Although a little sore from yesterday's raking, I spent most of the afternoon in our neighbor's yard ripping out what I'm pretty sure is porcelainberry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (Maxim.) Trautv.). Even if my identification of the species is wrong, it's still an evil, invasive that was doing more damage than I realized.
A while ago, I noticed some vines coming from our neighbor's yard over the fence and into our dogwood. I kept meaning to get permission to go rip it out (they're getting on in years and are letting some of their yardwork slip, particularly in what's a fairly wild back corner of their yard where it abuts ours), but just didn't see them out or it would slip my mind. J--- was out raking this morning when I got home from the farmer's market, so I asked and she readily agreed.
Flash forward to the end of the day ... 10 bags of vine and other detritus and I know I didn't get it all. I did find the grandfather root and cut it off at the ground, so hopefully anything that is still in the trees/bushes will die back (especially those that are up in another neighbor's trees) and at least not spread any further, but there seem to be a lot of little roots that I'm sure are still in the ground waiting to spring up in a few months. I guess I'll need to check things a couple of times over the summer to see what can be done to keep it from coming back.
There were some comic moments. I practically had to play Tarzan to get some vines out of the trees and, of course, at least one of those broke in mid-swing sending me sprawling. Okay, maybe that happened three or four times.
Oh, and I'm sure I saw some poison ivy out there too, so hopefully the showering with anti-ivy soap helped ... I don't want to end up like last time.
In other stuff for the day, Evelin, Celeste, and I were invited to a neighbor's for brunch. Evelin made a very tasty cinnamon roll ring and Celeste went down for a nap about a half-hour before we were due at M---, J---, and T---'s house. Evelin went ahead with the food and I waited for Celeste to wake, figuring it wouldn't be more than 20 minutes or so ... and I waited ... and I waited ... and I read the paper (and waited) ... and folded some laundry ... and waited ... and about an hour-and-a-half passed before Evelin called to see if we were on our way ... and Celeste was still asleep.
Finally, she woke after a well-over-two-hour nap (not that I'm complaining), so Celeste and I headed up the street just in time to see some of the other guests leaving. We ended up spending about 20 minutes or so hanging out (and Celeste stuffed herself with strawberries) before heading back home ...
Technoarti tags: landscaping yardwork invasive plant brunch
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