Years ago the cranberry industry thought they had a market for the
grindings left over after the harvest. They sold it as mulch.
Unfortunately the mulch was infested with dodder, a parasitic plant
that forms dense masses of yellow tendrils all over bogs - and
gardens!

A local garden center bought coreopsis plants that had been mulched
with the grindings. An around-the-corner neighbor put in five across
the front of their yard. When I noticed the dodder I tried to tell
the owner that they really should get rid of it, He never did a thing
about it, for three years his coreopsis plants were *covered* with
dodder - the idiot probably thought it was supposed to be that way.

Anyhoo, he sold the house, and the new neighbors promptly removed the
plants - must have known they were no good. This didn't happen,
however, before a nice bird dropped a present for my next-door
neighbor and me. I was out on a walk one morning and walked back
between our houses and found a huge patch, probably 10'x10'. We've
been battling it all summer, and I think we may have control of it
now. I did, however, find this poke weed stem - I've been scouring
the ground, and not looking up G
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
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