delicate balance
Our ecosystem?

Invasive species
Why won't we let 'em be?
'Cause they're a threat to
Biodiversity

English holly and Scotch broom
Tree Ivy leaves no room
For all the native plants
Thank you in advance
For making their home their home again

Invasive species
Why won't we let 'em be?
'Cause they're a threat to
Biodiversity

Invasive species
Why won't we let 'em be?
'Cause they're a threat to
Biodiversity

Some lighthearted links

Best explanation of invasive plants I've yet read:

Ballwoof

Let's talk about urine (the last link in that article goes to some astoundingly hilarious Amazon product reviews)


Octocam!

Racism and Invasive species go hand in hand?

"Moby Dick Hotel manager Keith Stravrum had said Monday that the hotel, which is owned by Felice "Fritzi" Cohen, will be sold to Aryan Nations unless Pacific County backs down from a demand that Cohen kill the spartina grass on her property."

Wait, what? Really?

Yes. Really.

Keith Stravrum is also an oyster grower. I don't know for sure, but I bet you a million pesos that he grows non-native oysters. Why do I think this? Because imported oysters, unlike the native variety, actually like spartina grass. In fact, all the other oystermen (the ones actually trying to grow native oysters) are very supportive of spraying spartina grass.

OPB's excellent documentary "The Silent Invasion" talks about the politics surrounding this weed. One of the people they interviewed is some dude down in California (the video won't play for me and I can't remember his name) who is also against controlling spartina grass. Guess what? He grows non-native oysters that thrive in the grass-choked habitat. What's even worse is that he bills his oysters as "organic" and sells them for top dollar. The hypocrisy and greed required to bank off the "organic" label while ruining the environment for everyone else is astounding.

I'm going to take a deep breath and link to Stravrum's blog, though I feel dirty doing so.

I know probably better than most people on the planet that the public has an automatically negative view of pesticides. I don't think this is a bad thing. I think we always need to take care before pumping chemicals into our environment, and if we do, it had better have benefits. But if you went by the information on that blog, the county is spraying something deadly, that bioaccumulates in the oysters, and that spartina grass isn't that bad for the environment, anyway.

The blog even claims that spartina grass should be allowed to take over the west coast because it sequesters CO2 and "filters the water".

Because no NATIVE plants do the same job, I guess?

It's pure misinformation. I might even call it lies.

Amazapyr (aka imazapyr), according to the Pesticide Manual (Tomlin 2006) (and many other sources), is very low in toxicity to all animals, birds and insects, including fish and aquatic insects. It is non-carcinogenic and does not bioaccumulate. It's half-life in water is 7 days, so it breaks down fairly quickly. And it's highly effective against spartina. This is like the wonder chemical for this particular job. People should be cheering the county for using this product (and to be fair, it seems like most people are).

It doesn't surprise me that people who exhibit such ignorance and greed would help bring a racism club into their own community. But, after my initial outrage, I really can't bring myself to be that concerned about their whine-baby threat.

The Aryan Nation is a dying group. They couldn't even hang on to their compound in freakin' Idaho. I doubt they're going to do well in progressive western Oregon.

There are worse things that could happen. It could be Sarah Palin moving in.



(Oregon oyster habitat that's NOT choked with spartina grass)