Turf War

The yard, it is out of control. Have I mentioned that? Everyday, I pick an area and cleaning it up. The side yard was yesterday. There are three antique rose bushes, Sweet Autumn clematis and artemisia along the fence next to our town's lovely ditches.

One of the rose bushes is Dr. Van Fleet, a grandparent of New Dawn. This plant is a killer. It puts out eight foot long canes and roots wherever it touches soil. It has thorns as big as thumb tacks - Not just the poky part of the thumbtack, the whole thumbtack. The artemisia was given to me as Sweet Annie artemisia, WRONG. It is the invasive Artemisia vulgaris now taking over growing in my yard. So I have two killer plants growing right next to each other.

Here is the problem, the Dr. Van Fleet rose bush and the artemisia decided to have a turf war. Literally a turf war, they grew out into the tiny little bit of grass that is left on that side of the house. The rose attacked with its fierce thorns and the artemisia used a smothering tactic. What a mess. Something had to be done to break up this fight.

I waded into the fray and started cleaning up the neglected, shameful mess. The artemisia pulls up very easily and it smells good. The problem is it was covering up the very thorny rose canes. I am wounded, but they are only flesh wounds and the side yard is actually a yard again. The artemisia smells good and will make lovely fall wreathes.

Hopefully, the rest of the clean up will be less dangerous.