I appreciated all of this: the passion, the wonderful photos and all of the fantastic information about the plants, birds and butterflies. Thank you and thanks to Stewart.
I'm so glad @veronikabond shared this. I'm very sorry about the thistle vandalism. That is unconscionable and so ignorant. We had a similar situation in our little town when someone vandalized native plants that had been planted along the river to help with erosion. It gives me hope, however, to read all the lovely comments from other folks with a deep love of plants and nature in general.
Oh man, the f-ing brush mower just came through our neighborhood 1.5 weeks ago. Not only did it chop down all the yarrow and St. John's wort I was planning to harvest, but even more importantly, knocked down the milkweed where we had seen 9 4th and 5th instar caterpillars just days prior. So we knew there were probably millions of such stories that were destroyed just to preserve sight lines on a road that about 5-10 cars per hour drive on (maybe even less). They also turn the brush mower sideways in the laziest and most destructive possible way to trim trees. I don't understand that casual cruelty and lack curiosity.
Thank you, I felt the same reading about your thistles, that one next to your friend was so big and beautiful, charismatic mega-flora! It's so strange that we have gotten so disconnected that we can't conceive of the fact that there could be a story happening that has nothing to do with us.
I live in a neighborhood in a small city in Central Maine. We have the great good fortune to have a corner lot on which our shabby old colonial stands. When we moved in 3 years ago the previous owner had created several gardens. I lived with them for a year or so, watching the light, assessing where water collected, the direction of the wind, snowslide off the roof. This year I've started heavy pruning, transplanting, dividing, and moving things around. I'm building new garden beds by lying a heavy layer of recycled cardboard on the ground & piling it w/ composted cow manure, kitchen scraps, garden debris, and the wood pellets we use for the cat boxes, soaked in urine (I take out the solid waste). I let those new beds cook for at least a year before planting, piling leaves on them in the fall. This year I've begun creating a native hedge for the birds & insects. The neighborhood doesn't know what to do with me. I want to get to a no-mow native piece of land; they've never seen this kind of heaped-up bed building that doesn't disturb the soil biome. They don't understand why I'm planting native shrubs and plants rather than ornamentals. I had to order plants native to Maine from out of state because none of the local nurseries carry them! I hope, as the garden matures, I'll have a chance to open the eyes of others to how beautiful our native flora is, how essential for the species we share this beautiful area with. Like Susie, I dig up "weeds" regularly, such as burdock and the native bindweed, which chokes out everything if left unlimited. It's an elegant balancing act, a constant learning process. It's a cooperative exercise, power with the species around us rather than power over. Many people are simply ignorant, or unaware of how dire the state of the planet is, or perhaps unable or unwilling to consider a new way to garden. Thank you for writing this piece, David. I read you. I read Susie. I read many nature writers and gardeners on Substack. We must keep going, keep writing, keep sharing information, and keep the faith.
Ohh, Jennifer, your note is a gift. Thank you for offering us all such a full glimpse.
And thank you for the encouragement. Yes, small islands of hope for small things, pollinator pathways, healthy pockets of possibility. Keep on being unusual... the usual, quite obviously isn't working. Namasté.
I felt so guilty after reading this David, it is only now, 12 hours later I can write. Earlier in the year I dug up over 140 thistles from my sheep meadow, the sheep won’t / don’t eat them at all and they were taking over. These were Cirsium vulgare, also loved by butterflies and many other tiny insects… needs must, sadly. I can only console myself by the fact that I left all that were growing around the edges, along with the milk thistles - is that the same as your milkweed, I don’t know - and I always leave every flowering weed in my garden and elsewhere on the hill thistles run riot!
I will carry these words “Now listen to me, Buddy: there is only one unpardonable sin – deliberate cruelty. All else can be forgiven. That, never.”
I hope the garden gods know my acts were not a deliberate act of cruelty only of necessary maintenance !
Your poor friend, I feel his sadness.
Thank you for sharing my friend, as always your writing and images touch a deep and melodious chord.
Big, big hug, dear Susie. I did not mean to bring you or anyone heartache in telling this story. I was trying to make sense of the cruelty someone has been offering my friend in deliberate and veiled stages, just as the next wildflowers in his meadow begin to bloom. I have a feeling that if they are running riot on your hill, all is still well. In the park where my friend makes his careful efforts there are almost no thistles, few wildflowers and so, very few butterflies. So much of the diversity of this place has been lost. People and their dogs trample everywhere, without thought and some seem to begrudge anyone/anything that sees them as less that boss of all, a very different scenario. It takes but a moment to destroy what took years to grow.
