Spreading Chickweed and pulling Foxtails at Greenwood

Sunday, March 16, 2014

This morning, I had the Greenwood Dog Park to weed, and some chickweed to spread around the wastewater treatment plant property before the city got to mowing it.  Schroeder Dog Park, my usual Sunday weeding, was just going to have to miss out this weekend.  So was the cleaning of the Intersection of the Redwoods, by extension.

After blowing the bark off the path at the entrance of the trail and picking up litter, I went straight to spreading chickweed from areas where it was thick to nearby spots that were still bare compost from what was spread along the trail last fall. 

Where the compost was not too thick for the seed to grow through, a mid-calf-high variety of perennial grass has sprung up thickly to join the perennial rye already there, a joy to see, as anywhere it grows is a place where a foxtail or heron’s bill is not growing and it’s relatively short.  We need more perennial grass and less annual fire and sticker hazard weeds out there.  Compost may well be the way to get it.

I’m spreading chickweed because it crowds out spring weeds; wilts down to a mulch that prevents summer weeds; only drops its plentiful seeds, rather than spreading them; and is exceedingly edible, even when seeding.  It’s a great spinach substitute on a sandwich, salad, or as a boiled green.

I also filled my big weeding bucket, a 15-gallon pot, with chickweed and spread it in places with no good patches nearby.  But that’s a heavy pot, and I ran out of energy fast.

  

I gave up on that pretty quick and took the bucket inside the dog park to pull foxtails from under the locust trees.  Not many were blooming yet, so I only half-filled the bucket, which was pretty heavy with the dirt clinging to the roots.  There would be a lot more dirt to shake off if I didn’t wait until they showed their seed heads, and they would be a lot harder to pull.  So I only pull the ones that are beginning to violate code by blooming.  Our nuisance code tells us precisely the best time to pull most weeds: as they “mature” and “go to seed.”

Green foxtails, closeup, ready to pull.  The dying leaves at the bottom are unusual.

There are fewer loose ankle-twisting rocks in the dog park as I bury them or throw them away; they are natural litter, the disorder of nature in the wrong place, and hazardous to boot.  Likewise, I pick up boards, no matter how small; if it shows man’s hand, artificiality, it is disorderly in the chaos of nature or on our pavements and lawns.

I noticed that some litter actually disappeared from the river path and dog park between the time I walked Petey in the pre-dawn and when I walked down the trail later.  I’ve quit picking up litter while walking my dog because it’s not aerobic and I will do it later, but I’m not the only person who picks up litter while walking the trail.