Category: Invasive Plant Removal Techniques
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Remove These Three Weeds, but Beware of the Native Plants that Look Similar
It’s best to remove weeds before they flower and seeds develop, but at that stage there are some native plants that can look quite similar.
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Weeds of the Turf Next to Our Backyard Forests
Our backyard forests often lie next to areas of turf that receive no irrigation or chemical inputs and inconsistent mowing. These “input-free” turf areas provide ample opportunity for colonization by a host of plants that are not welcome in the forest. The main line of defense against the spread of these weeds are the Bradley…
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Exploiting the Weaknesses of Herb Robert in Late Winter and Early Spring
From late Winter through early Spring, I like to exploit the weaknesses of Herb Robert by removing those that sprouted during last year’s growing season, survived the winter, and are poised to flower when the weather turns warm.
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Removing or Allowing Plant Siblings
As we weed our backyard forests and their edges, we are constantly making decisions about which plants to remove and which to allow. For some plant species those decisions are complicated by various factors, and different restoration practitioners may have different, legitimate opinions.
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A Critique of the Forterra Model of Forest Restoration for Everett’s Forest Park
Now that Forterra has decided to essentially end its on-the-ground involvement in the Green Everett Partnership, I feel more at liberty to criticize its urban forest restoration model as it was applied in Everett’s Forest Park. The model’s failure, I believe, stems from the basic mismatch between the amount and type of labor needed to…
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Annual Winter Weeds
Among the annuals that germinate in winter, several are Eurasian introductions that deserve our attention once we have eliminated the more-invasive weeds from our backyard forests.
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Blackberry Bradley Line
Late fall seems to find me in a wetland untangling Himalayan Blackberry from Salmonberry. Most recently I was working on maintaining and extending a Bradley Line that protects an area of Salmonberry and Black Twinberry from old-growth Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus armeniacus).
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Removing Creeping Buttercup and Herb Robert in the Dry Season
I think the dry season can be a good time to remove Creeping Buttercup and Herb Robert.
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Keeping Invasive Grasses Out of Our Backyard Forests
How do we keep invasive grasses out of our backyard forests? How do we avoid removing indigenous grasses? I don’t think there are easy answers to either of these questions, but I have a few ideas and a confession. My Basic Strategy is Also a Confession I confess that I routinely try to remove any…
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Compost Heaps in the Backyard Forest
What should we do with all of those invasive plants after we’ve pulled them out of the ground? My preference is to compost them on site to help maintain local soil fertility, and I’ve developed a few preferences that I thought might be worth sharing.