Another Good Day Outside

Can you guess what these 2 garden paths and part of a flowerbed have in common?

No weeds!  And why?  They were covered all Winter with old black plastic sheeting!  The stuff was used several year elsewhere, had rip and holes and cutouts for various resons.  but folded up a couple times, it worked great to smother the winter weeds in the paths and bed  and then cook whatever was left in the hot sun the past few weeks!

I spread them out to dry, but actually I have a new use for them.  I have some annoying vine that a neighbor planted then mowed to death.  But not before it escaped to my yard where I can't mow.  This Summer will be a 'KILL THOSE VINES" project.  I don't like using herbicides near the garden, so I will use the string trimmer to cut them to ground level, then cover the areas with the many-times-used black plastic.  I have lots of bricks and stones to hold the plastic down.

They have gotten established in the old asparagus bed.  The asparagus is long gone (lasts about 20 years and they were planted 30 years ago).  Because there are also junk tree saolings growing there, I cut them down to ground level.  Obnoxiously, that won't kill them.  But I have an old piece of plywood that just fits.  So I will set that down AND put black plastic on top weighted down with old cinder blocks.  That old framed bed should be good to use again in 2 years.  Sometimes, things take time to passively improve.

The 2 dwarf apple trees have been in place for 2 decades and I've never gotten a ripe one from them.  The Evil Squirrels take then away before they are ripe.  And poison ivy has taken over the ground beneath them.  So very soon, I will use the hedge trimmer to cut the poison ivy to ground level (wearing a mask and elbow length rubber gloves that will go straight into soapy water in the basement laundry tub after), cover the ground with more of the old black plastic, and cut down the apple trees.

I will use a chain saw to lop the 3" thick apple wood trunks into small 1" slices for B-B-Q smoking, and wait for the poison ivy to smother under the plastic by next year. 

Poison ivy abounds here.  I have 2 neighbors who have parts of their yards they pay no attention to, and the stuff grows rampant.  Birds are immune to poison ivy and eat the berries, so they spread around all over.  I sometimes find new poison ivy plants growing where no poison ivy plant is near, so it has to be from seeds from bird-droppings.

Talking to my neighbors about it has no effect.  I even offerred to spray them myself, but they declined.   I meant the poison ivy, of course, but would consider the neighbors for being so oblivious.  LOL!