Serving Kerr County with a Conscience
Thistle Control
20/05/10 21:01 Filed in: Invasive Species
It’s not often that a kindred spirit comes along, but one did in TV and radio personality Bruce Deuley, when he and his friend and kin, Chuck Meadors, stopped in on May 18 to visit KCC member Mary Matthews.
Mary fights a continuing, uphill battle to preserve her historic 1940s ranch’s original charm. Sitting high on a rise between two floodplains that feed into the Guadalupe River, the property is under constant attack from the ravages of time, not to mention water runoff from the airport, from pollution caused by area quarries, and from the kudzu of the 21st Century, MUSK THISTLE.
The invasive musk thistle, in Mary’s estimation, serves no purpose beyond problems. (The Vikings could attest to that, when they tried, barefooted, to invade Scotland in the Middle Ages. Ouch!) Livestock and wildlife can’t eat it. It ruins farm and range lands, and quickly. Once they have made their purple flowers, those accursed plants spread hundreds of thousands of seeds, far and wide. There seemed to be no answer beyond strict attention to the tedium of a large job, removing thistle at just the right moment. Yet Bruce Deuley, well-known expert and author in organic gardening and living, pointed out that goats can actually eat those thorny stalks. “It’s free food for goats. I know of a man who rented out his goats for that purpose.”
Oh, those goats.
Would it be giving one’s age away, to mention how housewives used to berate those bearded nuisances as the scourge of clotheslines?
Truly, goats will eat anything!
But if you’re not in the market to buy or rent a few goats, you can still stymie the spread of thistle seeds. Carefully cut the flower from the stalk—be sure to wear protective gloves and clothes—and then dispose of the flower in an airtight container.
Mary and Deuley further chatted on other conventional ways to get rid of thistle. Herbicides are NOT the answer. Remedy®, atrazin, and picloram are very damaging to the environment. While they do kill thistles, they also kill needed and wanted greenery, and they seep into water supplies, such as the Guadalupe River, Kerr County’s important source of drinking water.
According to Deuley, there’s a fellow over in Georgia who is an expert on thistle control, and Steven Bissonet markets a non-selective MSDS, EcoSmart. Visit Bissonet’s homepage.
And, of course, there’s the vinegar cure for thistles. Add 1T to ½ ounce of molasses to vinegar, then spray the plant. One of our KCCers, Jessie P, swears by pouring molasses-laden vinegar down the center of the thistle stalk. Deuley says both methods work.
Thistles weren’t the only topics of conversation. KCC learned that Bruce Deuley, also a herpetologist, hails from Valdosta, Georgia, but he went West early on, to study a rare reptile at Canyon Lake. While he spent years in this area and has kinfolk hereabouts, he evidently left the area for a while, recently returning. This man can talk Rolls Royces to rattlesnakes. He is truly a kindred spirit with our Mary Matthews
Be sure to catch Bruce Deuley’s programs. He’s on Kerrville’s HCTV, Saturday mornings from 9 to 10. Follows is his first Saturday radio broadcast, on KGNB, 1420, from 10 to noon. His final Saturday program is on San Antonio’s KTSA (550 on your dial). This last show of the day runs from 5 to 7 in the afternoon.
Martha Hix
For KCC
Mary fights a continuing, uphill battle to preserve her historic 1940s ranch’s original charm. Sitting high on a rise between two floodplains that feed into the Guadalupe River, the property is under constant attack from the ravages of time, not to mention water runoff from the airport, from pollution caused by area quarries, and from the kudzu of the 21st Century, MUSK THISTLE.
The invasive musk thistle, in Mary’s estimation, serves no purpose beyond problems. (The Vikings could attest to that, when they tried, barefooted, to invade Scotland in the Middle Ages. Ouch!) Livestock and wildlife can’t eat it. It ruins farm and range lands, and quickly. Once they have made their purple flowers, those accursed plants spread hundreds of thousands of seeds, far and wide. There seemed to be no answer beyond strict attention to the tedium of a large job, removing thistle at just the right moment. Yet Bruce Deuley, well-known expert and author in organic gardening and living, pointed out that goats can actually eat those thorny stalks. “It’s free food for goats. I know of a man who rented out his goats for that purpose.”
Oh, those goats.
Would it be giving one’s age away, to mention how housewives used to berate those bearded nuisances as the scourge of clotheslines?
Truly, goats will eat anything!
But if you’re not in the market to buy or rent a few goats, you can still stymie the spread of thistle seeds. Carefully cut the flower from the stalk—be sure to wear protective gloves and clothes—and then dispose of the flower in an airtight container.
Mary and Deuley further chatted on other conventional ways to get rid of thistle. Herbicides are NOT the answer. Remedy®, atrazin, and picloram are very damaging to the environment. While they do kill thistles, they also kill needed and wanted greenery, and they seep into water supplies, such as the Guadalupe River, Kerr County’s important source of drinking water.
According to Deuley, there’s a fellow over in Georgia who is an expert on thistle control, and Steven Bissonet markets a non-selective MSDS, EcoSmart. Visit Bissonet’s homepage.
And, of course, there’s the vinegar cure for thistles. Add 1T to ½ ounce of molasses to vinegar, then spray the plant. One of our KCCers, Jessie P, swears by pouring molasses-laden vinegar down the center of the thistle stalk. Deuley says both methods work.
Thistles weren’t the only topics of conversation. KCC learned that Bruce Deuley, also a herpetologist, hails from Valdosta, Georgia, but he went West early on, to study a rare reptile at Canyon Lake. While he spent years in this area and has kinfolk hereabouts, he evidently left the area for a while, recently returning. This man can talk Rolls Royces to rattlesnakes. He is truly a kindred spirit with our Mary Matthews
Be sure to catch Bruce Deuley’s programs. He’s on Kerrville’s HCTV, Saturday mornings from 9 to 10. Follows is his first Saturday radio broadcast, on KGNB, 1420, from 10 to noon. His final Saturday program is on San Antonio’s KTSA (550 on your dial). This last show of the day runs from 5 to 7 in the afternoon.
Martha Hix
For KCC