In defense of weeds....

So, after taking a bit of a break because of weather and family/scout stuff, I'm back.  And I'm going to jump off the edge and say nice things about my second most hated thing.  I've sworn off politics so my MOST hated thing won't enter the conversation, but I will be singing the praises of Crabgrass, Digitaria Haller.  Yep, that thing we hate almost as much as we hate the Donald.  (Ooops, sorry.)

Here's what happened.  A few years ago we built a bank along the driveway and planted some fur and blue spruce trees to provide a barrier from the road.  We also planted a row of our favorite rosa rugosa.  Everything settled in and started to grow.  The next step was to control the grass and weeds on the downhill side.  This is where my favorite thing (mulch) comes into play.  We mulched with old carpet, grass clippings, and wood chips.  That seemed to control everything except the crabgrass.  Last year I worked on pulling out crabgrass on a good portion of the hill, but I didn't get it all.  This year, late winter rain flooded the whole site, and I saw some interesting results.  Take a look.

mulch washed away from the rain

mulch and soil held in place by the extensive mat of crabgrass roots

I still hate crabgrass (almost as much as he who will not be named...) but it seems that it evolved to do a job, and it does it well.  When we rip it out we need to fill the void with something that does the same job, or it will just come back.  (There may be a political lesson here...)