this new life has begun

[pensnest]

Sycamores, now. Sycamores.

The sycamore tree is a glorious thing. It is a handsome tree, tall and straight and with majestic and elegant branches. Its leaves are lovely and, in autumn, spectacular.

And it is evil. It is out for world domination. A sycamore tree's one ambition is to fill the entire temperate zone with sycamore forest. Its seeds sprout everywhere and are relentless. Miss one, and you have a sapling three feet tall which takes enormous effort to extract, or a five foot high growth which must be KILLED WITH FIRE.

I plucked about fifty baby sycamores this morning when I had only gone into the garden to pick some kale. Grar.

Comments

[kitarella_imagines]

Oh sycamore, have you met hornbeam? That was the big tree next to our house that spread saplings like the common cold, we were constantly pulling them up.

But I did pull up a sycamore last week too!

[pensnest]

Hornbeams are native to these isles, so probably a better bet. I had not realised this before, but someone in the yoga group volunteers on a tree, er, place, and said they are trying to get rid of their sycamores (which are mighty) and plant hornbeam and cherry and so on.

[kitarella_imagines]

Oh no, hornbeams are out for world domination too, they get everywhere I even pulled one out of the drain.

This one was the height of a 3 storey house at least, it was a monster. I'm glad it's gone because of how dangerous it was in a storm, but sad because it saved us from floods by sucking up excess water.

[rebeccmeister]

Wow!

This made me look up Sycamore trees on Wikipedia, and here's what I found:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sycamore

I'm not sure where you are, so I don't know which one is causing you troubles (I don't need to know, it was just interesting to learn more about sycamores!).

[pensnest]

Yikes! I'm in England, which doesn't seem to get a mention there. It is a very handsome tree, but oh, the babies!

[fuzzyred]

Oh dear. That sounds a lot like the Rose of Sharons I had to deal with at my old house. If you didn't cut them back as soon as they were done blooming, you had dozens of new sprouts popping up the next season. There was one specific corner that not only had the Rose of Sharons but also bittersweet vines everywhere and I regularly wanted to kill it all with fire.

[pensnest]

I am discovering that the delightful raspberry has a spreading habit as well. But I do like raspberries very much, so I shall not complain about them. Just about the weeds whose roots can not be extracted from the ground however hard I try! Meanwhile, my actual vine plants remain two feet tall. Perhaps, this year, they will grow.

[sperrywink]

Ahaha, A sycamore world might be slightly better than the dumspter fire we have going on, even if the Sycamore world is without internet, not gonna lie.

[pensnest]

Yeeees, I'm afraid it might. *woe* I spent a whole day not touching my computer on Sunday, mostly because I was marathoning the Lord of the Rings trilogy, extended versions of course, and I'm sure it was very good for me.

[turlough]

I'm very glad our maples aren't nearly as intent on taking over the world!

[pensnest]

Perhaps it's a little too chilly for them? In the soft and receptive soil of my back garden, where it has been 17C today, the little winged seeds find a comfortable home. Fortunate that they can be picked out with ease until they get their second set of grown-up leaves!