Day 66 - Thistles

Chemicals were not what I had hoped to use in our restoration project. However, I am not opposed to their applications if done effectively and intelligently. I put lots of trust in our restoration partner, so I was willing to follow his advice. To battle and pinpoint the plethora of thistles popping up, he offered a concoction of a few different herbicides and a lovely blue dye so we knew what was sprayed. As I geared up, mixed the liquids together like a mad scientist, and put on my brand spanking new backpack sprayer, I felt like a Ghostbuster with a proton pack. Although I wasn’t battling any paranormal enemy, our farm was under attack by something that looked out of this world: the annoying and skin-piercing thistle plant. 

Luckily for me, the majority of the plants in question hadn’t reached skin-piercing level based on where we were in the growing season, However, they did have formed seed heads. This was where I was targeting my spraying. If I can kill off the seeds before they are dispersed, the plant would not be able to spread as easily. 

As I walked out to the land, I knew of a few locations where the patches of thistle were most prominent. To get the most bang for my buck, this is where I attacked first. I quickly learned that once you see one thistle plant, you see a million. 

I walked the perimeter of the land and sprayed as many seed heads as possible. There was an odd feeling of satisfaction every time I pulled my trigger to see blue spray burst from the nozzle and find its way to the plant. It sort of felt like a video game where I accumulated points for every plant I found and sprayed. But the real winner was our land. Our land would look less like a thistle farm and more like the diverse wetland and prairie habitats we were dreaming of.

Within hours, the results were in and they were positive. The tall, green thistle plants were brown and wilted. 

Something else caught my eye. Something that potentially be much worse than an entire field of skin-piercing thistles.