Reading 'bout buckthorn, feelin' forlorn

So it’s Sunday and Riverview is closed. And lacking the social life to keep me occupied, I began browsing the internet to try to learn more about Buckthorn, specifically, how to get rid of it. And I must say I’m pretty impressed with how successful Buckthorn is about messing up people’s plans to kill it.

Buckthorn isn’t native to the Americas, it came from somewhere in Europe/Asia. We moved it over in the 1800's although it didn't become common until the 1900's. For quite a while it was sold as an ornamental and useful plant because it grew quickly and acted as a windblock. Farmers would buy it and plant it around their fields because the thick foliage blocked wind very effectively. Well, it certainly fulfills that. In Minnesota, it’s considered a ‘noxious plant’ and can’t be sold or transported. It’s so invasive and damaging to wildlife that it’s illegal.

Buckthorn seeds are really pretty sneaky. If you’re a bird, you might try to eat their berries. You will regret it. They have a pretty severe laxative effect and after consumption birds will quickly get rid of them and often become weak and dehydrated as a result. Disgusting thought it may be, diarrhea is a good environment for these seeds to grow, but it’s worth mentioning they can stay dormant in the soil for six years without dying. And they can float in water for up to a week while remaining viable.

Because they’re not from around here, they have no natural predators which also means they do nothing to feed or help the local wildlife. But they excrete chemicals that can actually inhibit growth of  nearby vegetation. They’re also really annoying in that they have thorns which are painful to walk through. I know this from personal experience. And their wood is completely useless and can’t even be used to burn or build. Burning the wood is impossible because of the sap in it and building with it is impossible becomes it cracks and snaps too much to be safe or reliable.

It’s also a host to things like aphids and some harmful fungi that kill trees and other native wildlife.

How to get rid of it:

Small shrubs can be pulled up, but if any of the root remains, it might regrow according to some. An outline from the biology department of the University of Minnesota assured me that it resprouts only from the stump, and not from the roots. They seem pretty legitimate but I would say that if you can get rid of the roots, you might as well.

Unfortunately, most of the buckthorn at Riverview is far too big to be pulled. The other option is to get a saw and cut it off at the base as close as possible to the ground. We have to be careful about this because if we let the branches fall, they’ll simply root in and start multiplying, so we have to bring them somewhere else. Because their seeds are so hardy, they’re not good for composting. And if we transport fallen branches anywhere we have to be careful to not spread around the berries and seeds. The seeds can be destroyed through burning, although I’m sure there’s other ways, that seems to be the most widely recommended. But even after we get the branches are berries away, eliminate them, and are left with just a stump, we’re not done.

Most sites on the internet recommend getting industrial-grade herbicide (triclopyr) and applying as much as three times to kill the buckthorn which is incredibly hardy. Some even recommend taking cans of it and soaking the stumps in it. I don’t believe that Riverview will do that because we avoid chemicals of death whenever we can.

 Another approach I read about was the tie garbage bags of sacks or something to block sunlight from the stumps. It’ll slow the growth, and as new buds try to come out, they can be clipped back until it finally runs out of steam. It’ll probably take a long time, probably many months per plant.

And the final step is of course to replant other hardy, native, and less aggressive plants in their place, like conifers and dogwood and eventually smaller vegetation too. Smaller plants can’t really flourish with buckthorn releasing chemicals that inhibit growth, sucking out the nutrients from the soil, and outcompeting them for the sun. But when the buckthorn leaves, there’ll be room for them. 

Friday and Saturday

Friday started with a festive seed-planting party in the greenhouse. Sarah, naturally, was geeking out over everything that was starting to germinate. Mizuno, yet more spinach, peas, carrots, cilantro, tomatoes, and possible a few more things that I'm forgetting were planted. We should hopefully see them sprouting up in about a week.

Since I generally have to go to school once in a while (by which I mean five days a week) I generally miss out on eating lunch at Riverview. Owing to a much-deserved spring break starting though, I was able to stay much later than normal. Thus I feel obliged to mention the delicious lunch thing I received. Green stuff, lentils and rice, and eggplant soup! Okay, that description was lacking and vague and possible not very flattering, I'll admit. But it was really good.

