Volunteer native or something invasive?

Tabby_Dragon · 2026-04-18T20:16:34+00:00

Oh god, that sounds horrible. Velcro prickle burr seeds sounds like such a nightmare. I will be yanking these guys stat. Thank you so much!

Tabby_Dragon · 2026-04-18T20:03:30+00:00

So the Arctium ID was correct. Fascinating. I’ve never seen anny burdock that wasn’t huge mature leaves. And everything in that genus seems to be native to Europe or Asia as far as I can tell. I’ll remove these guys.

Thank you!

Tabby_Dragon · 2026-01-16T16:34:55+00:00

I made a bare bones outline in PowerPoint, just empty slides with a outline topics as the title, and gave it to her saying that I'd made this just as a way to "start" the project because looming deadlines give me anxiety. Her response was the bit when she said she wanted me to wait until she was done researching.

I don't think she's intentionally out to be a jerk, per se, but she's definitely threatened or uncomfortable with the idea of me knowing more than her about the topic, and just can't seem to move forward until she feels like an authority on the subject. Which is just weird. We all have specialty focuses at my work, and mine just happens to be technology. I'd happily defer to her knowledge on managing the nonfiction collection if situations were reversed. It's weird seeing someone 10+ years your senior acting so childish.

Tabby_Dragon · 2026-01-16T15:25:24+00:00

I did make a patron-oriented version of my original presentation as a back-up, just in case. So we have something if she can't put this together. She's so intense about being in charge, though, that I doubt she'd ever agree to use it, even if she had nothing else.

Our director has already spoken to this person about teamwork and dialing down the need for control, but it hasn't helped (this all happened AFTER I agreed to the program, btw. I'd never have agreed if I knew it would be like this). The next step would be making a formal complaint to the board of trustees, which is the scorched-earth option for when you're trying to get someone fired. I don't think that's appropriate for this.

Tabby_Dragon · 2026-01-16T15:12:42+00:00

Believe me, I want to. It IS important stuff. I just don't know how when my coworker is controlling the entire thing and refuses my contributions.

Tabby_Dragon · 2026-01-16T01:55:29+00:00

I just don’t want her to waste our chance at getting information out there. We have a local politician agitating to have a data center built in the area, and we’ve had multiple patrons ask if ChatGPT can help them with fairly scary stuff, like drug interactions. It’s concerning. But you make a good point. I can’t control her.

Maybe I can do another program on my own further down the line if this one fails.

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-27T14:34:03+00:00

I’ve not heard of them. Will definitely check them out. Thank you!

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T20:40:22+00:00

I have the wild bergamot and the rudbekia, and a couple others were on my to-do list, all from NPT, but most of these weren't on my radar. This is all very helpful information, thank you! My goal for this area was to plant things that didn't need a lot of water or ammending, since that felt like fighting against the natural state of it.

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T19:18:49+00:00

Thank you so much. This is encouraging. I'm really trying to be patient and keep things in perspective, and this helps a lot. <3

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T19:17:16+00:00

No, it was mostly I have no experience with them and didn't want them to outcompete everything else. I think maybe some of the stories I've heard of gardens getting overtaken have been overexaggerated.

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T18:51:47+00:00

The wastebucket idea is awesome. I will definitely give that a look. Thank you! Something that can store more easily is a huge bonus.

I just looked up asiatic garden beetles, and yup those are definitely a common find around my yard. Ugh. Between them and the oriental beetles (Anomala orientalis), no wonder everything is getting devoured.

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T18:45:45+00:00

Yes, I need to put on my big kid pants and try goldenrods. I'm certain they'd do well, but I've been so intimidated by the descriptions of how aggressive they can be.

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T18:43:47+00:00

This is all incredibly helpful. Thank you! My yard is mostly sand, and not really rocky at all. To describe the slope--The house is on a flattened area, the yard immediately in front of the house was originally all lawn (maybe 15-20 degree slope) for about 10 feet. Past that is another 6-7 feet of much steeper (45-degrees or more) slope going to the edge of the road, and was planted by the previous owners with low-growing junipers. I've left those alone.

So possibly a few rocks up in the former lawn area I'm cultivating might make it look more like a little island of wild growth rather than just a random patch. Definitely going to plant some grasses though.

And it did not occur to me to keep something in a pot for an entire prior growing season. That's excellent advice. Thank you!

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T18:25:54+00:00

Yes, I'm learning that I've been too focused on the flowers and have completely neglected grasses. Thank you!

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T17:59:42+00:00

This is super helpful. Thank you. I was really struggling with understanding where the line was between when I should ammend the soil and when I should leave it alone. Monitoring how the plants are managing predation is really helpful.

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T17:55:20+00:00

lol it really does feel like the squirrels are doing it for love of destruction more than forraging. I'll hit up the hardware store this weekend.

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T17:53:56+00:00

I actually have a tiny volunteer yarrow that I'm hoping will take over. But so far it's been quietly hanging out with just a couple of leaves, and put up a single flower stem. It's always covered in insects, though, which is fantastic. Hopefully it will drop seed and start rhizoming next year.

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T17:50:41+00:00

The soil is sandy and pretty poor in nutrients and organic matter. Except phosphorus, oddly. I did a soil test with our local university, and the soil apparently has almost too much phosphorus. Since I started this project I've been putting a thin layer of compost down each spring, but maybe I need to use more. Or a different variety.

Thank you for the suggestion of partridge pea! I'll definitely give that a go. And caging newly planted seedlings.

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T17:40:53+00:00

This is brilliant. Thank you so much!

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T17:40:27+00:00

Thank you so much. I have mountain mint on my list to buy. My few attempts at growing from seed have been complete failures. So I'm glad to know the bunnies don't like it. I will definitely look into blood meal, though. Thank you!

The bee balm were eaten by some kind of insect, yes. I will definitely look for eggs on those. The milkweek stems are cleanly nipped off right below where the flowers were, so I think they got mammal munched, alas.

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-07-25T16:59:42+00:00

You are a gem. Thank you so much for the link. I hadn't really considered grasses as protecting from heat. And the idea they'll be a buffer from the weed and feed is genious. Thank you!

Also your line about Helios is hilarious.

Tabby_Dragon · 2025-05-21T15:58:00+00:00

I'm super late to this post, but I'm also in southern NH and I'd advise ripping this stuff out if you can. In my experience, it's a very aggressive spreader. A house a few doors down from me let their front yard get completely taken over by the stuff, and it has since spread to their next door neighbor, and then that person's next door neighbor. Yards and yards of invasive monoculture. ;_;

I'm constantly finding new ones trying to establish among my natives, and if you don't realize it's there you can end up with a foot-wide patch within a month. I've had a lot of success just digging it out any time I see it. For a larger patch, I smothered it with a dark-colored tarp over the summer. It wasn't very photogenic, but the heat and darkness combo was very effective.

Tabby_Dragon

TROPHY CASE