It's another beautiful summer day at Beechwood. Time to kill some stuff! I made my way to Marnie's Point through a thick tangle of goldenrod and vines. It's hard to hurry anywhere on the site at this time of year. First up was the purple loosestrife:



That was heavy! There's another clump waiting for me at the south end of the pond, and I'm seeing more and more along the riverbank.

Then I cut down some Japanese knotweed. It wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Maybe there's hope that we'll really get rid of it some day? It can hardly find room to grow now amongst all the healthy native plants.





(Actually, I didn't quite get all the knotweed growing out over the pond -- no boots! I got the worst of it.)

The grapevine swarming over the dead tree is producing lots of grapes:



I had to get tough with some butter-and-eggs too. It's starting to get ideas. The soapwort is also making a move, so I'll deal with that soon (unless the bugs get it all).




Across the path is a strip of cup plants and sumacs that we worked hard to plant a couple of autumns ago. This is meant to act as a buffer between Beechwood and the rest of the invasives-filled valley. I spent many days there this spring, clearing out garlic mustard and Dame's Rocket. It's looking really good now. The sumacs were chewed down by deer again over the winter, but they've bounced back and some are taller than I am. It's wonderful what plants can do if you give them a chance.