Bordered by an irrigation canal on one side and a creek on the other, this piece of our land is my new mission. Not only to open it up so that a person can walk through it, but to uncover the natural beauty that resides there. As a native plant gardener, I love to identify what actually should be growing there (Mock orange, red-twig dogwood, willows, cottonwoods, pine, and alder) with what shouldn't be - non-native, invasive Himalayan Blackberries, with sharp canes almost an inch thick. Many large trees on this piece of land are almost completely obscured by blackberries, like this small grove of lovely native alders.
But see what a little hard work and sweat can uncover?
And as I discover (and uncover) this land, I am casting seeds collected from wild blue Camas Lilies that grow on the upper part of our property. I feel like a regular Johnny Appleseed, but when they all bloom someday in the future, I hope they will look like our upper meadow:
Some people think I am crazy to attempt this all by myself, but actually, I am only a determined woman.
Words to the wise - Never get in the way of a woman on a mission!
2 comments:
To have so much land is just enviable! Granted, it's a lot of work, as you've shown; but I bet you hear birds and the quiet a lot more than we do here in the Bay Area.
It is work, Patty, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We go to sleep to a chorus of frogs, and wake to birdsong each morning. Chopping through the blackberries this morning, I discovered a low depression I didn't know was there, and my mind is now imagining a small pond. Hmm.
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