There it was on my iCal: Total Body Lab at the gym on Friday. But the morning was blessedly cool, and pushing a deadline had me indoors all week. Removing ragweed from the beautiful blue-leaved line of Indiangrass in the Entry Meadow would be a total body workout, while salvaging some ailing native grasses. So off I went.

Oy! What a mess! In prior years, the Indiangrass had been mowed too often, weakening the grasses and allowing giant ragweed to move in. Maximilian sunflower and western ragweed were also making incursions.

I discovered it was easier to yank most of the plants out by the roots and cut the larger giant ragweed. I also cut and treated a few pecan saplings growing in the Indiangrass midst.

With some rain and sunshine, the Indiangrass should bounce right back, but probably not fast enough to give us lovely feathery seedheads this fall.

It helps when battling giant ragweed to recognize it when small before the family triad leaves dominate. It’s very scratchy. Since it’s an annual, if you pull ragweed for two years in a row, sometimes that’ll vanquish it.

Here’s its evil, shorter cousin: western ragweed. Makes as much pollen as giant.

Chainsaw Maniac

Earlier that morning, I’d seen a dark Dodge pickup truck pull up in front of the leaning landmark tree across Peavy. Fool, I thought, pecans in that area won’t fill out for another month. Paid it no mind. I had earbuds on and was listening to music.

Partway through my efforts, I emerged from the tall grass, noisily dragging an arm full of giant ragweed, and went to cool down in my car. A large man hustled into the pickup and took off like a rocket. Odd.

As I was putting up tools into my car to leave, a policeman pulled up. Oh no, I thought, what have I done?

“We got a report of a man with a chainsaw cutting down a tree.” I took a long look at the landmark tree, which died earlier this year, and indeed, some pieces appeared sawn off. Oh, I said, “That’s probably the jerk who tried to cut it up back in 2017 when it was alive (story here). The neighbors practically rioted. We all loved that tree. A park manager valued the tree at $10,000. The police charged the jerk with a felony and took him away. He must have returned for the tree now that it’s dead.”

The jerk must have seen me emerge from the tall grasses and thought, “Oh crap, it’s that blonde who got me thrown in jail. She’s spying on me!” Heh heh heh. The policeman and I had a nice chat about trees and he wandered on. I only got half the Indiangrass done, but by noon it was hot and I went home to recoup.

FInishing the Indiangrass

I humble-bragged about my work with the Eastwood Entry Garden folks, since we’ve been trying to keep the Entry Meadow mess from detracting from the garden. Francis Shaner got inspired and also saw an opportunity to skip a gym class on a cool morning. On Saturday, he finished the Indiangrass row! I tell ya, this work is so satisfying it’s addicting. Go take a look.