Puddock Hill Journal #17: An aggressive attack on invasive patches yields mixed results and pretty fine surprises.
This time of year, the war against invasive plants at Puddock Hill takes on ominous overtones. Plants like Multiflora rose that were cut back fight back. Stifling annuals like Japanese stiltgrass begin cropping up everywhere. Yet others, like Smartweed, get bolder and behave more aggressively. Many, like Japanese honeysuckle, attempt to flower as a precursor to setting seed.
Larry, our part-time property manager, got discouraged this week. Just when you start to believe your efforts are yielding results, he noted, you see setbacks at every turn.
You may recall that a few weeks ago I was discouraged myself. As in any war, there will be advances and setbacks, morale boosters and buzz killers. And in this case, we are in some sense fighting the forever war.
Larry’s complaint was prompted by an examination of the big pond dam, where just a few weeks ago we undertook heavy string trimming of invasives while attempting to spare what clumps of natives (such as Tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima)) or benign foreigners (Queen Anne’s lace) we could define. In an area off the barn path, we similarly went after the invasives hard with both mower and string trimmer.