Ides of August

Summer break is ending. The yard looks a lot better than it did eight weeks ago, and I have greeted the yard waste workers several times with cold bottles of Gatorade. The big push for pruning branches and hand-pulling weeds and vines is done. I still have one patch of English ivy in the front, but the skunk vine is now under control all over the yard. I have been pulling up seedlings in the woods and remaining roots wherever new leaves appear. But there are no vines growing up into the trees, no flowers waiting to drop seeds onto the ground, and very few roots running across the ground looking for another tree to climb. I will always have to patrol vigilantly. The roots sometimes lie dormant for months before sprouting.

There is only one big problem area left. Around the base of two pine trees growing side by side, wild grapevines have coiled and thrived, growing more than thirty feet up the pine tree. The vines are as much a three inches in diameter at the base. The problem is that skunk vine has set down significant four-pronged roots under and among the grapevine coils. Thick layers of pine needles have fallen all around this dragon-like tangle of vines and it is hard to penetrate under the massive grapevine coils. I pulled as much as I could but I couldn't get every root, and so tendrils are coming out with the two weeks of rain we have had. As a stop gap, I can keep them from making it up the tree, but I still have to get those roots out from under there. How to do that? There are two equally time-consuming options. I can try to remove the pine needles and lift the grape vines and pull the knuckles of skunk vine root buried under the tangle. I didn't have much luck with that approach before. I can cut through the coils of grape vine, clear out the pine needles, and have a clearer shot at the skunk vine roots. I can try the first method and hope it works before I resort to the most drastic option.

If I have to cut the grapevine, I know it will grow back quickly. There are sprouts all through the woods and today I noticed some grapes had fallen to the ground.