Monday, May 7, 2012

Other: Oenothera biennis

Okay, it's not like I wasn't warned that this was a weedy plant, when I decided to let one grow in the back yard. And it's not like I hadn't, at one point, counted up the number of seeds in a single pod, and then the number of pods on a single stem, and then the number of stems on the whole plant, and did the math. I had ample opportunities to turn back, to (literally) nip the whole thing in the bud, and I didn't take them.

And now?

Pretty much that whole middle part, there: basically anything that doesn't look like grass or dirt. This doesn't even show all of it.

It's not all bad; they do pull up fairly easily, especially when the ground is wet. The less-pleasant part is how there are thousands of them, with tens of thousands more in the soil, waiting to germinate later. So yeah, probably a mistake.

I've begun pulling them up, a few at a time, while outside in the mornings with Sheba. It's going more or less like you'd expect.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glyphosate herbicide 1% will save you a lot of time and energy.

Don

Pat said...

Lovely. Don't worry, it will look a lot neater when the whole yard is properly filled.

mr_subjunctive said...

Pat:

Oh. Good point.

Don:

Probably, but then all the enviro garden bloggers would shun me. I'm not sure I could handle that.

Anonymous said...

I think it's a nice groundcover. You will never have to repot it.

Anonymous said...

Two words: Sheet Mulching.

The folks here in the NW Corner, use it all the time to kill the plants in the soil, mulching in many layers,with the right mixture of stuff, and thick enough to keep the seeds from coming up and sprouting when exposed to light. A googling will tell ya all bout it. Then just make it into a bed of something that you like that agressivley shades out anything that just might come up. Otherwise, it is a life sentence. Or a life of enjoyment, depending on outlook.

Your Stimulus Package (Seattle)

Anonymous said...

The dirty secret of environmental restoration is that it's impossible without using glyphosate herbicide.

Don