RAIN, WEEDS AND FRUSTRATION

It's been a while since I've been at this keyboard, I hope my small readership hasn't drifted too far away. When last here, I was very concerned for my friend Joe, and I'm happy to report that he is doing extremely well. In fact, he and his helpers were here this afternoon briefly, as I had an irrigation line that was spouting heavenward, rather than gently dribbling at the base of my roses, as it's supposed to do. A temporary repair was made, and they will be back next week after obtaining a necessary part, to complete the repair. As I said, Joe is doing well, looks good, and is a bit testy regarding the restrictions which his doctor is still imposing on his activity. He's being pretty good, though. Like most men, he's stubborn and impatient with such things, but stupid he ain't.

Anybody want some goldfish? We have had more babies out there in the pond, there's a small school of inch-long goldfish darting about. I don't know where they hang out from the time they hatch until they reach that inch-long size. I've never seen any that were smaller, but I know they're very tiny when they hatch, so where are they in the interval? There are water lilies and a lotus plant in the pond, and stones and a couple of flowerpots, so I guess they just hide out in the crevices and under lily leaves. Obviously, they hide somewhere, because there they are! Really, I will have to "thin the herd" at some point, because the pond will only support so many, but Joe said he'd take my excess. He has a very large stock pond/small lake on his property in the country, so they can go there. Good grief, I wonder how big they'll get in a huge environment like that?

We have had a lot of much-needed rain. I sat here at this window on Wednesday afternoon, and watched as the rain literally poured down out there. The big birdbath had become so thick with algae growing in the bowl that I had deliberately let it dry out. Scrubbing it out doesn't work all that well, but if you let it dry for a day or two, you can literally sweep it out with a whisk broom, or knock it out with a hard water jet. The result will be a very clean bowl, almost like new.

So, the bowl was empty when the rain started. Twenty minutes later, it was running over, and that thing is three inches deep! Now, I realize that being bowl-shaped, it isn't an accurate measurement of rainfall, but it must have been at least two inches, even allowing for the sloping bottom. That was a lot of rain, and I swear the grass grew an inch, before my very eyes! Alas, so did the nutgrass in the flowerbeds.

I absolutely despise that stuff. One day there will be nothing there, and the next day there's a huge stand of nutgrass, waving as I walk by, daring me to come and pull it up. Usually, I can't resist, and will grab the largest, most annoying clumps and pull them up. This, of course, is the very worst thing one can do with nutgrass. Since it propagates by underground shoots, pulling it just breaks those shoots, which has the same effect as pruning plants above ground. Prune a chrysanthemum, and it will send up two shoots where you cut off one. Pull up a clump of nutgrass, and it will branch and make two (or more) shoots where you broke the original root.

It's hateful stuff, and its worst trait is that it grows very well in mulch! A good layer of mulch will discourage almost any weed, but not nutgrass. It thrives in mulch! The only real cure for it is a weed killer, whether chemical or organic. RoundUp works well, because it not only withers the visible plant, but it also kills the root and therefore all the little baby plants that are sitting there about to emerge. If you pull up a large clump very gently, lifting with a hand spade to avoid breaking the root, you'll find that it extends like a string, with a little node, or "nut" here and there along the strand. Those little nodes will sprout and send a new plant up to the surface, so one plant soon becomes a dozen or more. Vicious, terribly invasive plant, and extremely hard to kill out.

This mode of propagation means that my trusty corn gluten meal is mostly ineffective against it. I use corn gluten meal as an organic pre-emergent weed killer. You just spread it on the lawn and in the flowerbeds in early spring, before the weed seeds germinate, and it will keep them from doing so. Nutgrass does seed if you let it get old enough. You will see the seedheads forming on the biggest, most mature clumps, but even if you put out corn gluten meal and prevent its seeds from germinating, it just tunnels underground with those wretched node-laden strands, and pops up to laugh at you as you walk by.

I don't like to use chemicals, whether as fertilizer or weed killer, but sometimes with nutgrass there's just no other way. Vinegar applied full strength works to some extent, and isn't harmful to anything else unless it comes in direct contact. It doesn't contaminate the soil, and in fact can be beneficial as it dilutes itself into the ground with watering. On small invasions of nutgrass, it works well. However, with a full-scale, all-out, no-holds-barred invasion such as I have in two of my flowerbeds, I don't think the vinegar is going to work. I may have to fall back on RoundUp.

However, I can't use RoundUp or vinegar, either one, until I'm sure it won't rain for a couple of days. It does no good to apply them if they're just going to be washed off. They both have to stay on the plant to do any good. Since there is more rain predicted for the weekend, I guess I'm just going to have to sit here at this window and watch as the Devilgrass grows, and its little imps pop up everywhere!

Be blessed, my friends.