They have arrived in all their terrible glory….Russian Knap weed….horrible stuff.
With all of the native plants destroyed the invasives have taken over. This hillside is the worst for Russian Knap weed. I thought about showing you the ugly Canada Thistle patches (which equal this patch of Russian Knap Wee) and the beautiful but every so hateful Musk Thistle (we all know people just like that….beautiful but very hard to be around).
There are some other weeds that I enjoy and am glad to see Milkweed (excluding the poisonous kind) and Golden Rod are two that come to mind as I’m writing this. But these are NOT growing where the other three are, because the other three are thugs and take over the spot they are growing in, acting like bouncers by kicking everyone one else out.
I’m putting on leather gloves every other day and pulling up the poisonous types of weeds, bringing them back and burning them. The last thing we want is for the cows to eat something (next winter) that kills them.
The burn still makes me sad. And the farmer who burned everything is stalling on doing anything….so now the three farms are going to have to approach him as a group to get something done.
I was hoping that he would have been a better neighbor and handled everything to the best of his ability, instead of waiting and waiting and ignoring the whole problem.
He is to be pitied, but being a responsible person in life is to act responsibly.
Enough of this…onto a lovely sunny day!
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 
Agreed, he needs to step up!
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He needs to do his part to make it right. If you need to approach him together, that is a good thing. He can’t be irresponsible and then do nothing.
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Thank you for the update. I was wondering how things were going. What a shame that things aren’t progressing as they should. And I hate knap weed too, although it isn’t quite as big a problem here
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Hi Linda, So sad about the farmer –and his lack of being honorable and responsible. Hope he will eventually do what he needs to do to help. Sorry about that horrible weed… Hope you can kill as much of it as possible –especially the poisonous ones…. Gosh–that is all just so sad…
God Bless You.
Hugs,
Betsy
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It’s a shame that you have to fight all these weeds as well as fighting the neighbor who caused the burn in the first place. It’s hard to have much sympathy for someone who won’t do the decent thing in a timely fashion.
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The Thistle is coming up here too! usually the worst on the manure pile. I pulled the Spring Tansey. Will check in a couple of weeks and get what I missed.
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Absolutely amazing to see how these invasives have thrived. Recently we’ve had a bad one…reed canary grass. it takes over all out riparian areas.
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I feel so angry for you! I hope that the neighboring farmer gets his act together and makes things right. At least you have some ‘good’ weeds coming back. Maybe you should tie a goat out there to eat the bad weeds! 😉
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Stalling like that is only going to gain animosity among the neighbors. Why do people behave like this instead of just getting on with life?
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Oh no what a job, on my evening walk i take my favourite shovel (I have one too) and dig out bad weeds and thistles as i go but NOTHING like the patch you are facing.. Are you sowing seeds of the good plants into the holes as you pul the bad ones up?.. nature hates a vacuum.. tho I imagine there is a much bigger plan afoot.. c
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I hear every bit of it Linda… I’ve got a patch of white top and it’s probably going to win.
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What a grrrrr moment…healthy bad weeds and an irresponsible neighbor all at once. Hope he comes around.
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When I saw the first picture, it looked a lot like “stinkwort” (Dittrichia graveolens) that has popped up around our area in the past 5 years. It’s native to Morocco, invaded Australia in 1860, and finally made its way to Sacramento. It comes up along the roadways in early summer, after competing plants have been killed by Round-up. I’m amazed that your neighbor can call himself a farmer, he doesn’t actually sound like one.
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I hate weeds! Trying to recover from the burn is going to be so tough for you.
We are struggling with bindweed. At our old house I fought locoweed and sage. My neighbors must have thought I was totally nuts as I’d go out an paint the loco weed, and I actually hand pulled a patch of sage and reseeded with grass. Of course, when your pasture is only 3 acres…it’s a bit easier!
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Knapweed is the plant from hell and you’ve got much more than anyone deserves. Must have come up from there when that fire was burning. Same with thistles. Bindweed tries to choke out my garden every year. If I let it go, it sends its roots all the way down to that hot evil place. Maybe if we pull enough weeds here we won’t have to deal with them in the next life. A girl can hope.
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Rent some goats:) I am so sorry that you have all those weeds what a nightmare..and so unnecessary..that is the sad part. I hope he comes through like4 a good neighbor should:)
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Ugh. I was hoping the burn would actually help the native plants. 😦
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I’m SO glad we don’t have much knap weed in these parts. Horses deal with the Canada Thistle around here but goats have been used on some places with noxious weeds and it works out well for both the land and the goats.
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Good luck with the nasty neighbor…hard to have people like that close. Just like the weeds, as you point out.
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