I know you wouldn’t have wanted to bring heartache to anyone David… only a recognition if the importance of all plants, no matter that some drive us a little crazy!
Thank you for the hug though… it is much appreciated this morning more than most. 🙏🏽
What a loss, what a shame---I totes admire Stewart, and I'm sad for all the stupidity of destruction and loss.
"Thistle" became more than just a weed-word to me when I first noticed tiny sweat bees, like irridescent jewels, all over the blossoms here at my mom's acres. And as artist, I love the color & shape of their blossoms, and all those sharp-spear pointy leaves...
And now oh-so-much more---it's a joy to see your pics of butterflies & goldfinches, and hear details of these special thistle-relationships.
So many reasons to care... thank you for these wider glimpses...for "poetry among the weeds".
What can you tell me about Scotch Thistle (Onopordum acanthium)? It's not welcome in my ranch-centered, South-Central, Oregon community and I've been told to rid my homestead of them. I have one area I've left growing thus far, just in case. I'm studying the natives to reintroduce and any input is very welcome. 🙏🏻
Kathey, I'm really not the person in the know by any measurably authoritative means and certainly not in South Central Oregon. I've seen what Scotch Thistle can do and it is not pretty. It is a beast. Where I spend a good deal of time each summer along the lower Deschutes, it nearly took over some areas, made them really difficult to hike/fish through. I've talked with BLM spray crews several times and it does seem as if they've gotten the upper hand in several meadows and begun to turn the tide, but it has taken years of diligence. I'm not certain which thistles are native to your area, but generally native plants seem able to live in balance with their neighbors, and non-natives come in without the vulnerabilities that keep the natives in balance. I'm certain a bit of reading will help you gain clarity on which thistles are your friends and which will attempt to overrun your land.
“A special kind of horrible. “ Seems to go with a special kind of idiocy.
“Balling our feelings and hearts into fists, in defense will only leave us panting for breath, full of anger and anxiety, and adrenaline. It will leave us blind to the dances of butterflies …”
I appreciate your last paragraph,
proof that we must find a way, against all odds . While staying true to who we are.
“We are asked to look hatred and ignorance in the eye, to plot a path either through or around it…”
And you did. Thank you for showing how to move forward when we cannot fathom the reason why.
It's gut-wrenching whenever plants are vandalized in any way. I'm sorry for Stewart's loss and completely understand your anger. Sometimes it takes a calamity to open people's eyes, and I hope your sharing the Stewart's story will do that. In defense of Canada thistles which grow in one area of my meadow, I will say that they like where they are and haven't moved around to other areas. Like all plants, they are more abundant in some years than others, so I leave them alone, and have a flock of goldfinches year-round.
Just yesterday after a few hours of gardening I reflected on why I love tending to plants and a lot of it comes down to feeling like I make a difference in this food desert for insects and birds. I love seeing the biodiversity that passes through my garden as I carefully plant local species. Last summer I made the rookie mistake of leaving a Canada Thistle to thrive - it was beautiful, grew to nearly 7 feet tall, and brought the goldfinches to my backyard, but I’ve pulled hundreds of seedlings out of my garden this year. Lesson learned! I shall look into these less invasive options.
I fully empathise with your feelings of anger and betrayal at people’s careless and cruel actions. It’s one thing to be ignorant and another to act so deliberately and destructively within their ignorance.
Hearing about the destruction of these plants is heartbreaking. I'm so sorry for the loss, and for Stewart's loss. You can tell him I'm sending him love and positive energy, so maybe he can go on tending his garden.
It's so dispiriting to see good native species removed. All too often here in the UK, people wanting to 'help pollinators' will remove plants like thistles to plant seed-mixes of pretty plants. Not that the pretty plants aren't good if they're also native, but the thistles (and nettles etc) shouldn't be removed for the sake of the prettier plants. People have become so ignorant and sadly so many people who claim to care for nature actually don't understand it.
Yesterday I saw a 4' thistle...which was thriving... this morning it was lying on the ground next to the hole it was taken out of.
My heart sunk. Whomever must have thought it was a weed. A coincidence perhaps..?...that this article was what I saw when I first turned on my phone today!
I saw another start hiding in taller grass though.😊
I appreciated all of this: the passion, the wonderful photos and all of the fantastic information about the plants, birds and butterflies. Thank you and thanks to Stewart.
