Dominant Weeds in 2009

Everybody knows weeds since we all curse/hate/want to mangle them. But have you noticed some that have done exceptionally well this year? Here at the Extension office, I have noticed 2 that have really gotten my attention.

Virginia Copperleaf

My Weeds of the Northeast book lists this weed as a summer annual, reproducing via seed each spring. It says it can tolerate all moisture conditions. But as anyone living here knows, it's been a rainy year. This weed has always been at the office, but it's population has seemed to skyrocket and the dang things are BIG.

Virginia Buttonweed -- I see a pattern here....

The book says this is a perennial with thick stems growing prostrate. It can root at the nodes (like large crabgrass or bermudagrass). And get this -- this thing is supposed to produce flowers UNDERground!!! My reference says 'little is known about the belowground flowers'. And it seems this one does prefer moist areas. I don't remember seeing any of this last year, but it's come and decided it likes it here.

Weeds are definitely over-the-top this year.

10 Things To Do in the Garden TODAY

1. Plant peas, onions, cabbage, broccoli, potatoes, and lettuce.

2. Trim / thin shade trees -- this means using good pruning practices and leaving NO STUBS

3. Uncover strawberries

4. Apply crabgrass control to lawns

5. Plant trees and shrubs -- don't wait until they are leafed out.

6. Sharpen the mower blade

7. Get a soil test if you haven't already

8. Start another round of tomato and pepper seeds

9. Add organic matter (about a 3" layer) to your beds -- till in when the soil dries out

10. Buy some soaker hoses for the upcoming season

Poison ivy

At home, we have a fairly small patch of woods that I simply adore. There is a small creek that runs through it -- my girls & I absolutely love our woodsy walks.

Several years before I married my husband, he allowed his brother to run his horses on our land. Part of the land they had access to was the woods.

I love horses but they created a mess down in our woods that I am trying to clean up to this day! They brought in every weed or otherwise invasive plant you can imagine. In the spring and summer there's poison ivy and smartweed that seems to overwhelm you. In the winter, it's the japanese honeysuckle and the wintercreeper euonymus.

In the winter, you have full access to just the honeysuckle and wintercreeper since they are about the only things green. Sunday afternoon, I yanked and pulled and yanked some more til I had 4 garbage bags full of mostly honeysuckle. I barely got 200 sq ft cleared. It humbles you really. My husband asked me how many bags I got, I told him 4. He asked how many there were to go, I said 4000. (It's not really quite that bad).

If anyone says you can't get poison ivy in the winter, tell them they are wrong. I must have pulled up some poison ivy and the only spot on me where skin was showing is now red & puckered with a few blisters (on my wrist).