Life around Crumbly Acres!

 Thinking time: how to block Fred from my garden and under the garage.

This was last week. It did not foil her! This is really funny now. 

She's eating the plants, which isn't horrible. They are creeping across the garden, usurping other plants.

The contrails intersect in a tic-tac-toe pattern!

Outside, it is comfortable when there is a breeze and one is in the shade. The deck gets shade in the afternoon. I am reading The Resistance Painter. Joe is reading 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America! I may read that when he is done.

Nutmeg, AKA killer, is left indoors! She is not amused. She catches far more critters than Cinnamon. She is deadly. 

The sphinx moths are amazing. 

Here is a sphinx caterpillar I managed NOT to step on whilst gardening.

As we left the house for our lunch out, we saw Lanark County pulling out individual Wild Parsnip plants. I saw the red truck on camera and realized what was happening.

Since about 2015, they've been spraying the shoulders. Now, with some people disallowing spraying on their property, some plants are growing back. Respreading, I guess. The deal is that if a landowner doesn't want spraying, they have to clear it out themselves. I've found no impact from the product they use. It was restricted to a few feet on the shoulders, and has mostly eradicated this invasive species. 

Originally, pioneers brought parsnip from the old country. It has spread, and evolved, and gives humans a horrid burn, just like Giant Hogweed, or Poison Ivy. 

This is what we had, prior to the country spraying them.

I have had this. It is itchy and painful. My poison ivy ointment works on it, thankfully. 

Phytophotodermatitis, also known as "Lime Disease" (not to be confused with Lyme Disease), "Berloque dermatitis", or "Margarita photodermatitis" is a chemical reaction which makes skin hypersensitive to ultraviolet light.

The County is at the point where they pull out offending plants, bagging them up. This spot clean up is working well. As gardeners know, it doesn't take much for weeds to spread.

Wild parsnip, the lawn, and Fred

🌱Monday, after days of on and off rain, I did the lawn. It didn't go well. I knew Fred would be disturbed. Thing is, they don't hibernate until late August, the lawn will need to be done regularly depending upon rainfall. They all hid in their burrow.

I grabbed an errant weed in the 'lawn' (mostly Twitch grass, and native weeds, dandelions, devil's paintbrush). Even as I reached barehanded for it, I thought, it looks vaguely familiar. I now know it was Wild Parsnip. 

I am susceptible to contact dermatitis, after several annual bouts with poison ivy in 2011. Our township has worked hard to eradicate this noxious, poisonous weed. The birds kindly spread the seeds. There were a couple of bunches under and around the mailbox. I got rid of that. I used the heavy duty poison ivy killer.

 

I do have an ointment the dermatologist gave me back in the day, a topical steroid. Thank goodness. It is in a vaseline-like substance, and still seems to work. 

It is better after three days. I've been wrapping it in a neckerchief, as it does transfer to other parts of my body if I am not careful.

 

🐀 Fred and miniFreds didn't like the lawn tractor. (I had to back it out of the shed over their burrow opening.) I began in the front, hoping they'd hear it coming. 

This was fun! A piece of Twitch Grass sticking up in her face. 

iPhoto has a feature that 'cleans up' the image. Those are big teeth!

Fred and Cinnamon hung out at the deck. He's a gentle cat, and seems to know she is either harmless, a vegetarian, or bears watching. Fred was concerned with something, standing and doing 'bear.'

Another Fred came by, and approached the shed. Winnifred didn't like that. 

 

 

 After she made it back to the burrow entrance, there was a feeding involved! I think they head bump her to get he milk flowing!

 

She sat most of the afternoon under or near the lower deck. Chirping loudly. She chirped right through dinner and into the evening. It was strange.

Wild parsnip in the Ottawa Valley

First year plant.
The second year it matures
and produces blossoms and seeds.
The birds and wind have scattered it.

Wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa L.) is everywhere. We know. We drive into the city for healthcare on a regular basis.

www.eddmaps.org/Ontario

You can report wild parsnip online [www.eddmaps.org/Ontario]. I'm not sure what for, as it lines the roads. You can't drive these roads without spotting it.

Easier to report where it isn't!

Its poisons are oily and hard to remove.
Phytophotodermatitis results when you have the oils on your skin, and you are exposed to the sun.

1. Phytophotodermatitis, also known as "Lime Disease" (not to be confused with Lyme Disease), "Berloque dermatitis", or "Margarita photodermatitis" is a chemical reaction which makes skin hypersensitive to ultraviolet light.

Wild parsnip worries continue in Ottawa as part of Rideau Trail closed

Kevin Wylie, the city's general manager of public works, says city staff sprayed more than 200 kilometres of roadsides to fight the toxic weed in the spring. (CBC News)