Sorry Burdock
Alan | June 28th, 2011 | 2 Comments »It’s not always roses, winecups, sunflowers and fresh salads around here. As much as we enjoy the natural beauty that surrounds us, we are also in the habit of controlling it to a degree. We have an esthetic that nature doesn’t always agree with. Nature seems to have a preference for quack grass for example. We disagree. Nature also seems to have a soft spot for bull thistle and burdock. Again, we beg to differ. And that means there are days where measures must be taken.
Burdock is an invasive biennial. In it’s first year it produces large rhubarb-like leaves. This is the best time to spray them (if you are into chemicals and not too close to plants you want to preserve). We neglected to spray anything at the right time, so we move directly to step two: don’t let the second year plants bloom. In its second year, burdock produces an impressively large stalk with many side branches - the tips of which are packed with clusters of purple flowers. The blooms are indeed attractive, but once dry, the seed pods (burs) are annoyingly clingy – super velcro that sticks to hair, hats, gloves, pets, clothes…everything!
I spent the better part of two days engaged in battle with these giant stalks. I’ll spare you the graphic description of the carnage. Burdock is a bit of a pacifist (the tap root even has medicinal properties) and rarely put up a fight. My weapon of choice is a machete, but large loppers work nicely too. At times, I felt like Don Quixote engaged in battle with windmills – the futility of my efforts do not go unnoticed. There were many young plants that will return next year and many last-year burs I saw along the way.



