the field to the north used to have
a nice mound of dirt at the corner
on the other side of the ditch so that
when people forgot there was a T there
they would hit it (often coming from
the bar a few miles to the west). often
i hear or feel them when it happens.
tonight i heard it, but the guy who owns
the field had moved that mound of dirt
away (i'm now worried that the power line
pole will get hit...) so i checked it out
and the person was driving a truck and
managed to get out of the ditch and back
on the road... so, well, i'm awake for
a while...

i've been out digging, cleaning up one
edge of the garden i will be using next
season to plant beans again, where i've put
the third strawberry patch (with garlic
interplanted because the garden is unfenced
and we do have deer and bunnies that come
through from time to time) and where i'll be
playing with onions of several kinds. the
top portion of the garden has plenty of
daffodils and crocus in it now. we moved
a bunch of daffodils from the fenced gardens
to use that space for tomatoes this summer.

the biggest reason to finish this edge
is to finally track down the last major
roots of the horsetail that tried to take
over that whole garden. the secondary
reason is to clean up the edge where a
lot of weeds were sprouting in the limestone.
and the third reason was to change the
drainage a bit from the runoff off the house.

the horsetail likes to roam quite a
ways and sends out runners underground.
it really seems to like going along a
black plastic layer i'm taking up and
so when i get a chance i will be taking
some pictures to give a good graphic
example of what this plant can do. it
also seems to burrow through clay and is
quite easily propagate from pieces of root
that are quite small so if you miss a
little it will be back.

as there are a few birdbaths in the area
i'll have to work around them leaving a resevoir
of roots under them that i will have to seal
in very well.

the good news is that if you keep turning
the soil and disturbing the roots (bringing
them to the surface and removing what you can
find to dry out good before composting or
just leaving them on the surface and drying
in place and keeping an eye on them so they
don't get restarted) eventually they will run
out of energy and give up.

i'd already tracked down most of it that
had been growing in about a third of the
garden, it took a lot of digging, patience
and persistence, but this past season there
was very little horsetail coming up in the
various bean patches. i left the corner
and the edge for last because it was going to
be a major project and i had plenty of other
things to keep me busy. with the okish
weather we've had lately i could finally get
out and i sure hope i can get this done before
the TG holiday.

today was spent digging up most of the last
chunks of horsetail and the corner of the
chives where it was going to start taking
over that whole edge. the dirt i will need to
keep so i've stacked it up and over the course
of next summer i'll break it down a few times
and stir it all to keep the horsetail from
knowing which way is up and get the larger
roots out that i can find. the smell of
chives being dug up is pretty gross to me so
that was a fun day. if the weather holds
we'll see if i can get the digging and leveling
done tomorrow and then get it all covered in
weed barrier and then put down some limestone.
any remaining roots will not get through that.
finding what i can and getting them out of
there will help make sure there's not much
energy left for any pieces i miss.

glyphosate will work on horsetail eventually.
it helps a lot to stomp on it and using a
good wetting agent to spray. i have wanted to
spray every time i see horsetail anywhere on
the property, but the bad result is that it
opens up the ground for other invasives and so
it seems like it just replaces one problem with
a half dozen others. not counting the trouble
of erosion if it is along the ditch.

digging is good exercise and having a worthy
foe keeps the noodle sharp.

ok, the wind has taken out the power so i
have to shut down.


songbird

songbird wrote:
glyphosate will work on horsetail eventually.
it helps a lot to stomp on it and using a
good wetting agent to spray. i have wanted to
spray every time i see horsetail anywhere on
the property, but the bad result is that it
opens up the ground for other invasives and so
it seems like it just replaces one problem with
a half dozen others. not counting the trouble
of erosion if it is along the ditch.

My experience has been that spot spraying of weed-b-gon kills horsetail better
than glyphosate.

Bob F wrote:
songbird wrote:

glyphosate will work on horsetail eventually.
it helps a lot to stomp on it and using a
good wetting agent to spray. i have wanted to
spray every time i see horsetail anywhere on
the property, but the bad result is that it
opens up the ground for other invasives and so
it seems like it just replaces one problem with
a half dozen others. not counting the trouble
of erosion if it is along the ditch.

My experience has been that spot spraying of weed-b-gon kills horsetail better
than glyphosate.

when i was spraying (several years ago)
it took several applications no matter what
was used. but the roots had gone under
surrounding edges and they could travel
and come up quite a ways away from where
it started. as it was all a perennial
garden i didn't want to dig up or disturb it
very much.

once i'd decided to turn that garden into
a veggie garden then i ended up digging it
out. that took a lot of effort but it did
knock it back significantly within two
rounds. i only had the one corner and
two edges to finish up (about 95% less
area than before).

spot spraying would have meant a lot of
herbicide going into a place i wanted to put
veggies ASAP. 300 - 400sqft (about 1/3 of
the garden).

now i just have a little bit of one edge to
finish and i'll be done. don't expect to see
much horsetail next season in this garden, but
will keep a close eye on it.


songbird