The Gardens at Melissa Majora - a Honeybee Sanctuary: milkweed war

Showing posts with label milkweed war. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Battle on

*roots - common milkweed*

The milkweed war continues. It's time to tuck in the beds, but before mulching the ring, I had to dig up as many of those &%$ common milkweed (asclepia syriaca) roots as I could. Didn't want those invasives gathering forces over winter!

*July -first strike*

Though I'd been spraying all sprouts with herbicide ever since I pulled the plants back in July, you sure can't believe the label: kills the roots. Ha! No killing here.

I dug down as deep as I could with the fork, loosened the soil, then extracted what I could. These things were everywhere. It wasn't uncommon to pull laterals snaking way out into the lawn. As for the taps, well, I got maybe 12-14" but after that they snapped off, leaving the rest down to China.

I want to plant in those 2 ring arcs - tomatoes in one, perhaps asters in the other. But I'm leery. I guess I'll just have to see what springs up next year. Dang it. And to think I brought this on myself thinking common milkweed was a good forage plant for the bees. Live and learn...

At least I can warn you guys!

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Thursday, July 22, 2010

It's still hot and I'm still cranky

It's still hot. It's still humid. It still doesn't rain. We've had less than an inch in the whole month!

It's making me cranky.

I found myself at Lowe's for some MORE wood filler for the shed where the carpenter bees are tearing it apart (refer to 'garden projects page') and wandered over to the nursery.

Nothing there really struck me except a display of small butterfly bushes. I needed some instant gratification so ponied up for something new - a color called Honeycomb. I'd seen them on another blog and knew that some day I would have one.

Now I have one. I installed it in the arbor garden (removing a sedum that needed to be transplanted anyway). I hope this will get lush over the years and make a nice statement on the far side of the arbor.

Another reason I'm so cranky and why I truly needed some gratification is displayed here.

Glenda in the Ozarks commented that I appeared to be winning the milkweed war in the stump bed battle.

Not so. The green ring has been the battle zone where I'd originally planted that *#( thing.

Today I've found a sprout out in the lawn!!

I can't tell you how much this thrills me.....:-(

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Bee-stro

I've found a native bee nest.

I was going around cutting off remaining daffodil leaves and found this bundle in the stump bed. I was delighted to see that under them there were native bees using an abandoned chipmunk tunnel to nest in. Evidently the dead leaves provide shade in the hot afternoon sun, so I left them alone.

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Meanwhile, on the other side of the stump bed, milkweed wars continue. You can see that I've cleared a circle maybe 20" wide where I do battle. I'd dug up as many roots as I can a couple of weeks ago and now I watch. I'm sure that lack of rain has slowed them down as I'd not seen any new shoots for a couple of weeks. A false sense of triumph though.

Yesterday I found 2 new shoots.

Today I'll dig down alongside both of them as far as I can go without breaking them, then paint the shafts with herbicide.

All this from one plant! I can't imagine what battle I'll have to do with the 2 full 6' length of plantings I'd put in the ring bed (I'll bet I'd planted a dozen HOS in each planting!). *fume*

I may have to rent one of those little baby backhoes..... >:-(

An update :

20 minutes of hard digging (baked clay, mostly) garnered this batch of roots. I had to go down almost 12" to get these, because the roots don't grow sideways, just up and down. When they 'run' they send a root out sideways for a few inches, then start heading down again.

When I initially dug out the plants 5-6 weeks ago, I'd gotten at least as many roots then as now. So those suckers are still viable. Grrrrrr. See how long the sprouts are for just the 1" that showed yesterday. Obviously they didn't have any trouble breaking through the hard clay.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

It's me or the milkweed

As I stated in my last post, planting common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is the biggest mistake I've made in years!

I mentioned in that post that if cut down, they readily re sprout from the roots. Today I found a sprout a good 15" from any planting I made. So it runs!

I ran too. To get the loppers.

Down they came. So did the other stand. Then I hauled their gooey, latex-dripping carcasses over to the township yard waste site.

Okay. First strike. I don't know if I should dig up the roots or try and kill them with herbicide.

Either way, it's total war. I'll have to paint sprouts with full-strength herbicide for who knows how long.

The single monarch that floats around the ring bed seems unconcerned. It's never visited the common, preferring to spend its day on the 'ice ballet' or incarnata milkweeds. It also likes the zins that are beginning to bloom, so worry not about the monarchs. There's still plenty of larvae lunch around here.

P.S. I've removed the link for "Free Milkweed Seeds" from the sidebar. 'Nuff said.

P.P.S. This very afternoon I watched the monarch find a friend, dance, and is right now laying eggs on both the ice ballet and incarnata milkweeds. :-D

Monday, July 12, 2010

Milkweed mayhem

Houston, we have a problem!!

The common milkweed (asclepias 'syriaca') is a major disaster.

First off, now that they are blooming on their 5-6' stalks, the only 'pollinator' they attract are Japanese beetles. The plants are heavy with them.

Second off, the stalks are prone to being blown down by wind or pushed down by heavy rainfall.

And third (and this is something everyone considering planting them should be WARNED OF) is that they are pervasive. Last year I had 2 seedlings with no where to put them so temporarily healed them in the stump bed and the crab bed. When they came up this Spring I dug them up and put them in the ring bed.

In a couple of weeks, I dug them up again (from the stump & crab bed) and composted them. And again. And again. It seemed that no matter how deeply I dug, how carefully I sifted the soil, new sprouts come up from roots that travel down to China.

Now when I see sprouts, I paint them with full-strength Kilz-all herbicide. I WILL get them out of the stump/crab beds.

As for my previous post where I mentioned I would be removing them from the ring bed, I'm now forewarned. I will not try to dig them up lest I sever/stimulate the roots. I will cut them down instead and begin a regiment of Kilz-all directly to each stalk. It may take some time to do the job, but they will be removed! For the moment, however, I've cut off all their tops/flowers to thwart the beetles.

Don't you just HATE it when something you dreamed of turns out to be a garden nightmare?

As for the asclepias incarnata & asclepias 'ice ballet' - they seem well behaved, beautiful, attracting bees by the bushel and smell like heaven. They can stay. But I'll keep an eye on them too.