By: Amy Luxenburger MHC Garden Intern
I have this feeling that each year the gardening season has its own particular starring nemesis. The first year I interned on a farm, the season had been beaten down with rain. The northern boarder of Illinois had experienced one of the rainiest springs and falls in 50 years. Fields were flooded, potatoes rotted in the ground, and there were few opportunities to get the tractors out working in the fields. We were not alone in this struggle. A fellow Biodynamic farmer in New York State had gotten so much rain he was forced to bring hay to his cows on a motor-boat. During one particularly intense flash flood, the cows had broken down a fence and taken refuge on a hilltop. The following day the farmer realized that a moat had formed around the cows and they were marooned on their personal island.
The following season we battled exploding populations of Japanese Beetles. I remember swatting the bumbling insects off of basil plants to harvest what leaves had not been destroyed. I could hear them gently munching on the apple tree outside of my window during the day. And I night I heard them falling completely gorged onto the roof of my trailer, sounding thick and heavy like sod pellets.
This season, it seems Bindweed has slithered its way to the top of my list for the garden’s most rampant (and patience-trying) pest. Bindweed is in the morning glory family, and like its cousin, has the ability to spread rapidly through vine growth and propagate heavily through an extensive underground rhizomes system. At the Crestmont garden especially we have been seeing a lot of Bindweed. Not only is the plant a pain in the neck to weed out of the garden beds, its ability to specifically attack the crops we planted is rather impressive. Bindweed will literally choke a plant to death—not a happy fate for any tomato or sunflower. While gazing over a pumpkin patch nearly taken over by the stuff—I imagine a time-lapse movie showing a deliberate and orchestrated attack. Maybe I am just being a little paranoid. Regardless, I get the feeling like Bindweed and I are going to get to see a lot of each other this year.
I guess the real trick with any garden pest is to roll with the punches, see what you can learn for the situation, and to keep plodding away. Did I mention that Crestmont has garden hours from 5-7 on Tuesday evenings and again on Friday mornings? It is always more fun to plod away with good company.
