GUILTY PLEASURES—PHRAGMITES.

GUILTY PLEASURES—PHRAGMITES. A spring walk today. Daffodils, violets, magnolias beginning to blossom. A turtle, two egrets. Phragmites. I posted here about the pleasure we take in the fall in the phragmites in the marsh at Farm Creek—“tall reeds, faded to brown with feathery brown tops.” In that post I took comfort that, although phragmites are supposed to be an invasive species, a wikipedia article which said that phragmites were found in America before the Europeans came, even though the species that is expanding rapidly is originally from Europe. Henry Nejako has taken note of my feelings about phragmites and has called my attention to this article in Scientific American. The article says that phragmites do harm to many other plants. Washington State’s Noxious Weed Control Board recommends cutting down phragmites every year in late July. Repeated cutting will eventually exhaust the root system. Another alternative the article discusses is to have sheep, goats and cattle graze repeatedly on phragmites.