Shoot the Wall (A.K.A. The Rant Thread)

[Van Buren Supernova]

Oh, gee, that really helps me a lot. I was hoping maybe it was a pact where you'd come over and get rid of all the chiggers for me.

One cake, one painting and two way plane ticket for every chigger. I'll sing for you too if the cake is good.

 

 

Flame weeders are reputed to work well also (especially if you're holding a grudge against the weeds). You don't have to actually burn them up (unless you get off on that), just kinda waft the flame over them long enough to wilt them.

Flame weeder! What is that like? Is it like those torch for cakes or flame thrower? :p

 

The problem of the weeds is that they grow among the plants. The only way to get rid of them without damaging the plants is to pull them with the root, and I don't have the back of eighteen years old, I haven't had the back of eighteen years old since I was sixteen.

[Pseudonym]

Yea I spend a lot of last weekend weeding and then stumbled around hunched over like Quasimodo for a few days afterwards. 

[J.P.]

VBS - rip everything out and plant the plants back.

[Pseudonym]

My desk is currently covered with little paper bags, the type you'd get danishes in from a bakery or sweets from a corner shop... but mine are filled with screws, bolts and fastenings. *single emo tear of pain*

[Pseudonym]

I don't think I really know what poison ivy is, but apparently it does this to you. :o

 

[Arcadia]

Oh, it does that and worse. Some people can really get into trouble with the stuff. But in general, it's just a very itchy rash ... which, unfortunately, is easily spread.
 

VBS - rip everything out and plant the plants back.
[/size]

Ha ha ha, you've obviously never encountered Virginia red clay, JP! A better name for it would be red concrete. Doesn't matter how much mulch and topsoil you add to it, the clay eats everything and converts it into more clay. Once plants are established, they're locked into place.

 

We hired a guy to dig up some flowers beds in our back yard a few years ago; he broke his first shovel, got the job about 1/3 done, and quit. I could empathize, except he took our money with him.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Sounds a lot like California adobe clay! I only ever got one thing planted in our yard out there, despite my naive attempts to improve the soil. I suspect my best bet would've been to dig a big hole and fill it with real dirt -- assuming such is even available out there.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

My grandmother was severely allergic to poison ivy. She ended up bedridden once and if I remember correctly my youngest aunt and uncle joined her in bed because they wanted to not even caring about the risk.

[Van Buren Supernova]

VBS - rip everything out and plant the plants back.

[/size]

But I don't think it would lighten the work loads, and those thing take so long to grow.

I think from the time I plant them to the time the look like garden is about 83.25 years, and they look nice for about a week, then the abandoned haunted house phase begins.

 

My grandmother was severely allergic to poison ivy. She ended up bedridden once and if I remember correctly my youngest aunt and uncle joined her in bed because they wanted to not even caring about the risk.

What is the risk?

I don't imagine it's contagious or does it have contagious side effects?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Some people say it's contagious, that you can catch it from the liquid that oozes out of the little blisters, but as far as I know, it would only be "contagious" if they still had the poison-ivy oil on their skin, and that washes off pretty easily.

[Pseudonym]

The... liquid... that... oozes... out... of... the... blisters...     

[J.P.]

I also have clay-to-concrete soil. But adding compost and manure (bought as dry pellets) successfully changed it into something that you cannot form into figurines anymore. :D Took 10+ years though.

[T.o.b.y]

:-D I remember every year when we visited my grandparents, my grandfather would very solemnly walk me around the yard and make me point out all the poison ivy. Only after he was sure that I knew what to avoid would he let me play outside by myself. It was his way of showing he cared about me... :-P

[Fantasy Lover]

I don't think I really know what poison ivy is, but apparently it does this to you. :o

 

This is poison ivy, in case you were wondering

[Pseudonym]

Ha  XD

 

Maybe it's worth it then? Would certainly liven up a dull day. 

[Arcadia]

She may be Poison Ivy, but none of the plants in that picture are. The good thing about poison ivy is that it's fairly easy to recognize: 

Although there's variations. Just avoid any vine that grows in clusters of three, and you're good.

The danger from poison ivy is mostly to people who are seriously allergic to it; they can get pretty ill. Also if you burn it and breathe the smoke it can damage your lungs. Getting it in your eyes also not so hot. Stuff like that.

[Artemis]

"Leaves of three, let it be." Anyone else learn that in school?

[Arcadia]

No, actually, but I have heard it since then.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Learned that in Girl Scouts, I think.

[Artemis]

What about "Red on black, venom lack; red on yellow, kill a fellow,"? Alternatively I've heard "Red on black, friend of Jack,". I've never actually seen one of those coral snakes around though.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Never heard either of those. Of course we don't have coral snakes. Around here we have cottonmouth and timber rattler, but I don't know any poems for them. It's mostly a matter of being cautious in certain habitats.

 

There's more to the poison ivy/oak/sumac rhyme, though: Berries red, have no dread; berries white, take flight.

[Artemis]

Oh that's right, I forgot about that part.

 

 

[Pseudonym]

Don't think we had any of those rhymes here.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Good thing you don't have poison ivy, then! :D Or coral snakes.

[Van Buren Supernova]

I was in girl scout and they didn't teach us those or anything related to dangerous animals and plants (and yes we have those!), didn't learn it from school as well.

 

Maybe they took the survival lesson really seriously. Whoever comes out alive...