Garlic Mustard, Honeysuckle & Buckthorn
Gardening-related Ping!
I was SO proud of one of my customers today. She was ready to tackle the garlic mustard on her land and she wanted my advice.
It was such a RELIEF to be able to suggest she use (evil) Round-Up to do it in because most days I’m talking to Hippies that think the use of Corn Gluten is the ONLY answer to all of their “organic” problems, LOL!
For some reason “Corporate” sent me four Buckthorns. They’ll never make it into the yard; trust me on that. ;)
We do sell Honeysuckle (vines & shrubs) but I pooh-pooh it to any customer that will listen. Nine times out of ten, a customer tells me that they just tore OUT their honeysuckle and want to put in something else.
Garlic Mustard, Honeysuckle & Buckthorn
I grow the Goldflame honeysuckle (L. heckrottii) and three colors of coral honeysuckle (L. sempervirens) for the hummingbirds and so far they are behaving themselves. If the coral wanted to seed I think that would be all right as it is a native.
The Japanese honeysuckle (I didn’t plant it!) is duking it out in the hinterlands of the yard with the stilt grass, garlic mustard, Indian strawberry, multiflora rose and ground ivy, foreign invasives all. The only native that has been standing up to them is Virginia creeper but I’m beginning to have some hopes for the ostrich fern - it took off amazingly this year.
my garden pests besides the deer are St.Johns Wart and what I think is morning glory....
Had a customer come in and want wisteria. Not that awful viney thing that takes over and kills tall pine trees—she wanted the well behaved dwarf one that makes a nice, graceful shrub, kind of like a small weeping willow. LOL I spent a good half hour trying to convince her there was no such thing as dwarf well behaved wisteria, that it was just the way it was pruned, and it took a lot of constant pruning to keep it under control. She left in a huff, and still thinks I was lying to her or a complete moron. Need I add that she wasn’t from the south? I hope she finds some and plants it right next to her house. LOL
We don’t have any of the garlic mustard or buckthorn, but I’ll see that and raise y’all some sandspurs and pennywort and Florida Betony and kudzu! Takers, anyone?!
Why aren’t they making ethanol out of this resource?
“I was SO proud of one of my customers today. She was ready to tackle the garlic mustard on her land and she wanted my advice.”
Call me crazy, but I would’ve recommended mincing it finely, pack it into a jar, cover with olive oil, and make salad dressing.
Never tried corn gluten, but I’m from the “eat your weeds” camp. Just ask mom about my dandelion jelly, or my honeysuckle jam.