Day 223

Spraying thistles is more of a process than it might seem. To be most successful, you need an appropriate herbicide and proper safety equipment, including rubber boots, gloves, and a sprayer. Adding colorful dye to the mix helps you avoid spraying the same plants over and over. Spraying thistles, one of the most aggressive plants out there, is crucial to keeping the restoration moving forward. Finding thistles isn’t difficult at all. If you don't step on them or run up against them, you’ll see their purple seed heads and flowers if you don't get to them first. Plus if you find one, you tend to find a ton. Thistles grow in patches that can extend as far as the eye can see if you let them.

I will do everything I can to keep that from happening.

Smaller spaces can keep thistles under control with regular mowing and trimming. Open areas like ours can produce an absolutely crazy amount of thistles over a wide amount of space, so spraying is the method of choice. But spraying must be done in a timely manner. You want to have them use up a lot of energy, but you don't want them reproducing, In other words, if you can spray them when they have formed seed heads but those seed heads haven't opened up and spread their seeds, you have a great opportunity to thwart their advancement into where you want to restore the land. 

Like most of the steps in the restoration progress, timing is everything.

But even if you get the timing down, you still need to continually check and treat thistles you find. They can grow throughout the entire summer. And since their fluffy seeds can be windblown from other locations, it is an endless job. As annoying as that sounds,  it is not a job that should be skipped or skimped. 

Once you get started, it is actually kind of fun because it gives you a direct approach to helping your land and gets you closer to see the process of restoration up close and personal.

And if you look close enough, you’ll find more than you were looking for in the first place.