For years I would tell people that I had a brown thumb, but in fact I actually have a green thumb and a forest of blackberry vines in my backyard in support of this statement. Blackberry is always so contradictory, with half of us trying to pound it out of existence and the other half out on the roadside, not 5 feet from cars driving by (can I get a chorus of “ewwww” please?) harvesting its sweet berry goodness.

On Thursday I accepted the City of Bellevue’s invitation to attend their FREE weed workshop and for over an hour, Laurie and Sasha held a lively lecture about what weeds would be around in my neck of the woods, and how best to get rid of them. Basically this involved putting a name to the little devils, telling me which ones were “annuals” and which were “perennials” and what to do with each. Unfortunately, none of the options involved a cleansing by fire, but I suppose you can’t have everything.

One of the interesting things I learned is that we create a lot of our weed problems because they sell them in nurseries. We’re all such a trusting crowd that we assume that we can just go to Home Depot and get anything in a pot and plant it in the ground, but in fact some of that pretty stuff you can buy does so well that it propogates itself all over the place and the next thing you know, there it is, everywhere you go. And that’s how Yellow Archangel got on their “next best bet to become an invasive weed” list. And butterfly bushes! When she said that, I colored up guiltily. I have two. In my defense, they came with the house. If it had been up to me, my garden would have been a wasteland by now. So before you plant, check out all their weed lists and laws.

For the juicy-gossip portion of the lecture, Laurie shared the news that she’d been able to get a grant for 50% matching on native plants for lakeside/streamside owners, not to mention various (some sort of clearing) permits waived and other concessions. That’s probably just for Bellevue, but you never know, and you should definitely always ask if you’re planning to go native. Not only that but they have plenty of ideas for plants you can put down that won’t go nuts and take over the state, and also, landscape templates.

But back to blackberry. The route I think I’m going to go with is the manual way they suggested. First, cut everything back with loppers, and go in and find as many of the root balls as you can. Put down mulch. Wait. When the sprouts start showing their heads, dig up as many root balls as you can find, and wait. Repeat as necessary.

Lastly, we have to give props to the Glendale country club who not only provided a space, but also came through with free cheesecake. Mmmm, free cheesecake.