The first thing we do when we get home, after unloading the truck, is to walk the yard and see what there is to see. I am always amazed to see how fast things change.
The red roses out front put on a growth spurt while we were in town this week.
This pink rose put on a few flowers and I swear it didn’t even have any buds on it when we left last Monday.
This shrub, of which there are 5 scattered about the yard, burst out in these pink fringy flowers while we were gone.
We have a cluster of half a dozen or so bell pepper plants in the garden that volunteered this spring from kitchen scraps I buried in the garden last winter. These volunteers, from store bought peppers, grew and only occasionally bloomed but did not produce a single bell pepper all summer. They are now covered with flowers and setting fruit.
The most unsettling discovery, or I should say realization, was this poison ivy tree.
I know we have it growing in the field behind us and in the wild place at the back corner of the property but I couldn’t understand why I had it sprouting up in the front part of the yard all spring and into early summer. Now I know. Poison ivy and I are not friends. This is actually a small crepe myrtle tree that has been overwhelmed with poison ivy. I never really paid it much attention because it is in the easement of my neighbor’s yard, but for some reason I noticed it last weekend. The only way to get rid of it, I’m afraid, is to cut the whole thing down but then what to do with it? It can’t be burned.
The lighter colored limb is a branch of the crepe myrtle. All the dark brown twisties are the entwined vines of the poison ivy.
The vines/roots have taken over the trunk of the crepe myrtle.
The berries that have been producing the new plants in my yard.
I hate using poisons but I might spray some Roundup on the roots/vines, with my neighbor’s permission, of course.
(It's not the curse!)
I'm sorry, Momma. But when i read that i laughed so hard i fell off my chair.
ReplyDeleteWhat great surprises, even the dreaded ivy monster. Surprise! Be very careful ellen. Beautiful colors, thanks for the pics.
ReplyDeletecripes ellen don't turn your back!!!! that's nasty! i remember going to a ymca camp and one of our trips out was a three day hike. day two we ran out of bumwad so we were told to grab leaves. one of the boys did just that when he needed to leave behind a processed and filtered meal and of course he grabbed . . . . poison ivy. one day and a half later we managed to get to a place with calamine lotion for the affected parts!!! ouch!!! stevenb
ReplyDeleteWho knew poison ivy can be parasitic? Not me.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame you have to sacrifice the poor Crepe Myrtle, but understandable. Go get it Ellen. Kill that chit.
How amazing to find all that life popping up. And that poison ivy vine looks positively ominous! Good luck sorting that tangle!
ReplyDeleteI have never seen the fringey flower - a type of mum maybe?
ReplyDeleteI have a bout with poison ivy every spring when it first opens its leaves, which happens to be the same time we go morel mushroom hunting.
Hello Ellen
ReplyDeletethat pink fringy flower of tassels is amazing ...the tassels look like fabric...
Happy days
The flowers are beautiful .. what a treat to find waiting. But that poison ivy.. wow. Can it not be cut down and just left to dry? I'm guessing it would lose its potency in that dry state.. but I could well be wrong. I know very little about the plant. I hope you find a way around it soon.
ReplyDeleteOut here we have poison oak. I caught it once and suffered for over a month! I'll never forget. Did you know that some people claim they can catch it through the air? And if an animal rubs against it and we pet them...uh oh!
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