One of my springtime rituals

Tags

Bishop's weed, perennial, postaday2015, weeding

    

Every springtime like clock work, I weed out my Bishop’s weed, if you look at the top of the second picture, there is a small patch of the weed, that no matter how aggressively I weed it out, every spring it pops up yet again. The top picture is a stock picture, but it could easily be one from my backyard if I didn’t do anything to keep the Bishop’s weed at bay.

I googled controlling Bishop’s weed and what I found surprised me, the Bishop weed is medicinal! It was used to treat digestive issues, psoriasis, kidney stones, angina and asthma. Its chemical properties include methoxsalen which is now prepared in laboratories, but prior to the lab, methoxsalen was rendered from the weed itself. Between the herbs that I plant each year and my other perennials I have a natural pharmacy right here in my backyard; I think that is pretty darn cool. I don’t have any birch growing on my property but all I have to do is walk to the park and I could either get some Willow tree bark or White Birch bark and whip up some aspirin. lol

Tragically for us, we have lost much of the medicinal lore practiced by many indigenous people because of deforestation, land grabs and forced tribal removal. We have decimated so many native populations and their culture that we have obliterated much wisdom, how short-sighted can we be? It is such a shame that we treat the old ways, the old lore and traditions as something to be thrown away and forgotten or even neglected. It is such a shame. 

Gardenkeeping in the backyard

Tags

blogging, Gardening, maintenance, pictures, postaday2013, weeding

I don’t think that gardenkeeping is a word, but what I did today outside in the backyard, I would say qualifies as housekeeping if I had done it inside, so why not call it gardenkeeping, since I did it outside in the backyard?

A good part of gardening is the maintenance which encompasses weeding, pruning, transplanting, dividing and shaping. New plantings make up only a small percentage of the overall seasonal work of gardening. I personally like everything about gardening, except for leaves; I know that it needs to be done and it gets done but I don’t really like it, especially when it seems that the wind always blows stronger when you are raking and bagging those leaves.

So here are a few pictures of what I did and the difference it makes when the garden is spruced up a bit.

The bane of my gardening existence

Tags

bamboo, Gardening, postaday2012, weeding

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These pictures above are the perennials that I fight with year after year. They are truly the bane of my gardening existence, I go after them with a vengeance, literally getting my hands caked with dirt as well as my knees as I shovel, trowel and tunnel through the soil in the attempt to root out the last tiny bit of any Bishop’s weed and Bamboo in the ground. You would not believe the length and complicated root systems these two perennials have. Moreover, to put the icing on the cake, they both have two ways of propagating their successful genes, either through their root systems, and trust me when I say if only my beloved flowering plants could be so generously endowed with such root systems, and by their seeds because they both flower. The Bamboo despite being separated by a pool, used its seeds to start a new patch over the way to plague me as a gardener.

Why my intense drive to, if not eradicate the offenders, at least control their spreading? They both, if left to their own devices, will suffocate all your chosen plants with their root systems. They hog all the nutrients, air and water, they truly do not play well with others. This is why every year, I engage in a war, well I should say every year except for this one, I am going to France so when I get back, I’ll have my work cut out for me.