Weed and Grass Galore!

In Sonoma County the soils are very rich. The water is abundant in winter time. In February the sun rays arrive less oblique and more powerful. Then is when flora starts to awake and the light green of new growth is everywhere.

But [and there is always a but] a big portion of all that wonderful green comes from weeds and grass. Weeds do take over and they are everywhere. I do remember when I arrived for the first time (it was November) and I asked: “what do you do with all the grass?”

There are a few that are particularly obnoxious. And one should be very careful not to become obsessed with the compulsion of pulling them all. This time of the year is particularly bad because there is still quite a bit of moisture and the sun is strong. It’s weed time!

Let’s see ….in my short list of hated flora we find “crab grass” (Digitaria sanguinalis), wild oats (Avena fatua) and –my personal arch-nemesis Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense).

The previous owner of my property had planted bamboo in the field and for the moment I took over it was a mound of roots and canes covering a one hundred square yards. The war was merciless but I won that one. No more bamboo. With Johnson grass the situation is different: I will never win. The best I can do is to keep it down while I have the energy. I try to dig as much as possible to avoid using Roundup. Sometimes fury takes over and I spray some….

In comparison with Johnson grass wild oats and crab grass are a piece of cake, easy as pie, trivial.

Another war that I won was against blackberry (Rubus procerus). Yes, sounds delicious and wonderful until you realize that this plant has taken over the front lawn and killed most things in its path. The thing with blackberry is that not only spreads by root but also by branches. Wherever a branch touches the soil, it spreads roots. The discovery I made is that the best way to get rid of it is to cut it close to the soil and put a drop of Roundup on the cane itself. After a while the roots die and if they come back they are not as powerful as they used to be.

Johnson grass is different, if you try to pull it, it will brake leaving a rich bunch of rhizomes in the soil. It reminds me to the movie “Alien”. ARGH!

 

Feel free and volunteer in my quest: Pull some grass out!