Invasive Plants I Wished Didn't Come With My Garden

Most Gardeners in America don't start a garden from scratch, aside they build their own house or buy a house where nobody gardened before, you get a house with an garden which already is very much established or might not be to your liking.
Luckily Gardens are changeable, sometimes it's an easy job. Tear out some plants here and there, move things around, add some more. If the previous caretakers of this garden did a great job, then it's possible to work with what they have left behind. It's another story if the previous gardeners had no clue what they were doing, or were the lazy type of gardeners, who planted easy things, things which you plant once and soon they cover half your yard, or they could have left you a yard so tacky you barely can stand sitting in it.
After all isn't Beauty in the eye of the beholder?

So most true gardeners want to make the garden they get their own.

It is always a good idea to at least wait a season after moving in to watch what will pop up in the yard. There could be some pleasant surprised in the new yard, plant treasures and wouldn't it be a shame to accidentally killing some plants you would have enjoyed because you didn't wait before digging in.

Sometimes plants come with a new yard, you wished you would not have waited. All of a sudden they start popping up all over the garden, or start spreading in a tick mass covering everything up what gets in their way. You see these plants and wonder, "Why do I see these plants all of a sudden pop up all over the yard? Where did they come from? I didn't see them when we first got the house."
The reason they are all over your yard now, are: the previous owner planted some plants, they must have known about it's invasive potential, so they cut off the seed heads just in time and they never put any of these plants into the compost pile, they knew what would happen if they didn't keep them out of there.
You, unfortunately waited a year to not accidentally kill something you might enjoy, you just sat back and watched the garden grow and bloom and seed out. You also, as the winter approached, cut some plants back, uncovered some poor plants from this ever spreading ground cover and tried to compost it, now every little sprig of this plant survived the compost pile and after spreading your compost around your garden you spread the little, harmless looking plant all over the yard.
After you realize what has happened you think to yourself "I should have identified this plant and read up on it" but it is too late now. It is everywhere and no matter how hard and often you weed, it is uncontrollable. It has become the bane of your garden.

Has that happened to you? I bet you also had some not to nice thoughts about your previous garden care takers.

So I like to share some of the plants I wished I would not have in my garden. Plants which came with my garden and I probably spread accidentally or are just so invasive that I will never get rid of them. Believe me, I tried, I am at my 7th year in this garden. I am ready to give up on them. These plants keep me so busy that they keep me from doing the garden work I enjoy so much. Who wants to weed all the time, especially knowing you will never be able to control them.

Beware of these Plants:

Sagina subulata
Picture can be found here http://www.callutheran.edu/gf/plants/category/gar-21.htm

very often sold as 'Scotch Moss' although it really is the 'Irish Moss'
Scotch Moss's botanical name is: 'Arenaria verna' it looks almost the same then Irish Moss, it has the same tiny flowers but it has a yellow tinge to the foliage, while the Irish Moss is darker green. Neither are really a 'Moss' but are used to give a moss like structure to the garden, they also grow where you wouldn't or couldn't grow real Moss.
In some areas gardeners have a hard time keeping it going but if you give it just the right climate and growing areas it just will go berserk.
Unfortunately Western Oregon just has the perfect climate for it. It should not be sold to unsuspecting gardeners or at least have a warning label of this kind : 'Plant this ground cover on your property with caution, since it is very invasive. It can regrow even from the smallest bit of green, worse if can and will reseed itself.'
It does not have a deep root system but I found the root system is like a dense mat, so even it pulls out easily you never get it all. Also you constantly pull up the top layer of your dirt. There goes all your good garden soil into the yard waste bin. Because you never want to put it into the compost pile. It will not be killed. In fact I put all the pulled up plants, dirt and all into a thick, dark plastic garbage bag and left it in a sunny spot for a year, thinking it will all be killed. When I opened it, it actually still had some living plants in there.
I even found this plant growing along streets in town, between cracks in the paving, in the forests and wild areas around town, the seeds and probably also pieces of the plant stick to your shoes and get spread around.