Next we wandered down to the ravine and trekked through the stream to where it empties out into the fox river picking up trash. A group of kids from Lawrence, including Nate the future farmer are hoping to turn it into a project, cleaning it, planting a diverse array of vegetation around it, and adding in fish as well. The stream is fed by run-off from all the surrounding streets which helps explain the incredible amount of plastic bags, cigarettes, lighters, cans, etc we found in it.

Also, a lot of the land around the ravine is woodsy and festered with buckthorn. Buckthorn is an invasive and aggressive plant that's woody and, as implied, thorny. Maybe someday a crew will go out and work on cutting it back and replanting with cuttings of dogwood, which is native, beautiful, not prickly, and nowhere near as aggressive. In that entire area, we'll need to plant conifers which can hold their own against the overwhelming brambles of the buckthorn.

On Saturday we started out with six and ended with two. I shouldn't play the sexist card but I'm totally going too. All the men ditched and by the end it was just Rachel and I scooping up mulch and and wheelbarrowing it to where it was needed--a four foot path along the muddy exterior of the hoop houses and then soaking up water in hoop house #4 in the furrows between the beds which had about six inches of standing water in them.

To be fair to those who left early though, sickness is aground in the Appleton area and the coldness isn't making it much easier. Plus; they got lots of work done before they had to leave which is always appreciated, and it's quite possible that they have lives and commitments and obligations outside playing in mud and other such activities at Riverview for hooligans. Luckily, I am not so burdened and can live life as a full-time hooligan.

What even is chickweed?

What the heck is chickweed?

Yup that’s admittedly the first thing that popped into my head when I first heard of it about eight months ago.

The next thing I learned was that it was a sensitive issue around Riverview. Some members being righteous supporters of the chickweeds right to live and provide nourishment, others critiquing the unwillingness of the general population to receive nourishment it that particular form. I think some type of compromise was eventually reached.

But I decided I should better educate myself on the issue.

Chickweed is a widespread, hardy annual plant that thrives in cold climates. Numerous sources agree that it is edible, but most add that it is “not very tasty.” (Sorry Sarah, I know you’re on their side.) It looks like this.

Kind of pretty. I’m afraid to say most articles then go on to explain the best ways of eradicating it. But you know if you dig around you can find some people posting ‘chickweed pesto’ recipes among other things, and apparently it can be used on cuts and other wounds to reduce pain and promote healing.

Other interesting things about chickweed. It’s actually classified as an herb, not a weed. It’s called chickweed because chickens really like to eat it. Please feel free to start a raging debate below in the comment section about whether it should be lovingly grown or heartlessly pulled.

Monday, March 25

Currently in Greenhouse 1 there are lots of spinach plants, some kale, plenty of rosemary a few happy spots of chickweed, and garlic all sprouting up on the four beds that extend for about thirty feet under the warm, heat-trapping plastic. In other words, there’s plenty of room for more. At least that was the rationale behind this morning’s delightful seed-planting session.

I planted four rows of spinach on one side of the upside-down “V” shaped bed, fellow volunteer Andy planted some ‘atomic red’ carrots, Carly planted the normal, orange carrots, and Nate the future farmer (not to be confused with friendly Nate of the orange hat who’s planning on running a triathlon because he’s cool) planted snow peas. Liam (the guy who should be in a ukulele commercial) offered free advice and sprinkled plants with water.

What an excellent day to plant! And I mean that in a scientific way of course. Because today is one of those days with a funny thing happening in the lunar cycle. Some people might think trying to maximize germination by planting when the moon is in certain positions is lunacy (ha ha ha!) but at Riverview we’re giving it a serious shot.

Some of the earliest studies took place in the 1950s by Mary Thun in Germany. She experimented using potatoes and found potatoes were more successful (grew better) when the moon was, from our perspective, positioned between the constellations of Taurus, Capricorn or Virgo. Also know as a "root day.”

Further observations and experimentation resulted in a type of agricultural practice under the larger field of biodynamics that contends that certain types of plants do better when planted underneath certain zodiac signs. I think I should throw in here that some people and websites consider biodynamics and a lot of the practices a form of pseudoscience.

