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Show BLAZING TIMES - AUGUST1993 -7 i Tumbleweeds: irritating your skin and long sleeves to protect you from stickers. You can Don’t Let Them Get compost thistle in piles with manure Under Your Skin and hay. The heat should kill the seeds. (all , Every plant you pull out now means There’s no need to describe that for A Ciastle Valley round bushy plant covered with hundreds less next spring. Give your native grasses and bushes some extra , / stickers. This familiar weed now crowding CV roadsides and properties is called Russian thistle or water to encourage their growth, ~ decreasing the desirability of your land I Cartoonists’ 8: .4 11,0, Wh t up t D for thistles. Do it now, because by the , Chenopodicae of the Goosefoot family. time tumbleweed start to tumble, you , It is, as its name implies, an exotic will already be hosting next year’s crop. So sing a few bars ofDrifting , , your art t0 the Along with the Tumbling Tumbleweed, and get those thistles into the compost heap. —Maria Loe , , TIMES. Let's talk Cris 224 ' ' 5' plant from the Steppes of Russia. Some say it arrived in imported flax seed, others say from Karkul sheep. Either way, it found a home to its liking in the rt “5 (any age), Illustrators, e Cgllutsribueteo raw. late 1800s and has stayed and prospered. Russian thistle and its close cousin, halogeton, love bare, disturbed soils, such as overgrazed fields and bladed roadsides. Neither plant is very competitive, preferring to germinate where few plants can take away its needed nutrients and water. ands C as 0/» a? U Mother Nature helps the Russian thistle seed itself across the countryside by causing it to snap off at ground level Recycling BEFORE YOU RECYCLE—— :. PRE—CYCLE when mature. Its round form and some brisk wind help it careen across the landscape, spreading its seeds far and wide. As it takes little water to germinate, we begin to see its pretty green seedlings appear in early spring. These young tumbleweeds are edible. You can harvest them when one Smart shopping is as important in reducing waste and conserving resources as recycling. Precycling can cut your household garbage by as much as 20%. minutes, and serve with butter, salt and pepper. They taste like mild spinach, - Choose products with minimal packaging. 0 Buy products in bulk or in economy sizes whenever possible. ~ Choose products packaged in locally recyclable materials such as aluminum and tin cans. and glass bottles and but they are even better mixed with jars. to three inches tall, boil for about 15 other greens, such as wild mustard for a - Reuse plastic and paper bags for produce and bulk ‘ tangier taste. The Navajos use tum- items. bleweed as a treatment for influenza and smallpox, and its ashes to blacken their faces for the Enemy Way Ceremony. 0 Bring your own shopping bags to market. 0 Purchase long-wearing products instead of disposables such as cloth wipes, napkins, and diapers—refillable lighters, and rechargeable batteries. - Write or call manufacturers of over-packaged products to express your concern. Packaging makes up one third of a household’s garbage and accounts for about 13% of the price you pay for food. 0 And don’t forget to buy recycled products. and products packaged in recycled materials. Look for the recycled symbol on the label. Russian thistle and halogeton are the first in a progression of plants on disturbed soil. They are followed by mustard and, finally, cheatgrass. If you remove cheatgrass, the thistle will return to start the sequence all over again. Only by planting native bushes and grasses will the thistle eventually give in. Then even if a seed does germinate, it will be weak and spindly, often not bearing stickers and reseeding CCR accepts aluminum cans. glass bottles and jars. itself. corrugated cardboard. computer paper, white ledger Now is the time to prevent new plants from seeding next season. Simply pull or hoe the maturing plants out. This is especially easy after the rain. Wear gloves to prevent oils from paper, newspaper, tin cans. non—ferrous scrap metals. and carpet pads. For more information. please call 259-8772. THANKS FOR RECYCLING |
