Amateur gardening hour

[kate_nepveu]

It was a nice cool cloudy day when I got home from work, and I actually had some energy for a change, so I went and attacked that triffid in the backyard.

(Actual gardeners probably don't want to look at these pictures.)

Here's the side of the shed before I started today (click through for bigger versions). The non-evergreens are what I hacked back this weekend.

Closeup of the triffid. Looks innocent, doesn't it?

But it has thorns, oh yes indeed it does:

(This is actually from the little triffid's next-door neighbor, which was hiding among the bushes I trimmed this weekend; another stem of it is what snuck up on me. At least I'm pretty sure they're two separate plants, because of the size difference. Yes, if we'd raked the leaves out in the fall I could actually see the roots easily, but I'm not doing it now because I think we may have one more set of perennials that will be blooming.)

The triffids came out surprisingly painlessly, thanks to excess caution, leather gloves and a corduroy long-sleeved shirt, and a whole lot of luck. I thought about tackling a much larger nest of them along the fence, but decided not to push my energy or my luck. Instead I hacked back the bushes some more, because it's really hard to stop once you've started, dug up a few dandelions, and called it a night:

I don't feel as personally about the triffids by the fence, since they're easier to avoid, but they've got to come out sometime in the next couple of years, and so I might see if my luck continues to hold next time we have a cool day . . .

Comments

[doire]

Oh, if Nº 3 were growing in my garden (note the caution) it would be a rose. 7-fold leaflets, so probably a cultivated variety.

I have no idea about Nº 2.

[kate_nepveu]

Heh. I'm not even sure that thing ever puts out flowers, let alone nice ones. It turns reddish in the fall, and it's evil; that's all I got!

(Edit: Duh. I was thinking #2, the triffid in place, and #3, the thorns on the table, are the same thing; you're thinking they're not? Not sure, I'm just glad they're gone from that area.)

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

#2 (triffid in place) looks like Burning Bush to me.

We took ours out of the front bed and replaced them with Shasta Daisies and a cute fountain. The daisies don't bite.

#3 is a climbing rose. They do stop blooming if they've been ill nourished or improperly maintained. Roses are bitchy things. My climbers out front got blight in last year's funky weather, so I hacked them all the way to the ground. I think that saved them. They're creeping back up the pillars again!

[kate_nepveu]

Huh. Well, it *was* climbing; I've never seen it bloom, but the garden was in a bit of a state of neglect when we moved in.

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

If you should spot any more back there and would like blooms, follow a cane down to the base of the plant. Bayer makes a good rose food that I've had terrific luck with - just feed it throughout the season, and in the fall, hack it back to about 6 inches from the ground.

It should sprout anew and actually bloom next summer.

[skwidly.livejournal.com]

#2 (triffid in place) looks like Burning Bush to me.

I've heard there's a cream, now, that'll clear that right up.