My travails (actually, "problem solving") with this weed (no, not that weed)
Well, it has as much right to exist as anything else, but for the purpose of worldly discussion let judgments and pejoratives against it reign. This weed can take over a yard, a sea of knee high, willowy stalks, seed heads bobbling. One neighbor just accepts it and just keeps mowing.
A year or two ago I researched obsessively and found the name of it, but have forgotten it, so if somebody knows, much appreciation. So when it started invading my personal space, I reasoned that just cutting it (without raking) was just PLANTING the seeds, so the first stage of solving went the raking and disposing route. But seeds are shaken loose, so the infestation proceeded. Then one year I took an even more labor intensive route and HOED every single clump (and raked), one by one, every single one. A Vietnam co-vet, now deceased, sat in a lawn chair and kept me company, and this did not, apparently, seem weird to him. I guessed, correctly, that this would not be a one year project, but the second and third years there were very noticeably fewer of these things to hoe. Then I don't know what happened, maybe an extra rainy or wind-driven seedy year, but the whole thing burst out all over.
I went to the county extension agent to identify and learn how to RID myself of this (MONK, "Thomas aBeckett), and the agent had trouble naming it, but ended by BLAMING ME, saying, "You LET IT GO TO SEED!!!!!!" in the most accusatory way. She said the solution was to mow it all down BEFORE the seedheads developed, mowing and mowing. O.K. Then I went off on a tangential phase, scouring the nurseries and lawn departments and country stores for some kind of garden shears to lop off all the seed heads, the image in my mind being shears on a long pole/handle. And then had a flash of insight and figured out that a WEEDEATER would be fine for this type of lopping.
Then a couple of years of my obsession going dormant ensued. And now I have the solution: The BAG ATTACHMENT on the mower, collecting the debris that way. I realize this isn't a brilliant solution to knowledgeable gardeners, but considering the process of my arriving at it is something. Name of the weed, please?!1