I'm so glad @veronikabond shared this. I'm very sorry about the thistle vandalism. That is unconscionable and so ignorant. We had a similar situation in our little town when someone vandalized native plants that had been planted along the river to help with erosion. It gives me hope, however, to read all the lovely comments from other folks with a deep love of plants and nature in general.
this reminded me of a phrase about harm , about not being able to see the poetry of the weeds.
the inability to understand the medicine that people living there most likely need
"one doesn't have to operate with great malice to do great harm. the absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient"
~ Charles M. Blow
Oh man, the f-ing brush mower just came through our neighborhood 1.5 weeks ago. Not only did it chop down all the yarrow and St. John's wort I was planning to harvest, but even more importantly, knocked down the milkweed where we had seen 9 4th and 5th instar caterpillars just days prior. So we knew there were probably millions of such stories that were destroyed just to preserve sight lines on a road that about 5-10 cars per hour drive on (maybe even less). They also turn the brush mower sideways in the laziest and most destructive possible way to trim trees. I don't understand that casual cruelty and lack curiosity.
Ohhh… gut punch. I’m so sorry.
Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you, I felt the same reading about your thistles, that one next to your friend was so big and beautiful, charismatic mega-flora! It's so strange that we have gotten so disconnected that we can't conceive of the fact that there could be a story happening that has nothing to do with us.
I live in a neighborhood in a small city in Central Maine. We have the great good fortune to have a corner lot on which our shabby old colonial stands. When we moved in 3 years ago the previous owner had created several gardens. I lived with them for a year or so, watching the light, assessing where water collected, the direction of the wind, snowslide off the roof. This year I've started heavy pruning, transplanting, dividing, and moving things around. I'm building new garden beds by lying a heavy layer of recycled cardboard on the ground & piling it w/ composted cow manure, kitchen scraps, garden debris, and the wood pellets we use for the cat boxes, soaked in urine (I take out the solid waste). I let those new beds cook for at least a year before planting, piling leaves on them in the fall. This year I've begun creating a native hedge for the birds & insects. The neighborhood doesn't know what to do with me. I want to get to a no-mow native piece of land; they've never seen this kind of heaped-up bed building that doesn't disturb the soil biome. They don't understand why I'm planting native shrubs and plants rather than ornamentals. I had to order plants native to Maine from out of state because none of the local nurseries carry them! I hope, as the garden matures, I'll have a chance to open the eyes of others to how beautiful our native flora is, how essential for the species we share this beautiful area with. Like Susie, I dig up "weeds" regularly, such as burdock and the native bindweed, which chokes out everything if left unlimited. It's an elegant balancing act, a constant learning process. It's a cooperative exercise, power with the species around us rather than power over. Many people are simply ignorant, or unaware of how dire the state of the planet is, or perhaps unable or unwilling to consider a new way to garden. Thank you for writing this piece, David. I read you. I read Susie. I read many nature writers and gardeners on Substack. We must keep going, keep writing, keep sharing information, and keep the faith.
Ohh, Jennifer, your note is a gift. Thank you for offering us all such a full glimpse.
And thank you for the encouragement. Yes, small islands of hope for small things, pollinator pathways, healthy pockets of possibility. Keep on being unusual... the usual, quite obviously isn't working. Namasté.
I felt so guilty after reading this David, it is only now, 12 hours later I can write. Earlier in the year I dug up over 140 thistles from my sheep meadow, the sheep won’t / don’t eat them at all and they were taking over. These were Cirsium vulgare, also loved by butterflies and many other tiny insects… needs must, sadly. I can only console myself by the fact that I left all that were growing around the edges, along with the milk thistles - is that the same as your milkweed, I don’t know - and I always leave every flowering weed in my garden and elsewhere on the hill thistles run riot!
I will carry these words “Now listen to me, Buddy: there is only one unpardonable sin – deliberate cruelty. All else can be forgiven. That, never.”
I hope the garden gods know my acts were not a deliberate act of cruelty only of necessary maintenance !
Your poor friend, I feel his sadness.
Thank you for sharing my friend, as always your writing and images touch a deep and melodious chord.
Big, big hug, dear Susie. I did not mean to bring you or anyone heartache in telling this story. I was trying to make sense of the cruelty someone has been offering my friend in deliberate and veiled stages, just as the next wildflowers in his meadow begin to bloom. I have a feeling that if they are running riot on your hill, all is still well. In the park where my friend makes his careful efforts there are almost no thistles, few wildflowers and so, very few butterflies. So much of the diversity of this place has been lost. People and their dogs trample everywhere, without thought and some seem to begrudge anyone/anything that sees them as less that boss of all, a very different scenario. It takes but a moment to destroy what took years to grow.
