Revisiting the Giant Hogweed Infestation - One Year Later...

As discussed in a couple of previous posts, I have an ongoing battle with something called Giant Hogweed.

This post: Last Few Hours

And this post: A Gardening Kind of Weekend

Both blog posts discuss the initial challenges I had and also the "seek and destroy" mission that I am told may be ongoing for a few years yet. I am out looking for seedlings on pretty much a daily basis in the yard - I don't want any to get missed and therefore grow to the point where I will be unable to address the issue myself. 

 

What I didn't do last year - that I wish I had - was post any pictures of what the seedlings and young plants look like.  The small seedlings have a bright waxy look to the leaves (and so if surrounded by other weeds they actually do stand out) and they are broad and flat in shape with a scalloped look to the edges around the leaf they seem to present with one single leaf to the stalk. 

 

Young plants look more like the adult plants and start showing the hairy stalk.

 

 

If you dig them up, you will notice that they have a root stalk that resembles a parsnip.  Giant Hogweed is a member of the carrot family and so the roots will look something like that. 

 

 

When I am on a Hogweed eradication mission (usually I am doing this immediately following a dog poo clean-up mission) I am wearing protective gardening gloves, using a garden hand trowel or a hand-held dandelion digging tool. Don't just pull off the leaf, always dig out the root, and always be very careful in handling the plant no matter what the size.

 

Giant Hogweed (the Latin name is Heracleum mantegazzianum) which in pictures looks like HUMUNGOUS Queen Anne’s Lace, but in reality is considered to be a pernicious invasive plant, not native to North America and extremely dangerous to humans.  The sap is toxic and sensitizes the skin to ultraviolet radiation - causing third degree burns that come back over and over again, any time you get sunshine on it. If the sap gets into the eyes it can cause blindness - PLEASE take some time to review the information here on the Coastal Invasive Plant Committee website and here on the BC Ministry of Agriculture website.

 

The seedlings go directly into the bag of waste picked up.  This bag is then tied off and thrown into the garbage can.  NEVER EVER EVER put Giant Hogweed into your compost. NEVER EVER.

 

Since this is the time of year most gardeners are really getting into the needs of the yard, I thought it wise to offer up the reminder.  Please be aware of what you are pulling out, how you are disposing of it and how to take care of yourself while doing it.  Giant Hogweed is dangerous and needs some extra care when working to eradicate it.

 

With love across the waters,

A Gardening Kind of Weekend

The weather two weekends ago wasn’t terrible – it also wasn’t hot and sunny… which means that it was a perfect weekend for being outside doing outside chores – the mundane ones AND the much more interesting ones.


This is my first spring and summer in my home and this year has been the learning year where the yard is concerned. When I moved in, on September 27^th of last year, the Damson plum tree was in the full throes of harvest, the Granny Smith apple tree was in high growth and the yard was an overgrown jungle.  There was a pressed down path where I could creep quietly from the concrete patio to the back fence, but the Sumac had taken over, the weeds and grass were out of control and I had no idea what I was looking forward to.


Instead of digging everything out and starting with mud (which may have crossed my mind briefly before I considered Jasmine, mud and the inside of my house) I spoke with my parents and they wisely advised me to do very little in the fall and winter and start with an eye to “what would I like to keep” come the spring. 


Small side-bar here, I LOVE being in BC in the early spring – getting snowdrops (the flowers, not the cold flakes) in February beats the hell out of February in Ontario where all gotten is wet, cold, cold and wet!


In the front garden bed, Snowdrops and both purple and yellow crocuses were followed by pink and purple hyacinths and yellow and red tulips that reached about 2’ tall! Soon after that, bluebells followed - bachelor buttons hard on their heels. The bachelor buttons are nearly done and now there are flowers on the lilac bush out front, buttercups and white with purple flowers on the rhododendrons.  When the rhodos are finished flowering I will be getting in there with my secateurs to complete a brutal trimming – there are two of them and they are tall, stringy and weedy looking. You may recall I have removed a couple of trees and thought I had completely cut back and killed the wisteria that had grown up over the roof line and into the attic – but no… I looked out the other morning and the wisteria vines are starting to creep around the stump. Hm.  Now I need to make the decision as to what I would like to do about this – cut it back or train it up the stair railing and see if the damn thing blooms post brutal pruning.


The back yard was more the focus of that weekend’s out of doors activities…I got started on the usual pre-work activity of picking up any and all dog bombs happened first and then I mowed the lawn. Next up, I pulled the Giant Hogweed seedlings I had spotted & then pulled up the square patio tiles and dug out a whole PILE of sumac roots.  Sumac is a self-starter and sends out runners (much like strawberries) and the roots really need to be dug out if you want to try and prevent more from coming up.  I was all in after that and came in & had a shower and did some laundry.


Monday was a little more interesting… I cut down a stump, dug out the ferns (and re-planted one of them in a different place) re-planted a Hosta that had been placed into a container, moved some things around, pruned dead wood off of a shrub, planted the potted lilac that was just not growing happily (pot was WAY too small and the poor thing was root bound.)


I took a bunch of pictures and was all ready to upload them, but learned that my blog pictures file is almost and if I want to add more, I have to start paying for photo storage space... so now the decisions need to be made - should I spend the money on buying photo storage space, should I go back & start removing photos, or should I just start a new blog and start fresh...?  Hm. Decisions, decisions... what do you think I should do...?


