I could grow old pulling chickweed. It’s everywhere. In the beds, in the grass, in the rocks, even where I didn’t know I had soil. The best thing about chickweed? “common chickweed can reroot from stem nodes in moist areas.” Great, so if I pull a clump out and a small piece flies away it will re-root. Urg.
90% of what I found online tells me to use something extremely toxic. Here, I started this blog because of my guilt over Round Up, which seems pretty benign compared to Weed-B-Gon. Alas, there is another remedy that my garden mentor suggested last year: a flame weeder. Yes, indeed, this is like a blowtorch and especially recommended for rocky areas. Apparently it doesn’t burn the plant to death, it causes a chemical reaction inside which makes it die. Die, chickweed, die!
No discussion of the death of chickweed goes without the few but whiney chickweed advocates who espouse its health benefits. “Natural anti-inflammatory!” “Makes great pesto!” “Fights cancer!” If they’re so into chickweed, why don’t they come over and clean me out? Perhaps I should post on craigslist: “Free chickweed. U-pick.”
Showing posts with label chickweed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chickweed. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Monday, May 26, 2008
Confession
I bought Round Up.
The weeds were out of control. Chickweed, mustard seed, dandelion, individual spears of grass growing 2 feet high with a root system as long and tangled as the Paris Metro. Not to mention that I have to kill all the grass in the yard in order to plant over it. But how to do that without destroying the environment? Perfectly Natural Weed & Grass Killer, of course! One $20 bottle covers, oh, about 10 square feet. I think my backyard is about 1,000. Despite that, I was optimistic. I sprayed bottle after bottle of the stuff and it did actually work, complete with a lovely, lingering clove smell that must have made my neighbors wonder what was really going on in the pink loft. 6 bottles later, though, I wondered if dumping all of this clove oil, citric acid, Lecithin, and "82% other" was really better for my soil than Round Up, the toxic-while-wet farm-industry standard. The claims are vehement on both sides. "Keep away from pets and children for 6 hours." "It's the only thing that kills the weeds on my coffee farm and allows me to plant what I want." "It breaks down into ingredients found naturally in soil." What is a girl to believe? This girl finally believed that using one-quarter as much product for one-fifth the price to achieve the same result would be worth it for the initial project, to hopefully kill the weed infestations on my property so I'll be able to manage it organically for the rest of our time together. Cross your fingers/stems for me!
The weeds were out of control. Chickweed, mustard seed, dandelion, individual spears of grass growing 2 feet high with a root system as long and tangled as the Paris Metro. Not to mention that I have to kill all the grass in the yard in order to plant over it. But how to do that without destroying the environment? Perfectly Natural Weed & Grass Killer, of course! One $20 bottle covers, oh, about 10 square feet. I think my backyard is about 1,000. Despite that, I was optimistic. I sprayed bottle after bottle of the stuff and it did actually work, complete with a lovely, lingering clove smell that must have made my neighbors wonder what was really going on in the pink loft. 6 bottles later, though, I wondered if dumping all of this clove oil, citric acid, Lecithin, and "82% other" was really better for my soil than Round Up, the toxic-while-wet farm-industry standard. The claims are vehement on both sides. "Keep away from pets and children for 6 hours." "It's the only thing that kills the weeds on my coffee farm and allows me to plant what I want." "It breaks down into ingredients found naturally in soil." What is a girl to believe? This girl finally believed that using one-quarter as much product for one-fifth the price to achieve the same result would be worth it for the initial project, to hopefully kill the weed infestations on my property so I'll be able to manage it organically for the rest of our time together. Cross your fingers/stems for me!
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