Day 229

The total kill treatment was meant to kill everything that had started to grow so far. It would not necessarily keep anything else from growing. However, a few more treatments like this should exhaust whatever seed bank was in this specific area and allow us to work forma  clean slate in a few growing seasons. Knowing what was here before the treatment, we were confident we weren't killing off anything we couldn't easily replace and improve. In between treatments, we knew things would still be popping up, any of which we would not want. It was important to not let things go to seed until a second treatment would be done in fall.

So we waited and watched.

For a good chunk of the growing season, not much happened. It also happened to be an extraordinarily dry time of year so that may have been a factor. Once we got a nice deluge of rainy weather over a few days, the brown field of nothing started showing signs of something. Some stuff that was popping up was familiar. I saw common milkweed, vervain, thistles, and burdock. However, those plants were few and far between. One plant that seemed to be popping everywhere seemed unfamiliar to me but it grew very fast. The phrase “growing like a weed” was confirmed when I figured out this “new to me” plant was pigweed. Reading about the plant, it was quite aggressive with thick stems that was somewhat hard to get rid of once it became established. Luckily for us, when I pulled a few more mature plants and threw them to the chickens, the girls were happy to pick them apart. However, as hungry as our chickens were, their appetites couldn't keep up with the popping up pigweed. Not wanting these plants to go to seed and potentially intrude into other areas, I pulled out the push mower and went to town knocking down these plants. I knew this was something I would have to do as often as needed before the fall treatment. 

Seeing this area green up with unwanted plants oddly previewed what the area would look like as a prairie. 

But when would that happen?