Here's what I was able to upload...


With love across the waters,

re-arranged

Transplanted Lilac

Teeny tiny hosta!

Apples - pre cull... now there's 1

Bearded Iris

White-pink Peones

Deep purply-red Peones

transplanted fern

Really have no idea what this is, but it
sure is pretty!!!

Also no idea what this is - looks a little like pom-poms...

Last Few Hours…

Well, as all great weeks off must do, mine is coming to an end.  It’s 5:00 PM on my last day off before returning to work and I’m just doing a little puttering and thinking.  In looking over the past week I had some great successes and some items not done.

First of all, I have to tell you that I had glorious weather for my week off – GLORIOUS!

A couple of days before it started I wrote out a list:

• Wednesday night – hang screen door
• Thursday night – have drywall done
• Friday night – relax
• Saturday night – primer
• Sunday – paint & have friends over for dinner
• Monday – Nephew and Grandma day
• Tuesday – Lay insulation in attic
• Wednesday – pull carpet & underlay
• Thursday – have friends from work over for coffee, have a load of stuff taken off to the dump
• Friday – Mum, Dad & Grandpa up for lunch & then do some gardening & yard work
• Saturday, Sunday and Monday – relax & go to the cabin for a few hours in there somewhere.

Lists are funny things.  They give me a guideline of what I want to accomplish, but remember the old adage of “man makes plans & God laughs”? Yup – that was what actually happened.

What I didn’t count on was having a HELLISH 5 days of back and neck pain accompanied by the most horrific of headaches – starting on Wednesday.  That took me out until roughly Tuesday.  It also changed how I got things done, but all in all, I managed most of it.  What didn’t get done was the insulation and having some friends over for dinner last Sunday… everything else eventually got done, just not as I had initially planned it. There were also a couple of unplanned additions – namely having to have Giant Hogweed removed.

Sunday, my first official day of vacation, started out sunny and bright, with me and Jasmine in the back yard enjoying a late and lazy breakfast and coffee. My neighbours were out as well and just in passing, the wife of the couple mentioned that I would want to get rid of what at a glance looked to be cow parsley.

I was game (if still a little sore and headachy) and thought that I would tackle it after breakfast.  My usual modus operandi is to just jump in and do things, but this time I thought it might be smart to see if I could compost all of that lovely green material or, like walnut husks, would it be poisonous to my compost… and so in after the computer I went.

A little bit of research later I found out that it WASN’T cow parsley – though it looked quite a bit like it.  It was actually something called Giant Hogweed (the Latin name is Heracleum mantegazzianum) which in pictures looks like HUMUNGOUS Queen Anne’s Lace, but in reality is considered to be a pernicious invasive plant, not native to North America and extremely dangerous to humans.  The sap is toxic and sensitizes the skin to ultraviolet radiation - causing third degree burns that come back over and over again, any time you get sunshine on it. If the sap gets into the eyes it can cause blindness - PLEASE take some time to review the information here on the Coastal Invasive Plant Committee website and here on the BC Ministry of Agriculture website.

After reading the information, I decided I needed help to get rid of this – for starters, I do not have a hazmat suit, completely rubberized gloves or, quite frankly, the bravery needed to attack this stuff – did you SEE the pictures???  It took me a couple of days to connect with the right people, but on Wednesday I managed to get in touch with the right person who sent out a crew to inspect the infestation & if within what they could do in one afternoon, remove it for me.

Tuesday was the day that I tackled the removal of the carpet and underlay - I did find a couple of surprises in the flooring, but nothing that can’t be dealt with eventually.

Starting the job & uncovering the painted wood floors

Surprise #1 - it isn't ALL painted!

Nice tight grain on most of the planks! This a a GOOD thing!

Surprise #2 - particle board AND tack strips to pull out!

Another pile of stuff to be removed to the dump...

Wednesday I puttered around and dealt with the rest of the flooring surprises issues, was the day the crew came to remove the Giant Hogweed AND the day that my extraordinary contractors came in to sand down and apply mud coat number 2 to the drywall.

Thursday did actually go according to plan – friends over for coffee in the morning and then the young fellows who have the haulage business came over and took away the carpet and underlay.

On Friday my parents came up for a visit and brought my Grandpa with them – his first visit to the house… it wasn’t quite as put together as I had hoped it would be by that point, but they were pleased to see all of my progress so far.

Saturday, eschewing responsibility and all of the unfinished tasks, I loaded Jasmine into the car and we ran away to the cabin for a few hours. It was great – warm sunny day, not too much wind, excellent visit with Rob, Carrie & Finn and traffic was relatively cooperative.

That evening, Kel and Roger (my contractors) came by to do the final sanding for me on the drywall. 

Wall completed, coats of primer done.

Yesterday I put on a couple of layers of primer and then painted the wall. I screwed up a little – I put tape on top of not 100% dry paint and when I pulled off the tape it pulled off the paint as well.  Oh well!

All done, furniture back in place - SO much brighter!

Pictures and masks back up

SO much nicer!

Today has been a do very little day.  I did some laundry, re-hung pictures in the living room, re-arranged the furniture, washed more drywall dust off of, well, everything, baked a cake and generally relaxed.

Tomorrow (sob) is back to work…

With love across the waters,