Willow Springs Woods Saturday August 10
This was a most pleasant morning, cool at the outset with a light breeze, a fine time to hunt for bull thistle. We had no shortage of targets in the grasslands east of the parking lot, sometimes numerous enough to keep one or more volunteers in the same place for a stretch.
If you cut each flower individually, you minimize the bulk that goes into your trash bag, which matters when you're carrying all the waste out at day's end. This practice slows you down, though. Cutting the stalk just below all the blooms speeds the work immensely but fills the bag much quicker too. That's where my mind wandered while deadheading bunches of thistles, where might yours go?
At any rate, we collected several bags of thistle flowers in our time there, and felt a small measure of guilt for depriving local pollinators of one of their treats.
This was a most pleasant morning, cool at the outset with a light breeze, a fine time to hunt for bull thistle. We had no shortage of targets in the grasslands east of the parking lot, sometimes numerous enough to keep one or more volunteers in the same place for a stretch.
If you cut each flower individually, you minimize the bulk that goes into your trash bag, which matters when you're carrying all the waste out at day's end. This practice slows you down, though. Cutting the stalk just below all the blooms speeds the work immensely but fills the bag much quicker too. That's where my mind wandered while deadheading bunches of thistles, where might yours go?
At any rate, we collected several bags of thistle flowers in our time there, and felt a small measure of guilt for depriving local pollinators of one of their treats.
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