I know you wouldn’t have wanted to bring heartache to anyone David… only a recognition if the importance of all plants, no matter that some drive us a little crazy!
Thank you for the hug though… it is much appreciated this morning more than most. 🙏🏽
What a loss, what a shame---I totes admire Stewart, and I'm sad for all the stupidity of destruction and loss.
"Thistle" became more than just a weed-word to me when I first noticed tiny sweat bees, like irridescent jewels, all over the blossoms here at my mom's acres. And as artist, I love the color & shape of their blossoms, and all those sharp-spear pointy leaves...
And now oh-so-much more---it's a joy to see your pics of butterflies & goldfinches, and hear details of these special thistle-relationships.
So many reasons to care... thank you for these wider glimpses...for "poetry among the weeds".
Thank you, my friend... thank you.
You'd like Stewart.
What can you tell me about Scotch Thistle (Onopordum acanthium)? It's not welcome in my ranch-centered, South-Central, Oregon community and I've been told to rid my homestead of them. I have one area I've left growing thus far, just in case. I'm studying the natives to reintroduce and any input is very welcome. 🙏🏻
Kathey, I'm really not the person in the know by any measurably authoritative means and certainly not in South Central Oregon. I've seen what Scotch Thistle can do and it is not pretty. It is a beast. Where I spend a good deal of time each summer along the lower Deschutes, it nearly took over some areas, made them really difficult to hike/fish through. I've talked with BLM spray crews several times and it does seem as if they've gotten the upper hand in several meadows and begun to turn the tide, but it has taken years of diligence. I'm not certain which thistles are native to your area, but generally native plants seem able to live in balance with their neighbors, and non-natives come in without the vulnerabilities that keep the natives in balance. I'm certain a bit of reading will help you gain clarity on which thistles are your friends and which will attempt to overrun your land.
“A special kind of horrible. “ Seems to go with a special kind of idiocy.
“Balling our feelings and hearts into fists, in defense will only leave us panting for breath, full of anger and anxiety, and adrenaline. It will leave us blind to the dances of butterflies …”
I appreciate your last paragraph,
proof that we must find a way, against all odds . While staying true to who we are.
“We are asked to look hatred and ignorance in the eye, to plot a path either through or around it…”
And you did. Thank you for showing how to move forward when we cannot fathom the reason why.
You are most generous, Lor. I'm always grateful for the chance to get your read on things. Thank you.
It's gut-wrenching whenever plants are vandalized in any way. I'm sorry for Stewart's loss and completely understand your anger. Sometimes it takes a calamity to open people's eyes, and I hope your sharing the Stewart's story will do that. In defense of Canada thistles which grow in one area of my meadow, I will say that they like where they are and haven't moved around to other areas. Like all plants, they are more abundant in some years than others, so I leave them alone, and have a flock of goldfinches year-round.
Just yesterday after a few hours of gardening I reflected on why I love tending to plants and a lot of it comes down to feeling like I make a difference in this food desert for insects and birds. I love seeing the biodiversity that passes through my garden as I carefully plant local species. Last summer I made the rookie mistake of leaving a Canada Thistle to thrive - it was beautiful, grew to nearly 7 feet tall, and brought the goldfinches to my backyard, but I’ve pulled hundreds of seedlings out of my garden this year. Lesson learned! I shall look into these less invasive options.
I fully empathise with your feelings of anger and betrayal at people’s careless and cruel actions. It’s one thing to be ignorant and another to act so deliberately and destructively within their ignorance.
Hearing about the destruction of these plants is heartbreaking. I'm so sorry for the loss, and for Stewart's loss. You can tell him I'm sending him love and positive energy, so maybe he can go on tending his garden.
Thank you, Sarah. I promise, I will pass your kindness along.
It's so dispiriting to see good native species removed. All too often here in the UK, people wanting to 'help pollinators' will remove plants like thistles to plant seed-mixes of pretty plants. Not that the pretty plants aren't good if they're also native, but the thistles (and nettles etc) shouldn't be removed for the sake of the prettier plants. People have become so ignorant and sadly so many people who claim to care for nature actually don't understand it.
The road to hell passes an unfortunate little village called extinction and is paved with good (though careless and misplaced), intentions.
Yesterday I saw a 4' thistle...which was thriving... this morning it was lying on the ground next to the hole it was taken out of.
My heart sunk. Whomever must have thought it was a weed. A coincidence perhaps..?...that this article was what I saw when I first turned on my phone today!
I saw another start hiding in taller grass though.😊
fingers crossed, my friend.
I’m going shopping for plants😀
Thank you once again