Watch Out!
By Bonnie Hariton (07/20/22)
Photo = Dan Hariton heading out to their Pinole garden
It's one thing to notice that last year's hollyhocks have sprinkled seeds here and there in the backyard. You know what they are even as seedlings and cheer them on. It's another thing to notice that your raised beds - neglected over the winter this time - have been densely re-populated with grasses, spiky weeds, and the indefatigable bindweed. You recognize them all and sigh, realizing how much work it will be to pull them out. It is another thing entirely to notice a plant that you do not recognize, one that gives you a distinctly uneasy feeling.
I encountered the plant in the bed where tomatoes grew last year: a sturdy stem about five feet tall, with small white flowers in an umbrella shape on the top, and ghastly, irregularly shaped, red purple splotches on the smooth stem. I instinctively felt warned and wary. Stop, I told my husband, Dan. We must check this out before we clean up the bed. It was Hemlock. Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), a deadly, invasive species that has been spreading around the United States. Online research and a plant identifier app confirmed it. Looks sort of like Queen Anne's lace but not. Looks sort of ferny, carroty, but not. And there were more than one.
We wondered if we could eradicate it without dying. All parts - leaves, stem, roots, seeds, and juices - are dangerous and toxic if eaten, inhaled, or touched. We found help from KateVan Druff.
Dan put on a hazmat suit with a hood, wore thick gloves, a mask, goggles, and washable shoes. I stayed indoors and prayed. The largest hemlock was too firmly rooted to pull out by hand. Dan had to cut the stem and extract the foot-long, white-carrot-like tap root and lateral shoots with a five-foot-long, thirty pound steel pike used (with rope) as a lever. He put the plants in a thick black garbage bag, tied it tightly closed, and disposed of it in the garbage - not in the compost bin. Even dead, hemlock can remain poisonous for years. We inspected more of the surrounding area and had a neighbor's help, with a small bulldozer, to uproot a tenacious bush that had become encumbered with hemlock. Weeks later, we removed some three dozen young seedlings that had sprouted up in the general area. This time we could recognize them from their leaves alone.
The moral of this story is: know your landscape, trust your instincts, get help. And, as always, Live Long and Garden!
Sat. July 30 will be our Community Work + Fun Day @ 5166 Sobrante Ave, 12- 3p. Wear sturdy shoes and clothing and bring work gloves and favorite gardening tools. And please bring a good quality mask so we can all stay safe from COVID and construction dust.