Parsnip Patrol (dealing with wild parsnips)
8 years ago
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When I went to get it, it wasn't there........
Comments (11)I long ago replaced all those aggravating wire clothes hangers with sturdy plastic which don't get tangled up. Recently Jim needed some wire for some project or other, and none to be found around here. I had several packages and rolls of wire for crafting but all too flimsy...he said nothing could replace a good wire clothes rack! (And when did the term "rack" disappear for clotheshangers) Seldom use the drycleaners anymore except for large comforters and such...but guess it's time to send off a few winter clothes to be cleaned so we'll have wire coathangers again. Before we moved we found an attic box which held an old metal Slinky, Rubik's Cube, and Etch-a-Sketch. It was funny to see my son, then 35 or so, playing with them again. Never owned a hulahoop as I don't think boys enjoyed those like the girls did. I think I've read that parsnips are best tasting when harvested in Fall after a frost. I guess nowadays they briefly refrigerate them to fool Mother Nature but I don't look for them until the first cold spell when I start thinking vegetable soup. Somehow like sauteed cabbage and baked yams they say Fall to me. I've never eaten parsnips except in stews...how do y'all cook them? I'm buying extra herbs to turn into herbed butter and freeze...they're cheaper now than in winter. Basil, parsley, etc. (no mint as we don't care for it). But all are easily available yearround, at least at my favored grocery. We go back to my old neighborhood to shop every other week as that store caters to pickier eaters...it's miles out of the way but worth it to easily find what I want and the deli section is the best! josh...See MoreWild Plant ID
Comments (21)I don't think it is Giant Hogweed. I've never heard a single report of Giant Hogweed being found anywhere in Oklahoma. I checked the USDA's NCRS plant website and the distribution map (linked below) doesn't show Giant Hogweed anywhere close to OK. I looked at your photos last night and my initial reaction was it has a slightly familiar look, but I'm not sure I've seen it here. I think it likely is related to something we have here though because it looks just familiar enough that I feel like I ought to know what it is, but I don't. When I have a weed I want to ID, I let one bloom so I can be sure of what it is before I decide whether to keep it or remove it. Some of my favorite wildflowers are considered weeds by most people. When one of those pops up in my garden, I let it stay. I have Indian Paintbrush blooming in the new back garden close to some perennials I planted. I'm happy to have it there. I think it could be from the carrot family, but the only one I have on our property is Queen Ann's Lace and it is too invasive for me to let it stay. If you let one of them go to seed this year, you'll have a million of them next year. I don't need a million wild carrot plants to pull. This year I've managed to find and remove every single one before it has bloomed. However, there are lots of native mallows that have foliage similar to your plant, including the one Robert linked. I like the native poppy mallows and let them stay when I find them in the yard or pastures. As long as you disturb the soil, you'll get a plethora of weeds, and you'll still be seeing about as many a decade or two from now as you are seeing this year. Many weed seeds can survive in soil for many decades. As soon as I disturb soil by rototilling, digging, etc., I quickly cover it with cardboard, landscape fabric or mulch, or some combination thereof, so I don't get a million different weeds sprouting. If you let them sprout and grow, then you have to spend oodles of time figuring out what they are and whether to keep them or remove them. I'd rather not have to deal with them at all. If I wasn't trying to improve our clay soil down deep, I'd never disturb the soil at all. I'd just switch to no-till gardening and disturb the soil as little as possible. I hope one of these days we'll have improved the soil enough that I can switch to no-till. I think we may be getting close. We dug postholes this past week to set new posts to replace the entry arbor with a new one and we had to go down about 18" to get deep enough to find the red clay we had when we started the garden spot. I found that encouraging. Whatever it is, always wear gloves when handling new weeds because it is surprising to me how many of them can cause itches, rashes and other skin irritations if you're allergic to them. They don't have to be poisonous to cause you problems. And, by the way, when I have weeds in a place where I don't want them, I don't worry about IDing them. I dig them, hoe them or yank them out---whatever it takes to remove them and then I cover that soil surface so something new doesn't sprout. I don't really care what they are---I don't have to know what they are in order to remove them. I spent several years walking around our property IDing various native trees, shrubs, grasses, vines, perennial and annual weeds because I wanted to be sure we were not removing something we'd wish we'd kept. Despite that, we still have dozens of kinds of plants on our property that I cannot identify. There's just too many wild plants and not enough time in the world to figure out what each of them is. When someone points at one of them and says "What's that?", I just shrug and say something like "Well, it is in the aster family and I don't know what it is, but the bees like it, so we left it here for them." Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Giant Hogweed Distribution Map...See MoreBeing invaded by Wild parsnip
Comments (5)I wish the 2-4-D did the trick on parsnips. It looked like it would, but it just curled them up. They still flowered and seeded, but didn't stick up over the long grass where they could be seen easily. Back to glyphosate for me. It killed them brown in a week. Has anyone tried using a rubber glove with a cotton glove over it, then spray the cotton glove and wipe the plant? I have not done that yet, but might be a way to apply roundup without leaving the big scorch mark....See MoreIs this Wild Parsnip?
Comments (5)I had a neighbor end up with incredibly serious burns on his legs from this plant. They are not to be messed around with. They grow along a hedgerow between our houses, and I just leave them alone now. We mow up to the hedgerow and leave these nasty things alone. I suppose there is probably a safe way to deal with them, but they're not bothering me where they are so we just leave them alone....See More- 8 years ago
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bill_g_wisconsinOriginal Author