But, as a counterpoint, it’s an observable fact that the moisture content of the soil is highest during the full and new moons when they exert a strong pull on the water in the earth. Professor Frank Brown from Northwestern University for instance, conducted a 10-year and found that plants absorb more water during the full moon.

Another interesting thing I came across is the practice of planting according to the zodiac signs, and their corresponding elements. Neither the 'fire' element nor the 'air' element are supposedly good for planting, but the 'earth' and especially the 'water' element supposedly are. From March 21 to April 20th is Aries. We're planting under the fire sign. Oops. Either I've grossly misunderstood the whole planting according to the element thing or no one is actually following this. Whatever! It's interesting.

Fire - Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
Air - Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
Water - Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Earth - Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn

Today is March 25^th, the full moon is on the 27^th. That means that in the upcoming days the moisture content in the soil should peak, hopefully providing a bit of extra momentum to our seeds thinking about germinating.

I felt like I should include a reference even though probably no one reading this cares.

E. A. Crawford, The Lunar Garden: Planting by the Moon Phases(NY, NY: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1989), pp. 9-26 & 47-50.

The last few days have been a comedy of errors in terms of making mobo-greenhouse number two. First, I take full responsibility for not cutting the two long sides very well. I take only partial credit for the fact that one of those boards was warped. I take some credit, and give some to our good hooligan friend Emma for our tendency to split the wood we were trying to predrill. And I thank chemists over the world for developing epoxy.

Epoxy is pretty cool. It's also a thermosetting epoxide polymer. What does that mean? A 'thermosetting' anything is something that irreversible cures. In this context 'cures' means sets or hardens, like glue. The 'thermos' part is because often the curing process involves heat, or happens faster with heat. Epoxy is no exception to that.

'Epoxide' refers to the types of atoms and the patterns those atoms are arranged in The most basic form is an oxygen atom attached to two carbon atoms of a hydrocarbon like so....
                                                       

• And a polymer is a chain of monomers. And a monomer is just a molecule. And a molecule is just a bunch of atoms. And atoms are just a bunch of quarks and gluons and who I am I kidding no one really knows what exactly they are. 

  Alright. So epoxy is basically a type of glue that dries in a very strong bond. Except to keep it from curing too early, its two components, the polyepoxide and the hardening agent, are separated. I believe the polyepoxide remains basically the same, and the hardening agent can be tweaked to make the reaction and curing process slower or faster.

  So once you have all the epoxy goop on the things you want to stick together, you let them cure. And once they're cured, there's strong, 3d bonds, connecting everything together. It works on metal, wood, paper, even human skin (hence you wear gloves when handling.) 

  If you're an Appleton East student, Mrs. Pezzi would be a great person to ask on why these particular bonds are so strong and form with so many different materials. 

  Also, if you heard gleeful whooping bordering on hysterical joy--it was probably Sarah looking at the germinating seeds. Don't worry, I think this is standard Sarah behavior. 

Dear readers whose existence is dubious, I am happy to say that there are now four hoop houses with plastic on them. To be honest though, the fourth one is still in progress. That's what we helped with this morning. My primary job was drilling these little self-tapping screws as close to the bottom of the hoops as I could get so that we could wind twine around them. It also was to help relieve the pressure of the poles.

I found this fascinating. The hoops are hollow metal, and they go pretty deep into the ground (an incredible amount of man hours went into pounding them into the ground.) And there's water in the ground that starts to rise up into the pipes. When it freezes, the water wants to expand, and the pressure gets more intense (also I think the metal constricts a little bit.) So as soon as I make a hole, a stream of water bursts out and I have to wait for it to stop before screwing it in all the way.

Earlier this year, some of the metal got warped and we think it was because the frozen water expanding pushed the pipes partially up out of the ground, which bent the wiggle wire that was connecting them. Moral of the story: if you're sticking a hollow metal pipe deep into the ground and you want it to stay uniform in height relative to another metal pole, drill holes into it to help release any water pressure that might build up inside it.

Economics and a bench

So today I dared to venture another question about economics. I'm taking my first semester of Econ at East and it's an interesting class because there's a definite science behind how one decision can affect an entire market yet no definite answer exists to fixing problems. It's like a battle of logic and, for me, it's difficult to distinguish flaws in differing economic opinions.

