Weeds; Getting to Know the Enemy
Ahh, spring, that magical season when tiny green buds burst forth and unfurl on trees, on shrubs, in the fertile earth, and .... in my lawn? Aaaargh! It's weed season once again! For some peaceful people, spring is the season to stroll about and savor; for me, it's the season the war restarts. I figure that for each attractive, useful plant in my yard I have a dozen accompanying weeds trying to choke it out. (It's a lot more fun calculating the density of weeds than it is pulling them!) Looking at my yard in early spring always puts me in a Lewis Carroll mood:
"If seven maids with seven mops swept it for half a year, Do you suppose", the walrus said, "that they could get it clear?" "I doubt it", said the carpenter, and shed a bitter tear.
But something has to be done, or the weeds will take over. Getting to know your enemies is time well spent; by learning about them, you can find out the best ways to eradicate them, rather than accidentally encouraging them to grow and spread.
First, you have to decide what are weeds and what aren't. The definition of weeds is as elastic as some of their stems, but I agree with Donald Culross Peattie; "For me, a weed is a plant out of place". Because our land used to be part of a large nut tree farm, I spend a lot of time pulling little hazelnut seedlings. Most people probably wouldn't consider hazelnuts weeds, but I do! On the other hand, most people consider dandelions a weed, but some see them as a food source; one person's weed may be another's salad. If you'd like to get inspired or just kill some time before you tackle your own weeds, visit Quote for Gardeners at http://www.gardendigest.com/weed.htm .
In Canada, just as in the U.S., weeds are officially identified and regulated. The BC Weed Control Act, for instance, imposes a duty on all land occupiers to control designated noxious plants. Typically, these are non-native plants that have very aggressive growth habits, making them extremely destructive to native plants and crops. The BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food has published their Field Guide to Noxious and Other Selected Weeds of British Columbia online at http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/croplive/croppr... , and it's well worth a look. The Act breaks noxious plants into two categories, weeds that are classified as noxious throughout the province and weeds that are classified as noxious only within particular regions. The Canada Thistle is prohibited throughout BC, for example, while Wild Mustard is only prohibited in the Peace River region. It's interesting to see what made the lists and what didn't. The Oxeye Daisy, which I've always thought is quite pretty, is classed as a noxious weed in the Cariboo, North Okanagan, Thompson-Nicola, and Peace River regions, while my personal nemesis, Creeping Buttercup, did't make the cut and is only considered to be a nuisance weed. (But oh, what a nuisance it is, once it colonizes your lawn!) The Field Guide is especially useful because clicking on the name of any of the listed plants will take you to a picture and description which will help you identify the troublemaker.
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