When I wrote this morning about clearing the last patch of my garden and how long and slow it would be, I neglected to mention all the California Thistle in there.
Right now, as I'm spending I don't know how long picking thistles out of the soft parts of my hands, that is feeling like quite a big omission.
On the surface, California Thistle is easy to get rid of. All its spreadability lies in the root system. What looks like hundreds and thousands of plants spread over a patch is actually only one plant. Cut off everything at ground level and it will die. Seeds are not viable, they're a distraction.
However, in a patch like this, growing in and around the flowering quince that I'm leaving to cut tomorrow, taking it out at ground level is a lot more difficult.
I've found that a gentle tug on the stem pulls out that stem plus some rootlets, so I've been doing it that way. I'm having to go into it by feel and there's a whole lot of last year's dead and dried stems lying around ready to stab unsuspecting fingers.
I would normally be wearing gloves for this, but I rather foolishly (and for the first time) left my gloves in the garden last night and it rained.
I will get there but I'm swearing a lot about it right now.
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