Dealing with problems before they start- a heavy storm after a dry spell. Plants on the Dark Side: Canada Thistle.
Greetings fellow gardeners,
Oh, do we ever need rain. This is so hard on our plants and our dreams. Of course, the wonderful thing about being a gardener is that we continuously chant…. Next Year!! Next Year!! The dreams never die. And so, we water. I water each morning and I water the pots again around 5pm. They dry out so quickly. What is giving me great joy is the little pool of water that I have in the front yard. The birds drink and splash and then they eat bugs!!
With this type of heat, we are due for a rainstorm that has the potential to do damage. When you get a lot of rain at once flooding can occur; paths become mudholes or plants can be overwhelmed. The first thing to do is to take stock of where the water goes in your garden. To paraphrase my riding coach ‘that horse weighs over 1500 pounds do you think your puny little arms are stronger than the horse?’ Well no. Mother nature wants the water to go down that path by your garden do you think your puny little diversions are going to stop her? This is where you work with nature instead of against her and build yourself a little rain garden. For example, let’s suppose that when it rains the water rushes off the roof, slams into the ground and then floods the area leaving a pile of mud as it dries. What I did in this instance is place a number of flat rocks where the rain hits the ground and planted daylilies, grasses and hardy perennials that can take higher measures of water. The water comes off the roof, splashes and dances on the rocks and disappears into the plants. No more path of water or residual mud. There is a definite movement to make raingardens in our area, check this out https://www.ottawariverkeeper.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/4_Urban-Rain-Gardens.pdf .
Soon I will be harvesting my garlic scapes. If you planted garlic in the fall you should be seeing the scapes now. They make amazing pesto! We will talk about planting garlic closer to the time.
(freshcityfarms.com)
Have a great week; you can control the amount of water, but you cannot control the heat. Next week Master Gardener S.R. Bicket will be our guest article writer. She has written a very useful piece called ‘The New Gardener’
Judith (lapisdragonarts@gmail.com)
Veggie Bites is at https://sites.google.com/site/sghortsoc/
Plants from the Dark Side
Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop.) and Sow-thistle Sonchus arvensis L.,
Canada Thistle starts out low to the ground and can easily get ahead of you. The purple flowerheads do attract some pollinators but in my opinion, it is not worth the grief they give you.
Canada thistles can get up to four feet in height and have a creeping root system. They are extremely prickly, so I recommend handling them with gloves. I have found that if you dig down the stem there are no prickles below the surface; I can grab the plant there and pull. This is not a plant for your compost so put it in a black plastic bag in the sun or into the green bin.
“Natural communities that are threatened by Canada thistle include non-forested plant communities such as prairies, barrens, savannas, glades, sand dunes, fields and meadows that have been impacted by disturbance. As it establishes itself in an area, Canada thistle crowds out and replaces native plants, changes the structure and species composition of natural plant communities, and reduces plant and animal diversity. This highly invasive thistle prevents the coexistence of other plant species through shading, competition for soil resources and possibly through the release of chemical toxins poisonous to other plants.” https://www.invasive.org/weedcd/pdfs/wgw/canadathistle.pdf#:~:text=Canada%20thistle%20is%20an%20herbaceous%20perennial%20with%20erect,are%20borne%20singly%20and%20alternately%20along%20the%20stem.
You should try your best to pull this weed as soon as you see it otherwise you will be battling a large and prickly adversary. While you can try to get most of the roots, be sure that is does not go to seed.
The sow-thistle has the same type of creeping roots system and it is very prolific. Unlike the Canada Thistle the sow-thistle has a sticky milky sap. The flower of this thistle resembles that of a dandelion. Sow-thistles interfere with agriculture and can be a real bother in your vegetable garden. It is easier to pull than the Canada thistle, but those roots spread quickly so try to keep on top of it.
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