Wednesday, July 18, 2007

First wave ~ June 3, 2007



It wasn't easy, nor was it especially fun...but it WAS rewarding! We stuffed knotweed into trash bags like there was no tomorrow. Jason Larochelle of Larochelle Landscaping came early in the day to cut down the entire site to ground-level. Stalks were approximately six to seven feet high, at an estimated density of 40-50 stalks per average 3-square-foot plot.


We discovered sumac and poison ivy growing blithely alongside the knotweed; the three adults all suffered some level of rash over the following two weeks, but eight-year-old Moira escaped untouched. All told, we collected 20 large bags of cut material, including two crowns that Allan dug out from near Route 11.


This was the sweatiest and slimiest day we could've asked for...and we all had to have long sleeves and long pants on! Not that it helped against the ivy; I think that we weren't as careful with ourselves after we were done as we could've been -- moving the bags around without long sleeves on was my own mistake.

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