April 25, 2014
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Continued from previous page “Sun will heat the black plastic making soil beneath untenable for weeds,” Sadler said. “This black covering may need to remain in place all season to ensure eradication.” Lewis said that newspaper covered with mulch could be used for the same purpose as the black plastic tarp. Ticehurst, though, said usually placing tarps over a meadow is not necessary. “They’re all pretty drastic measures,” he said. “With the meadows today, most of it’s controlled by mowing. What will happen is when you see a meadow, there’s a prescribed mowing schedule that prevents any of these woody invasive plants from coming up.” Ticehurst said that chemical herbicide treatment should be reserved for large problem properties. He said professional spraying does not blanket an area, but instead targets specific weeds, meaning it is no easier than many of the more environmentally friendly weed control measures. “That’s pretty much a last resort, although in certain circumstances sometimes it is the only way to really effectively do it in big areas,” Ticehurst said. “That’s also painstaking because a lot of time it’s treating each individual plant almost with an eyedropper so you’re not getting it into the soil, but focusing right
k Garden
on the plants and that’s very labor intensive.” Sadler said organic herbicides are around 60 percent effective at killing weeds when weeds are less than two weeks old. He said when they begin to near a month in age, organic herbicides drop to an effectiveness of 40 percent, even if higher qualities are used. He said if used, overall they should be applied early and relatively heavily to have a moderate effect. Lewis said not to go overboard when eliminating weeds, as many plants that are commonly labeled as weeds are in fact native species that perform a key role in the environment. “You can replace weeds with native plants to create habitat for local birds and wildlife and that’s a good thing, but many plants that we call weeds are in fact native plants that might be where we don’t want them,” she said. “While people call dandelions weeds, dandelion is actually not a bad flower. Monarch butterflies need dandelions and clover in the spring before milkweed opens to provide nutrients. Bedford 2020 recommends leaving some clover and dandelions to support pollinators in the early spring before milkweed and butterfly weed emerge.” For more information about what native plants work in Westchester and invasive weeds to avoid planting or eliminate, visit sunywcc. edu/about/the-native-plant-center.
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