Phragmites Australis

This was taken almost at the end of the path I carved behind the Plains of Leng, looking back towards the lawn where this whole project started. The mind boggles at the sheer number of beer cans and empty pints of whisky tossed in here. It would certainly explain all the frogs back here singing "Sweet Adeline" LOL

🤣🤣🤣

Here you can see some of today's work...got out my trusty Hyper Tough hedge trimmer and hacked this trail, hereinafter referred to as the Northwest Passage, from one marker tree to another. By the time I got this far it was 85° F (29° C) and I was wringing wet from head to toe, so I stopped there. I live to fight another day.

Nice work👍

TY @cowdenkyle !

It looks like Common Reeds “Phragmites”.

That's exactly what it is @DelbertYoung -- I'm on a mission to eradicate it from the back forty. This is the Siberian invasive, not the local kind

@emch thanks Eileen - I’m still learning. I appreciate your input.

Negative perspiration @DelbertYoung -- here's a page I found on distinguishing native, desirable Phragmites from the kind I am working to eradicate: https://www.greatlakesphragmites.net/blog/native-vs-invasive-phragmites/

More of an aerial view of the pestilent swamp plants and my beachhead made with a hedge trimmer and Round Up #killitwithfire

SUCCESS! Today I cut back as much of this invasive filth in half an hour as I was able to manage in half a day last year. Leaning against the tree is the new tool I got from Home Depot to do it. You just swing it like a golf club. #killitwithfire

Is it similar to a sickle? Can't make the picture out.

Its basically a scythe

It's an Ames double-blade weed cutter. The handle splits at the end into a fork. Each end of the fork is screwed to the blade, which is a flat, rectangular affair serrated on both edges. Almost useless on tall grass, it's murder on anything with a woody stem. I made the mistake of using it on that blasted multiflora rose hidden in the reeds and it...fought back. @crabby58 @lesliecole49

What a bane to native’s existence. Unfortunately you’re gonna have an up hill battle with that stuff. It’s just going to keep coming back and you’ll have to stay on top of it. Probably one of the single worse non natives in North America. I’d break out the round-up for that one.

@BobWallace that's exactly my plan, but first I have to cut back the heaps of dead cane which protect the live reeds from the Round Up. I can't go any farther without finding some good, waterproof boots to wear. If I had a chainsaw I could have had it all done in an afternoon but alas...