Purge the Spurge!

As dahlia growers, we are constantly challenged by forces of nature that would, if they could, triumph over us as we pursue the consummate dahlia garden. Here in NCW, one of the most obvious of these is Water, with a capital "W". The rich harvest of tree fruits, including cherries, apples, pears, peaches, apricots and nectarines, as well as our rapidly growing vineyard and wine industry, owes its success to the irrigation systems devised by those who settled this region. We are so thankful for the mighty Columbia - so much life has sprung from this river! This year, we have been the recipients of a more than normal amount of rainfall, as well as lower temperatures. These two factors have contributed to a bountiful harvest of Weeds, again with a capital "W".

I have dahlias planted in three gardens this year, each with a slightly different set of soil conditions: my home garden, with around 80 plants, is a raised bed filled with commercial compost and topsoil; the Community Garden on the corner of Russell and Fuller Streets, whose care we inherited from Dad, has a rich, loamy soil, replete with earthworms, hosting about 100 plants; and the Tony DeRooy Memorial Garden, next to the Numerica Credit Union on Emerson Street, where I have about 35 plants, is drier than Russell Street, and has a mixture of topsoil, some compost, some sand and lots of rocks. My home garden is shaded in the morning, but after the sun turns the corner, it is in open sun the rest of the day; the other two gardens enjoy full sun all day long. So far this year, it appears that the dahlia plants are developing similarly in all three sites, with varied watering strategies that are responsive to the needs of each set of circumstances. Which brings us back to the other big "W" - weeds!

This has been a GREAT year for weeds - they have never been happier or more prolific! The Dahlia Society has had several work parties at the Memorial Garden, primarily to remove weeds from the rows. I've been making my rounds of the three gardens several times a week to try to stay ahead of these enthusiastic intruders, and have found it to be a "gift that keeps on giving." At the Memorial Garden a few days ago, Ray Brain and I happened to be working at the same time. I was using my favorite stirrup hoe to clear the weeds between the rows, and pulling those nearest my plants by hand. It seemed like just when I thought I had gotten all the purslane, morning glory, crabgrass, buttonweed, chickweed and dandelions, I noticed a well-camouflaged, dark green and reddish plant, creeping across the ground, almost invisible at first glance. I remembered that at our the last work party, we had found this weed all over the garden, and found it difficult to eradicate - fellow Dahlia Society member, Beth Miracle, started calling it "sneaky weed" because of how successful it was at hiding from us during the first pass through the rows. The leaves are tiny, with a kind of pretty pattern of shading from dark to lighter to red edging, and it grows close to the ground like a ground cover. The coloration and closeness to the soil causes it to blend well into the dirt colors, and it is easy to miss. I started to complain about it to Ray, and he told me that it is called "spurge." I hadn't ever heard of that, but I certainly agreed that it was the "scourge" of our garden this season! We decided that we could weed in the morning, and if we returned in the evening, the spurge would need to be pulled again! It seems like every year, we are faced with different varieties than we had been the year before - that may be due to the natural microscopic plant debris that is present in irrigation water. At any rate, it requires us to be very aware of the changing needs of our gardens and respond accordingly. So far, we are trying to "purge the spurge" simply by weeding frequently - fortunately the root systems of this weed are shallow and easy to remove.

All in all, this looks like it will be a better year for dahlias than last year. Fernie sprayed horticultural oil at the Memorial Garden last week, as a way of controlling the insect population, so I think I'll get some to use at home and at Russell Street. I've already had a bout with aphids on a few of my dahlias, and I don't want to be fighting that all season! By the way, have you ever seen the moths that result from the metamorphosis of the tomato worm? During that same visit to the Memorial Garden, I spotted this stunning creature, calmly sitting on one of my dahlia leaves, slowly eating a dime-sized hole in the foliage. It was about 3 inches across, brown but with a striped patterned beneath the wings, which had jagged interior edges. If I had expanded the wings, I bet it would have been 5 inches across! I called Ray over to take a look at it and he told me what it was - it was huge and beautiful, from an aesthetic perspective. However, I wasn't feeling too aesthetic as I watched it eat my dahlia, so I picked it off with my hoe and dropped it into the dirt away from the plants. Ray immediately stomped on it, and slowly mixed it with the dirt, to become next year's compost! I felt kind of bad, since it was almost the size of a small mouse, but we are all players in the balance of nature, and our continuing challenge to grow flowers, and sometimes it has to be done. I'm just glad that Ray did it instead of me.....the little kid in me probably would have wanted to put it in an aquarium, give it some leaves to eat, and bring it to school for show and tell!