Soleirolia soleirolii
see picture here: http://www.callutheran.edu/gf/plants/category/gar-963.htm

also called 'Mind your own Business', 'Mother of Thousands', Baby Tears (what fitting names) and others it likes to grow in any moist soil in sun or partial shade. It's highly invasive and difficult to eradicate. Even the roots are very invasive, the tiniest sections of stem will re-root where it is happy. Every piece of plant has the potential of making more plants. Plant pieces brake off easy, so it's a piece of cake to spread it by carrying pieces around on your shoes or clothing. As I hear it is not finicky about the soil, it likes them all as long it has moisture. About moisture, even if you let it all dry outs and it looks dead (you think, finally it's dead) wish again, as soon the rain starts it comes alive again. The roots keep it alive for just long enough. Same with winter, it dies back just to come back in Spring, leaping a few more yards.
Mine grows all over the Rock-walls in my garden. The previous owners must have liked the way it spills over the rocks. This means, because there is no way I can dig all the roots out between the Rock-walls, aside of disassemble the walls. I read the only way to get rid off it is to strip off the infested beds, removing all roots and stems and do not dare compost it.
Selective weedkillers won't work either, you have to dig all the plants up you want to keep, making sure no piece of Baby Tears is left on your plants, then kill whatever is left in that area and replant. There is no way I can get rid of it, at this point all I can do is trying to keep it in check every year I see it in new spots.
As I read on the internet this plant is on the invasive plant list in many countries. It should be outlawed to be sold to unsuspecting customers.

Glechoma hederacea also called creeping Charlie, ground ivy, gill-on-the-ground, creeping Jenny
see picture here: http://i3.iofferphoto.com/img/1145689200/_i/11798132/1.jpg
its part of the Mint family and everyone who knows Mint, knows how fast it can spread. This plant spreads just like Mint by seeds, rhizomes and creeping stems that root at the leaf nodes.
It was originally introduced for a shade ground cover. It likes moist, shady spots such as under trees and shrubs. It's been said if you can take away it's favorite growing conditions you can discourage it from growing there. I am not so sure that works well, I have this weed growing in the driest spot under some house eves, where not much will grow, the ground is rock hard there and this creeping Charlie still manages to grow there, I keep digging it out, just to see it pop up again. You can try to hand-pull but aside you get every little piece of leaf or stem it just will grow back from the pieces left behind. If it gets into your lawn, it will completely take it over until no grass grows where it grows. I believe birds must spread the seeds also, then I start finding it in areas it did not grow before. This also is growing in parts of my rock-walls, which makes it impossible to control

Hyacinthoides hispanica also called Spanish Blue Bell


These flowers are widely grown around here and I see them sold in nurseries. I have to say they are pretty and are slightly fragrant. The original flower color of the species is blue but mostly you find a Hybrid plant in gardens which can be blue, lilac, pink or white. The species grows naturally in the Iberian countries and North Africa.
They are on the highly invasive plant list for the UK and many other European countries and also crossbreed with native related Plants there.
But they are not only invasive in the UK. I see them in many wild places around here. This plant sets a lot of seeds and they all germinate. The only way to control them is to cut of the seed heads before they drop. This wouldn't be so bad if you only had a corner of them. I on the other hand have them everywhere. My front rock-wall used to be covered in them, it was a sea of blue in Spring. One year I sat in my front rock-wall and dug out as many as I could. It made a dent in them but as they drop a lot of seeds between the rocks and boulders I don't think I'll ever get rid of them. I also have them in many places in the back, sometimes they just pop up somewhere. I now cut as many of the seed heads off as I can unfortunately there are always some I don't notice in the bushes. I also cut off many of them before they grow to big, thinking that like in Tulips they need the flowering cycle to feed the bulb. Maybe in 10 years I have starved them all. I have heard, if you grow them in a dry woodland area, they are not supposed to spread as much. I rather not have them, there are many plants which will be just as pretty and will be better behaved.

These are probably the worst plants I ever had in my yard in all my gardening years. They don't just keep me to busy weeding all the time they ravage the natural environment in many places. I still can't believe with the knowledge we have today about the invasiveness of some plants that they are still being sold in many places. I make it a point whenever I come across some invasive plants in Nurseries I let the people working there know what they are selling there.

So please do not plant these plants!

Where the Heck am I? Will you be my neighbor?

