I_Made_This


Sunday, May 30, 2010

Sunday, sunny Sunday










Happy weekend.

Thought you might like to see my very first of the year Camelia. Her name is Marge Miller and she is a rare weeping variety.









I made these banana and honey muffins this morning whilst the man in my life pruned a tree. Can't you just smell them straight from the oven?

Tried to get in the mood to do more but decided to blog instead.

HI Vintage Mum, you asked about getting rid of Mare's tail. I Googled it and this is what I got from here in Aus:- sorry it is a bit long winded but hope you can understand it and maybe it will help you.

Horse or Mares Tail
Horse or Mares Tail, Equisetum Arvense is, in my opinion, public enemy number one. It looks like it belongs in Jurassic Park and, unchecked, spreads like wildfire.
In spring, brown green shoots appear with small cones at the tips that produce spores. (Arghh – millions of ‘em) and it grows away from creeping thin brown roots that you can hardly see as they are soil coloured. Digging out these roots is not feasible – they go down into the soil for up to 1.5 metres – yes, 5 feet.
Later the ‘leaves’ or tails appear. These will die off as autumn turns to winter and the roots sit there waiting for spring. The leaves have a waxy coat, which makes the plant highly resistant to weedkillers.
Crushing the leaves to break up the coating helps weedkiller to penetrate and become absorbed but in large areas it is not so easy to crush all the leaves . However, glyphosate weed killer will have an effect and eventually kill the plant. You will probably need 5 or more applications. Knock it back, it re-grows and you repeat.
I don’t think you can clear this in less than one season.
Ammonium Sulphamate seems to be a far more effective weed killer. It can kill it in one application but may well need two. It used to be available as Amicide but now you need to look for a brushwood killer that incorporates it like Rootout or Deep Root. Just check the packet for ammonium sulphamate.
I’d recommend NOT digging where there is horsetail until it is dead for sure. Otherwise it just starts springing up from the root cuttings. Drying or drowning the roots prior to composting is a must.
I've been contacted by Mr Charles Bailey who points out that Horestail is correctly applied to the weed growing on land whereas Marestail is correctly applied to the weed growing in water.
He also puts forth an organic control method, which he says is effective.
Without resorting to chemicals you can control/eradicate horse tail by digging/forking through the soil when it is in the right condition: ie not too wet and sticky!
Once you have removed as much as possible, any that shoots is easily dealt with. Before it reaches 3 ins/7cm high, hoe off an inch below the surface.
Eventually the food supply in the root is exhausted. Let it get bigger than stated and food begins to be stored in the roots again, and round and round you go ad infinitum.
Never touch Horsetail with a mechanical cultivator. If you do you will understand why it has been around for 60 million years
We have all heard of tulips from Amsterdam, but what about these Chrysanthemums from Germany. Aren't they just beautiful?

I hope you enjoy this. Will sign off now and look in later
B :-)

4 comments:

  1. Hi Thanks for the above its a real pain I think I may have to dig all plants up around it and drench in weed killer, something else to do :)

    Muffins look good enough to eat mine always look like fairy cakes.

    Getting on here before D gets up, he didn't get home ubtill 7:00 am so needs a sleep.

    Buy for now
    Cate x

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  2. did you see my spelling mistake ?
    just testing.

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  3. I hope you have a lovely time in Melbourne. Are you going to the footy while you're there? Kim :)

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