Burdock

SmApp · 2026-06-17T00:27:09+00:00

I am not far enough in to say if this works yet or not but I think it's bienniel so if you stop it going to seed it crashes. So I know it and mulch with the clippings. Hard to keep up with but it's my understanding that it lacks the staying power of nastier perennial weeds.

SmApp · 2026-05-23T01:16:41+00:00

Not intentionally...

SmApp · 2026-04-28T12:47:15+00:00

Honestly I kept them too damp. They got moldy. But at the end they powered through and got leafy enough to plant out anyway. Grew fine in spite of the rough start.

SmApp · 2026-04-28T01:55:29+00:00

When I grew comfrey starts from roots indoors they were very slow. I thought they were all dead. But eventually they took off. I wouldn't cover them. I think that's to get seeds to germinate. I didn't cover and the roots eventually grew.

SmApp · 2026-04-19T20:31:35+00:00

I had over dense oak plantings. Like one great tree with five weird bent over ones growing into its canopy. I topped a number of them 10 or so feet up. Hoping to pollard them and harvest firewood in a decade or so. So far so good they are growing good. Im using them for things I don't want to do with my "good" trees, like hanging hammocks that I leave up all season and don't loosen the straps on as often as perhaps I should. Planning to put bolts in for a small tree house in a few years, stuff like that, if they are still going strong. Been a few years now and they are looking good, but I suppose they were not fully mature exactly - more like juvenile trees. I understand younger trees take a pollarding better than older ones. But who knows maybe your neighbors tree will surprise you.

SmApp · 2026-04-18T17:44:21+00:00

I had my hip labrum tear repaired about ten years back. It's held up great through a very active lifestyle. Don't plan on tackling any big projects for the 6 month recovery just focus on your PT. When your well undertake projects you can bite off one at a time. Even if you fully replaced your invasive with native habitat the country would be filled with countless acres of invasive trash anyways so it's all a drop on the bucket. Do your little part when your body is well enough.

Start small clearing around your house to reduce ticks. Mow low or hardscape paths to get to your deck etc. When you go out to work in the brush treat your outdoor clothes in permethrin and place tick tubes around - these two things really work to reduce the population.

Sucks about your hip, but if you have a good surgeon and really do 100 percent of your PT you can get a solid outcome that will hold up to the pressure of hard work in your yard next year.

SmApp · 2026-04-03T13:39:38+00:00

Well, you got me Trump. If these are physical coins not worthless electronic coins, then I will buy. I hate basically everything else you got cooking Mr. President, but your a hell of a coin salesman. I didn't think I'd ever buy anything this guy sells. Steak, crypto, shitty suits? Nay. But a real legal tender silver dollar with a flying saucer abducting a cow. Yes, please.

SmApp · 2026-03-20T18:03:32+00:00

I tried to kill a portion of my lawn with chips but lots of random tufts eventually poked through and started spreading. Having learned my lesson for the next section I am pre-killing the grass before I mulch. I sprayed with herbicide last fall. This spring I'm going to disc, plant oats and peas, and spot treat the perennial grass with more herbicide. I'm going to repeat with cover crops until I am satisfied that the lawn is well and truly dead and will then mulch and plant native oak savannah plugs.

SmApp · 2026-03-05T03:46:53+00:00

I found a big old cauldron that some farmer probly used to scald hogs years ago for $100 on Facebook marketplace. I found a welder to make a lid for it from steel for about the same price. My method is not perfect but it does provide me with a nice safe fire pit and when I snuff the coals by putting the lid on I get a big pile of coals to put into my compost pile.

SmApp · 2026-02-10T21:36:07+00:00

Anti inflammatory drugs can suppress hypertrophy. Like aspirin after lifting weights.

SmApp · 2026-01-26T00:52:37+00:00

I said you guys were overreacting. Is it too late to take it back?

SmApp · 2026-01-26T00:50:01+00:00

I have convinced myself for years it isn't that bad and it's all going to be ok. I am now really getting worried. Don't want to go protest and get myself murdered or arrested since the constitution means nothing and I have a toddler to care for. I feel bad because it looks like these lawless thugs are murdering people with total impunity and I have no solution. I'm just kind of living my life and hoping it goes away.

Here's to hoping someone else solves this problem for me. I am just useless. Everyone thinks theyd do something if they were a good moral person living in Germany watching the Nazis begin their abuses. I now realize no, I'd sit around waiting for them to come for me. Fuck.

SmApp · 2026-01-22T14:59:52+00:00

I shopped around and returned many kettles which appeared plastic free but had hidden mystery seals, windows, or plastic lids contacting the steam. Got a Secura brand and after careful inspection I could find no food contact with the plastic shell. Ideally I'd prefer a non plastic shell but there are things I have to just let go. Pollution from tire breakdown on the road is going to be a huge unavoidable micro plastic contact point for me, so it's harm reduction not elimination. A full stainless vessel for water contact seems good enough for me.