It has been a bit to hot for me in the last week to work much in the garden. The only times I went out in the yard last week, I was picking Raspberries or Vegetables for Dinner or I just went around looking which areas need some attention. I know, once this heat wave (which luckily never lasts too long in Western Oregon) ends I will have some work to do out there. At least I got most of the weeding somewhat in control, but there will be many Perennials which need some cutting back.
I found, having the chickens, which love to eat the weeds I pick, makes me and my husband more eagerly weeding before the weeds seed out. Before we had the chickens, we weeded to get rid of the weeds, now the weeds are welcome fodder for our flock of chickens. It somehow gives weeding a better purpose "feeding healthy 'Greens' to our chickens" and the chickens for that will give me healthy Omega rich eggs and fertilizer for my garden.
So not spending time in the garden I had time to read a lot of my piled up Newspaper. I am somewhat a Newspaper-News junkie. I religiously read the local paper everyday from front to back, no matter if the article interests me or not. I also get the larger Portland paper 'The Oregonian' in the mail, since they stopped distributing them locally. Sometimes they come in late, sometimes 3 at once, so now I often don't get to them as fast as I want. Nevertheless I pile them up and read them in order. The Oregonian often covers stories our small local paper won't cover. My husband teases me about my Newspaper reading habit.
In Germany most people read the paper religiously, even many older children and teens. We like to be informed and see it as our duty as citizens to get informed what is going on in the world around us. I don't know why that is, it is just the way we grew up. Maybe it has to do with our dark history of the Nazi era. You have to watch the people in power carefully and an independent press will tell you what you need to know. But what good is an independent press if nobody reads it?
So I just read this article about Quality of Childcare in the US.
Where I come from 'Germany' Childcare is a right, just like Education is a right and Health Care is a right. It is subsidized by the government from taxes. So the childcare situation in the US always dumbfounds me. I can not understand the philosophy of not supporting parents, so they can go to work, supporting their families, their country without having to worry who will watch over their children while they plow away. In my opinion offering childcare subsidies are a win-win situation for the government. Yes, it costs money, but what you get in return are productive citizens which can support their government with taxes, you get an educated, well adjusted future citizen, who later will be able to support their country by working.

I have to admit, 'Affordable Childcare' and 'Quality Childcare' are dear to my heart as a German educated Childcare teacher and working as a former 'Au-pair girl' and 'Nanny' when I first came to the US.
So I may be a bit biased in this Childcare thing. But something truly needs to change.
The Childcare costs are unsustainable for most parents, that means the costs for Quality Childcare. Yes, one still can find somewhat affordable childcare, but most of those are nothing more then 'parking places' for children then places which will educate your child. The end-effect is, people who have the money, will get childcare where the child will be nurtured, instead the one where the child gets parked and being stifled in it's development.
The facts are children who attend high quality programs are doing better in school, need less special ed, are more likely to be literate, more likely to graduate from High School and more likely to become productive workers.The early years in a child's life are so important for the brain development so they can succeed later in life.

To me its a no Brainer.

As I kept reading this article I came across this paragraph comparing the US to the rest of the World in policies affecting children and families. I always get a chuckle out of these US/World comparisons, because the neighborhood the USA (the most industrialized nation on this earth) shares with. Which most the times comes out to be not with the other industrialized nations but with some of the most poor, third world or backward nations or even dictatorship countries.
So I like to share with you, that the good old USA, which has no mandatory paid maternity leave in comparison with 173 countries, where 168 of these countries guarantee paid maternity leave, shares the neighborhood of 5 countries which fail to do so, which are Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, Liberia, and Swaziland. Is this the countries we want to be compared to?
Can't we do better?

Berry Season-Raspberry Galette recipe

It is definitely Berry Season. I have been picking lot's of Strawberries, baking lot of Strawberry cakes. Then as soon the Strawberries started slowing down-which will be only temporary then I have mostly Everbearing Strawberries which right now just have a rest period- I had to pick my Red Currants. This year I did not get as many Currants because I had a bad infestation with Currant Fruit Fly, which also resulted in a lot of work having to pick through the berries. In the end it was all worth it, because I made a wonderful cake with them. Because the Currants are so small it takes a long time to remove them from the stems, so I usually make this cake only once a year.
Now the Currants are done I am getting a flood of Raspberries which I need to use quickly because they have a small shelf life and spoil quickly. Also my freezer broke so I can't freeze any right now until my new Freezer arrives, which should be next week.

So I made a quick Raspberry Galette which is a Free Form Fruit tart.


