I would never have believed it! 2013 is the first year that the phragmites in the pond is not a ginormous problem. BUT, were we still removing stems? Yes. Were we still digging out rhizomes? Yes.
In May of 2013, Justin and I really went after the west end of the pond. I spent a couple of months in early spring, trying to tease old dead bittersweet vine fragments out of the trees.
Despite taking every precaution of placing every bittersweet fragment onto a tarp, then onto the burn pile, the bittersweet would continue to resprout. Still, we made a valiant attempt at completely weeding the west end of the pond.
Before (which is really a “during” photo, as we’d been working on this area for a year or two):
After:
It was just inconceivable that we were able to do this, when in past years, this area had been an impenetrable jungle of invasive plants, vines and shrubs.
For instance, in 2009, I couldn’t have even taken the above photo. It’s taken from the SW corner of the pond. See how the phragmites takes a turn, as you’re looking out at the SW corner, in the photo below? See the tree behind them? If I had been standing where I stood to take the photo above, I would have been in the middle of a huge patch of phragmites!