So I ask Oren. Out of all the inquiries Mira and I have thrown at him, he always seems to articulate a pretty good answer. Plus he gets kind of excited and worked up about the topic of economics and that's amusing within itself so...

Question: "What do you think about raising minimum wage?"

Oren thinks that by giving minimum wage earners more money, money will be more likely to circulate through the system because people of lower income are more likely to spend the money they earn. I read an article about this opinion so it was cool to understand that reasoning. Then Oren went into trickle-down vs trickle-up economics. Pretty interesting stuff right there.

Oh and while our heads were being saturated with economic theory, Mira and I helped Oren unscrew and move a bench from the Community Center to the garage. Then we shoveled out one of the hoop houses with Liam in preparation for covering it with plastic.

This delightful Wednesday morning was spent in hoop house number three. Three beds are complete, and hopefully this week we'll finish up the final one on the north side. That bed is slightly different, there's a bigger path between that bed and the adjacent one and it's not dug, its instead built extra high. I'm not entirely sure if there's reasons other than maximizing the amount of sunlight it gets. I'll try to remember to ask someone.

Sink Installation is still underway.

It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, and they might try to get the plastic up on one of the uncompleted greenhouses. I'll explain this a bit more; Riverview set a goal to build ten hoop houses a year for at least three years. so far this year we have the metal frames and hoops of ten set up, but only three of them have plastic over them and are warm enough for stuff to be grown in them. And of those three, only two of them are actually planted. It's kind of an experimental year. We're figuring out what grows what doesn't, even though the idea is that hoop houses keep everything warm, some nights it still sinks lower than we'd like in temperature. So we need pretty hardy plants. The most resilient plants so far are spinach and rosemary. interestingly enough. Next year, stuff will actually be grown, harvested, and sold. Theoretically.

We had another high school volunteer today, by the name of Emma! How excellent! Nate (the friendly guy in the neon orange hat) and Liam (ukelele commercial guy) were also here.

Tuesday

Random interesting discussion we had this morning: Chain Corporations; good or bad for the economy?

According to Oren (that hippie farmer always wearing a baseball hat)—they’re bad. Sure, they provide jobs. For every dollar you spend at Walmart, a portion of it will indeed go into the wages of a local employee, who will then spend a portion of that dollar back into the local economy. So that's good. And, like with most companies, a portion of that dollar you spent will go to the cost of the stock that Walmart purchases (from some supplier somewhere). That's not necessarily helping the local economy, but it's inevitable for some products. But a lot of that dollar, goes up the food chain of Walmart employees and ends up in the hands of a small group of people, like a CEO and top executives, not living in Appleton, or Wisconsin, or anywhere around here. And that part of your dollar just got sucked out of your local economy.

 

Whereas for a small company, centered in the Fox Cities, (I shall call it Malwart) all of the dollar you spend (minus whatever you pay your suppliers) goes back into your local economy. After all, all the managers, the executives, if there are that many of them, live close by and will spend that money on local goods. So a dollar spent at Walmart does less to improve the economy than a dollar spent at Malwart. So heed my cry local Wisconsinites! Create new businesses with funny names and we can spend our way back to a happier economy! Maybe.

I feel conflicted for bashing Walmart for a couple reasons. The first of which being that Walmart is not the only huge international corporation picking profit from various small cities around the world and depositing them all in the hands of just a few individuals. The way our economy seems to work is that large-scale corporations allow increased efficiency that tends to allow them to be more competitive, have lower costs, be more successful, and expand. Many large corporations, like Walmart, McDonalds, etc. manage to keep prices lower than local competitors and thus people buy from them instead. Is it fair to blame them for being competitive when it's our choice as the consumer to buy there?

Plus, if Appleton had a very successful start-up business that became national, and Appleton remained the headquarters, and the owner used the profits he/she received here in the Fox Cities, we probably wouldn’t be bashing them. So even though some of the dollar we spent at Walmart left our economy, it's still going out there goes to help some economy somewhere (Walmart's Headquarters are in Arkansas.)

So what’s the answer? I don’t know. But I thought I’d assemble a list of stores around the Fox Cities that are locally based, state-based, nationally-based, or internationally-based. Even if it doesn’t affect my behavior as a consumer, it’ll still be interesting. And if it's not, well, hey--no one's forcing you to read it.