Rosemary flavored Raspberry Galette



Recipe By : Isabell Norman
Serving Size : 10 Preparation Time: 0:35

For Pâte Brisée
300 g Flour/Mehl
75 g Sugar/Zucker
120 g Butter
2 Egg/Ei
2 Tblsp/EL Ice-Water/Eis-Wasser

For Filling:
300 g Raspberries/frische Himbeeren-fresh or more if you
like
3 Tbs Sugar/Zucker
2 Tbs Rosemary, chopped/Rosmarin, gehackt
2 tsp lemon peel, freshly grated/Zitronenschale, gerieben
1/2 tsp cardamom, ground/Kardamom, gemahlen

1. Put Flour, Sugar, and Butter-cut up in very small pieces, in mixer bowl,
process until the Butter resembles pea sized crumbles, now add the Eggs and
Ice-Water and mix until the dough just starts sticking together.

2. Mix das Mehl, Zucker und Butter, die in sehr kleine Stücke geschnitten
ist in einem Stand Mixer bis die Butter wie Erbsen grosse Krümmel aussieht.
Nun die Eier und Eis-Wasser zugeben und alles schnell zu einem Mürbteig
kneten.

3. Remove the dough and knead it quickly into a ball. You don't want to over
mix it, because then instead of becoming crusty and flaky it will become
chewy.

4. Den Teig der Schüssel entnehmen und schnell zu einem Ball zusammenkneten.
Den Teig nicht zu viel kneten weil er dann statt krustig und krisp eher
ledrig wird.

5. Wrap in plastic or put in bowl with lid and let rest for 30 minutes in
the refrigerator.

6. Den Teig in Plastik einwickeln oder in eine Schüssel mit Deckel tun und
im Kühlschrank für 30 minuten sitzen lassen.

For the filling:

8. In the meantime pick through your Raspberries, it is best to not wash
them and mix all the ingredients for the filling. Set aside.

9. In der Zwischenzeit die Himbeeren verlesen. Es ist besser die Himbeeren
nicht zu waschen. Alle Zutaten für die Fülle mischen. Beiseite stellen

10. To finish, cut the dough into 8 to 10 same sized pieces and roll out
each piece into a round. The round does not have to be perfect because these
are Free form tarts. Add a nice amount of filling in the middle of the
rolled out dough, leaving about 1-1/2" to 2' space to the edge. Fold the
edges toward the middle, over the mix making sure the folds stick together.



11. Zum fertigstellen, den Teil in 8-10 gleichgrosse Stücke teilen und jedes
Teil in einen runden Boden ausrollen. Sie müssen nicht perfekt rund sein
weil diese Freie Form Tarten sind. Tue einen gute Menge Fülle in die Mitte
des ausgerollten Teiges dabei etwa 4-5 cm an der äusseren Seite
freilassen. Die Seiten zur Mitte, über die Fülle hinfalten, dabei sicher gehn
dass die Falten zusammenhalten.



12. Bake in Oven at 350 ° F for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are lightly
browned.

13. Im Oven bei 180 ° C für 15 bis 20 minuten backen oder bis die Tarts
leicht braun sind.

Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients)
----------------------------------------------
Calories: 270
Calories From Fat: 99
Total Fat: 11.2g
Cholesterol: 68.1mg
Sodium: 16.4mg
Potassium: 98mg
Carbohydrates: 38g
Fiber: 2.9g
Sugar: 12.8g
Protein: 4.9g

Cooking Tip: You can brush the Galette before baking with some eggyolk mixed
with a tablespoon milk or water and sprinkle with brown sugar crystals

Man kann die Galette vor dem Backen mit Eigelb aufgerührt mit
einem Esslöffel Milch oder Wasser bestreichen und mit Braunen Zucker
Kristallen bestreuen

You could also top it with some Sliced almonds

Kann ebenso mit gehobelten Mandeln bestreut werden

Or before Serving, powder with Powdered Sugar

Oder vor Servieren mit Puderzucker pudern.

Comments: Made with Isabell's less Butter Pâte
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This recipe is my own recipe and is there fore copyrighted. You are free to use it for your personal use but to use in any publication of any form you need to get permission from the original Owner of this recipe.
disclaimer: Not to be shared with the Dervaes Family of Path to Freedom Website. Thank You