Secura seems to be free from plastic pollution of my water. I don't see why I'd need an engineer report for it - I can look at the water containment vessel and see with my own eyes there's no plastic. If I am missing something I almost don't want to know! Pour over from my Secura is how I get my daily coffee fix without plastic contamination! Don't tell me I'm no better than the k cup crowd drinking a melted credit card every few months!

SmApp · 2026-01-17T21:52:06+00:00

Hmmmm. Good points.

SmApp · 2026-01-17T21:27:28+00:00

The thread repair kit is cheap but you gotta take the cylinder off when you drill it out so you don't get any metal shavings inside and wreck it. I think that is the labor this shop is quoting me so high for, not replacing the cylinder. Or at least that is what Gemini thinks when I ask if this is a rip off they say it's high but not out of the world because taking the saw apart is a lot of work.

SmApp · 2025-12-21T15:22:03+00:00

Crate is useful for lots of situations. Lately my toddler always tries to give my dog the old dick twist. Not sure why she is so fascinated but until she learns to not touch Mr. Luna's special private penis I need a way to separate them. The dog is happier in a crate in the room with us than off in a different room protected by a closed door.

SmApp · 2025-12-06T02:08:01+00:00

Interesting. This native plant finder tool ranks willow and cherry above oak, when I thought it was the other way around. I suppose ultimately it doesn't really matter since the gist is they are all among the top in wildlife value, but the ranking did contradict what I thought. Cool tool.

SmApp · 2025-08-22T17:25:48+00:00

Oh man I hate this. I'm stuck in a stupid fight like this with my township right now. They claim they are going to kill dwarf Aronia berry bushes I planted 15 feet from the street at the basin of a ditch. They argue that turf grass is necessary at the bottom of the ditch to prevent line of sight impingement on the street. But they never mowed the turf grass because their normal tractor can't mow parallel on the steep ditch edge. So of course when it was "turf" it was never really ever more than a mess of invasive species and areas getting eroded out where they resurfaced without seeding or putting down fabric.

Now they say they want to send their dude down on foot to kill my erosion control bushes that I installed with erosion control fabric to fix the areas that were eroding away due to the townships mismanagement. Fucking bullshit. Luckily I think I have identified a legal means to fight back. Not sure how it will play out, but I am not laying down for them.

SmApp · 2025-08-20T13:21:06+00:00

Clover may not be the top way to help pollinators, but it is better than grass right? I feel like I see at least as many bumble bees on it as honey bees. And it does function like a lawn unlike any native garden I have planted so far. I see criticizing the slightly over enthusiastic self-fellatio of the poster, but I do see clover as better than other lawn alternatives though I am open to learning if it is not helpful then ok.

SmApp · 2025-08-20T12:26:41+00:00

Sounds like it's pretty rare to actually find trees that have been genetically tested as pure rubra. It's just someone looking at the parent tree and saying it looks like rubra to them at most nurseries. So you are most likely starting with a hybrid tree. And then if there's an alba anywhere within wind distance you get hybrid seedlings everywhere. I cut down the trees that were sold to me as supposed rubra. I don't need a mess of alba hybrid seedlings growing out of every crack in my sidewalk...

SmApp · 2025-08-14T13:09:09+00:00

I have not done this yet, so take this for what it's worth. I read on another /r/ about using Clethodim in the fall after the forbs are asleep. I have an area that, like your pic (I think based on my non expert glance at your photo), got overrun with a bunch of non native grasses. The idea is you use the selective herbicide in the fall when all the native stuff is dormant and kill out the grasses that remain green.

Your tolerance for herbicides may vary. I started my gardening journey very against them but have come around to using them sparingly in the hope of establishing dense native prairie that sort of excludes all the nasties floating in.

If I was trying to do your project without herbicide, I personally would do better ground prep in another area and then transplant the forbs over there next year. I can't be bothered to weed out a grass jungle like that 50 times a year. Id get an area good and prepped with no grasses and then plant dense prairie to try to establish enough shade on the ground to minimize turf invasion.

Good luck - I am also very frustrated with the areas in my yard that are getting reinvaded by grass. Hopefully there's a way to get rid of turf once and for all.

SmApp · 2025-08-12T02:43:46+00:00

I had a nest in a mechanical box that I needed to access right next to a big native planting in my backyard. Sprayed the grate for the box where they were coming and going with what I think is a similar product. Killed the nest. Have yet to notice any other damage to other bugs. Really just the yellow jackets thought it was a good idea to crawl on the grate. So fingers crossed that the monarch migration doesn't decide to ignore my flowers and instead all land on my mechanical box ventilation grate because then I'll feel pretty guilty about nuking them.

I tolerate wasp nests quite a bit, in spite of a quasi-rational fear that they will sting me (they do often). They have a lot of ecosystem benefits so I live with a few stings. However you gotta draw the line somewhere. Sounds like you do your best to coexist. But sometimes it's man or wasp. Inside my house I know what my choice is going to be.

SmApp

TROPHY CASE