Hey hey! So it's Monday and you'd think that I'd be feeling like a slug stuck in the mud... but I'm as excited as a june bug caught in a coffee mug because Sarah was at Riverview today! She's been gone for quite a few weeks in the warm Florida climate and just returned with a new haircut and old smile on her face. I like Sarah because she's really spunky and outgoing and always stirs up energy when I work with her. She'll teach you to enjoy whatever task you have to do.  She knows a ton about plants and plant diseases (and used to do gymnastics). She also is the most positively receptive to the pranks Mira and I pull- she always seems the most amused.

I guess I should also introduce Rachel as well. She was at Riverview this Saturday and accompanied all the youth corps students throughout the summer. In school, we're always taught to accept everyone and treat everyone equally- it's been drilled into us for twelve or so years. I think spending one day with Rachel could prove that same lesson. Like Sarah, she walks through life with this contagious air of positivity and spunk. She has an amazing voice that sings Disney songs and wears red boots and is a dedicated practitioner of the art of yoga. After spending time with her I want to hold doors open for strangers or help old ladies cross the street.

So anyway, Mira and I continued working on the garden beds in the hoop house. We filled the dug out trenches with wood and covered a section with sod, grass-side down. I think the reasoning behind this method is that the grass decomposes quickly, providing quick nutrients for any plants whereas the wood decomposes more slow and steadily, with constant nourishment over an elongated period of time. Mira and I were left alone in the hoop house for most of the time so we just conversed with each other. Honestly I'm impressed that we didn't cause any mischief whatsoever.

What a happy Monday it was   

Saturday March 2

Lots of people at Riverview today! Around 50 or so total volunteers from various Lawrence fraternities and sororities showed up. Jaffna, Kate, and crew worked on organizing and cleaning and redesigning and installing sinks! Theoretically, a lot was accomplished.

'My' crew and I sloshed out to the greenhouses and worked on constructing beds. I've decided that bed construction should be given stages.

Stage 1: Sod removal- (sod cutters and flat-tip shovels are used to remove rectangular chunks of sod from ground. sod is rolled up or thrown carefully elsewhere for later use)

Stage 2: Excavation-dirt is shoveled from the trench to an adjacent spot, preferable onto an adjacent tarp. Finished trench should be bowl shaped with sloped sides and about one shovel head deep.

Stage 3: Refilling-Logs, branches, and wood in various stages of decay is packed into the trenches until they are about flush with the ground. Why? Good question! There's three main reasons. First, the wood, like most types of organic matter, holds in moisture.  Second, the air pockets between the branches provide aeration. Third, the wood becomes the habitat for fungi, bacteria, microbes, and many other living organisms that are decomposing the organic matter of the wood and returning lots of valuable nutrients to the soil.

Wood chips, hay, leaves, or other mulch components are then spread over the sticks and branches to make it smoother and more solid.

Stage 4: Unrolling the Sod-The sod, which is in rolls or draped on the ground somewhere, is now laid, grassy side down, over the wood chips.

Stage 5: Mounding the dirt-The dirt which is lying neatly on a tarp somewhere nearby is now heaped back onto the bed in a upside-down 'v' shape. Large clumps can be broken up by hand (called 'shaping' the bed.) the tarps and be upturned and shaken to get the last bits of dirt off.

Optional Stage 6: Worm castings-Especially for tiny plants, or perhaps seeds, worm castings are enormously beneficial. And they also look like coffee grounds, which is irrelevant.

So that's what was on for today! I'm looking forward to Monday when we can continue!

Sorry about the terrible quality of these pictures. The type of camera I have has a serious problem with light. But hopefully you can make out the five trays of onions that we planted, and the inside of the hoop house below! That's primarily where we've been the past three or so days. They've actually flooded in some spots. The trenches we did for the beds just fill up with water.

We fill them in with wood chips which help absorb moisture as well as provide a nourishing and airy soil for the plants to grow in. So far, planted in the hoop houses are garlic, spinach, kale, lettuce, and rosemary. Some plants are tolerating the cold better than others.

I will try to get my camera fixed somehow, and then post some better pictures.