Last post of the season

We had our end of season lunch October 18 at Mamma Teresa's - a much more pleasant way to spend a Tuesday! Many thanks to the entire team for each of your contributions to the success of the season. It's a truism that's true: nothing could have happened without a team willing to take on the impossible but essential task of dealing with invasives.

Although the group is officially ended now, several members have decided to keep on working on good weather Tuesdays. We still have a few things to do, such as recutting in several places that have grown up enough to produce pods. But we'd also like to try a few more experimental things, such as digging up DSV in several places to see how the roots form and to remove mulch / thatch in selected areas to see whether this makes overwintering more difficult. Re the latter, Geoff and Barry came out on the 25th to continue cleaning mulched DSV out of the field south of the pond. Some wild grape vine also got pulled in that area.

Christine has informed of a couple of other invasives, fortunately still very local, but rapidly spreading. One is Lamium, sold in nurseries as a ground cover. The other is Asian bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), a beautiful but Kudzu(shudder!)-like vine overtaking a small stand of white birches just south of the Butterfly Meadow. How much we'll do this season is hard to predict, given the weather, but these plants will be added to the already too-long list of invasives to research in the coming months. We have another busy season ahead in 2012 - see you then!