Ever since it got HOT, things have been on a relative hiatus until they get cool enough again for another neighborhood event. But I’ve still been working on a few different things behind the scenes. Let me give y’all an update…
Bluebonnets: I harvested the bluebonnets I grow on my front lawn and spread the seeds out into the area around the Speyside trails. Prior to this I have not seen a single bluebonnet back there… so this is the start of something beautiful to come, I hope 🙂 Very eager to see how things look in coming years!
Indian blankets: If anyone remembers the native seed mix I got from Adopt-a-Creek, that we threw down in our 2022 seeding event as well as after our 2023 Bastard cabbage pull-a-thon, I also spread some in an empty patch of my backyard to better see what all was in it. Turns out a LOT of it is Indian blankets, which is why we now see some Indian blankets peppered around in areas we’ve worked on! Those weren’t there before we seeded them, so that’s exciting! What’s more, I harvested what had grown in my backyard patch, and now have two giant gallon Ziplocs of seed. Indian blanket is known to be great at outcompeting Bastard cabbage so I’ll throw that down in really cabbage-heavy areas, so hopefully, there’s less work to do next year. On that note……
Bastard cabbage: In addition to our group event in the spring, I logged all the days I had gone out by myself to pull up bastard cabbage, and submitted everything to Adopt-a-Creek. It ended up being a total 40 hours of (sweaty, dirty) work for the season!
Johnsongrass: Similarly, I’ve gone out by myself a few different times this summer and pulled up Johnsongrass. This one is a pain because the most effective strategy is to pull it up at the roots, which is easiest after rain, but also means it’s HUMID and you just end up sweating buckets. Still, I’ll try to get out there a few more times this season.
Mustang grapes: Okay this one is really exciting and I’ll just write up a whole separate entry on it. The tl;dr is go get yourself some of these FREE NATIVE GRAPES that turn into delicious jams and ciders while they’re still ripe on the vine (which is NOW). And they are abundant in our trails!!!!
Trails: They’re overgrown, I know. I have been meaning to see if this maintenance is something the HOA could budget and take care of, because it’s a lot otherwise. TBD…