A plant I can easily identify

I found a most unwelcome visitor in our yard this weekend:

(in focus behind the other plant)

Poison Ivy. Nasty stuff for those who are allergic, like me.

I have found poison ivy in and near our property before, but not very often (only 4-5 times in the several years since we moved in), so I don't frequently look out for it specifically.

This past week I got an itchy rash on my arm, feet, and leg - just small areas, nothing serious. I had no idea what caused it at the time, but it looked very similar to poison ivy rash that I'm all too familiar with from past encounters. Still it didn't make sense since I hadn't been out in the yard other than mowing.

But this morning I noticed the rather large poison ivy plant in the first photo above and that confirmed it for me. I went on the hunt for more and found several others throughout the yard. In our backyard, most of the yard is very shaded and instead of mulching we just leave the leaves that fall during the fall and more or less leave it as is. Throughout the year various weeds and plants inevitably grow here. I occasionally will spray them with Round Up when they get out of control, but I don't go crazy over it as it takes quite a bit of time and herbicide to spray them all. I'm not out in that part of the yard very often, but our dog is, and I presume that is how I was somehow exposed to it.

Years ago I got a pretty bad rash in places all over my body. I unknowingly got into some and likely got it on my shoes, then my hands and/or under my fingernails, and proceeded to spread it everywhere I touched. Needless to say it wasn't fun and wasn't something that I wanted to go through again, so I proceeded to spend many hours researching it on the Internet to learn not only how to treat it, but also identify it. I forget what I ended up using to treat it (I don't remember it working particularly well), but I do remember very well how to ID it. These days it sticks out to me like a sore thumb and I can spot it very easily. I feel like this post wouldn't be complete if I didn't provide some of my tips, so here are my general identification guidelines (nothing scientific here):

1. Location. Look for it at edges of grass fields, or just into a shady area/forest, under and growing up trees that are in the open or receive some sunlight. I've also seen patches growing in unmowed overgrown areas in the middle of fields. They generally seem need some light, but not necessarily full sun (they seem to like a bit of shading). They certainly don't get anywhere near full sun where they are in our yard.
2. Leaves. Look for three leaves to a stem (generally). The leaves can be very large or small (I generally see the large leaves most frequently on vines). The leaves sometimes don't look very symmetrical and can take on various irregular shapes. The leaves are very brittle, so in a more  trafficked place look for damaged leaves.
3. When in vine form, look for external roots on the vine (looks "hairy").

That's about all I've got, I think. Some other factoids:

1. Dogs aren't allergic to it. Not all humans are allergic to it either.
2. Once a rash has broken out on the skin it has been absorbed by the body and can no longer be spread. But it can spread if it's under your fingernail, on your shoe, etc.
3. The plant has to be broken in order to be exposed to it, but as mentioned the plant is extremely brittle. I've never tested to confirm this.

Source: internet research from years ago and my own observations over the years since then.

Anyway, I sprayed all the poison ivy I found in our backyard with Round Up Poison Ivy - just regular Round Up is not enough to kill it (I tried when I first found some in our yard and it came right back). Perhaps this is more indication that there is enough light to grow supina bluegrass back there!

Just how shade tolerant is supina bluegrass? A pondering of an experiment

So I think I've seen that supina bluegrass is quite shade tolerant, but I was doing some wondering today as I watched our irrigation system water the weeds out under the trees (perhaps years ago there used to be grass out there when the trees were smaller?): just how much shade can supina tolerate? Our backyard has numerous mature trees, and thus lots of shade. The lawn we do have back there gets some mid-day sun due to some clearing provided by our deck and the trees being further from our house.

Left side

Center

Right side

I am quite certain that we could extend our lawn further under the tree canopy. In the morning as the sun comes up over our house the light shines back under the trees since the lower limbs have been removed up to probably 15-20 feet. The question is just how far into the shade zone can the supina bluegrass tolerate?

There would be some benefits if it could grow there:

1. Obviously more awesome grass to look at, walk, run, and sleep on (duh)
2. Potentially better protection from erosion during heavy rains
3. It would help keep weeds from growing there which I continually have to fight
4. The irrigation system already reaches out there, so no adjustments would need to made

Hmmmmmmm...

Aphids attack rose buds

So far this year, I see no sign of black spot disease or bristly rose slugs (so far...), instead I've found an intruder that I've not seen on the rose bushes before: aphids (as usual, qualify that with a "what I believe to be...").

Aphids on a hybrid tea rose bud (grrr!)

Aphids on a knockout rose bud.

Aphid up close.

I've found them on both rose bushes (hybrid tea and knockout), and they seemed to favor the buds, which made them very easy to spot and spray with insecticidal soap. So far it seems to be doing the job.

I found this bit of information about aphids on a site I found while searching around that might explain why they're here:

When days become shorter in the fall, both males and females are born. They mate, and then females lay eggs on stems or in bark crevices. The eggs overwinter and hatch the following spring.

Last year there were some aphids semi-infesting a mandevilla I had planted near-by. I let them live since they weren't doing too much harm - needless to say I won't be making that mistake again!

Backyard Lawn Update

I covered the front lawn in my previous post, now on to the backyard. Considering how the lawn looked after last year, I had no idea what to expect this spring, but my expectations where low. Well, I must say that I'm impressed! Still far from perfect, it's at least somewhat beginning to look like a lawn again!

I think this area will need some love this fall.

Another sparse area.

Kinda looks lawnish!

Utter barefoot bliss. This patch is the best!

Another area that needs some love.

I transplanted this patch by the brick in order to help
prevent erosion in this area during heavy rain. Need to
transplant some more.

And this is my favorite surprise. I noticed these little grasslings coming up in some of the bare areas throughout the lawn. While I'm not certain (yet), I think that these were actually from seed heads of the grass from when I mowed it last. It was seeding at the time and I wondered it it might be possible for those seeds to survive and germinate. I think some did!

New grasslings sprouting in a bare area!

Now that I'm aware I'm going to try to keep the lawn well watered and hope these little guys can survive the summer! I'll note that not all bare areas had so many sprouting, but I did see some in other areas of the lawn. It'll be interesting to see how things progress; perhaps there are more seeds that haven't germinated yet.

Front Lawn Update

Quick update on the front lawn. I think it's doing great. I'll let the photos show, but I'll note that the Ortho Weed B Gon seems have mostly taken care of the (possible) chickweed - it has taken several weeks, but slowly but surely the grass took over. And the 2011 grass finally greened up - guess it's just slower? It certainly seems significantly darker green than the surrounding kentucky blue grass... All in all I'm really happy with it! It's quite lush and thick in many more places than I remember and I see no tall fescue (however, I will mention that I pulled a good amount back around the first mowing from the north side of the lawn). I'd say the lawn looks the best it ever has since we moved in!

This area finally greened up!

Some patchiness, but generally pretty dense!

This has been the slowest to green up, and some areas still
aren't growing too much for some reason. Also the area of
lighter green is where I pulled the tall fescue from.

Freshly edged!

Note the striking difference in color despite both being kentucky
blue grass. Oh well, can't have everything!

Fairly patchy here. Recovering from the drought and weeds.

I think all my work has finally starting to pay off! Wish there wasn't the two color tones, but I'd rather that then have tall fescue and orchardgrass!