Parts of the common property where my house is have been completely neglected for the past 10 years and because the soil has been disturbed, it is heavily infested with invasive plants. It's been raining regularly the whole January and growth has been rampant so now that I'm feeling better after my little hospital adventure, it's time to get to grips with the mess before it gets any worse. Although I could just nuke everything with herbicide, the chances of contaminating water-sources via runoff is 100% in rainy weather so I won't do it.
This mess is 4 o' clock plant, yet another South American plant that was introduced as a garden plant and has turned into a menace.
The problem here is that it makes underground tubers that are almost impossible to remove in the stony ground although careful pulling when the soil is so wet does pull up the smaller tubers:
It's important to remove the stems now before it sets seed for this season as many plants have just flowered, this helps contain the spread of new plants and gives more time for manual tuber removal.
As for Arnold the evil Belhambra, you can see that he has kept his word and I will have to take the pick-axe to that section of trunk. It's some consolation that there hasn't been any more growth on the side where we severed the large roots so there is less urgency to remove the stump entirely.
Syringa trees were also introduced here from South America as ornamentals and they are major pests. There is one growing in my neighbour's garden and his handyman-cum-gardener thinks nothing of dumping the leaves and seeds that he sweeps up in a corner of the property so of course there are now 3 separate trees. I decided to tackle these while I still have the long electrical extension cord on loan but of course, yet another invasive plant decided to throw a spanner in the works
Moth catcher is South American invasive creeper and there's a heavy infestation in this tree. Little did I think that the vines would influence the way that the trunks fell and after one went off course, I didn't hit the chain brake on the saw in time as I let the blade down to the ground. What I didn't realise was that the saw blade partially severed the extension cord. When that happens, there's usually an impressive explosion that blows holes in metal so I'm lucky I didn't damage the chainsaw. My labours were interrupted while I went off to find tools to reattach the now shortened extension cord to the socket end. After I got that working, I started cutting the second trunk. This time, the vines pulled the trunk in the opposite direction of the diagonal cut, trapping the saw blade. After disconnecting the blade from the machine body, I had to sever all of the vines Tarzan-style, with my teeth, because I had no other tools at hand. I'm aware that the latex in the vines is an irritant so it was a case of biting and spitting it out very fast. Once the vines were free, I could pull the trunk in the correct direction and free the saw blade.
With lots of time wasted and only three trunks cut, I had to call it a day because it was about to rain again. So tomorrow will be round two against the Syringa trees. Hopefully it will go more smoothly next time. It seems I'm a lousy tree-feller.