Today, I restarted the cow parsnip/hogweed eradication program. They show up in this corner of the field. Right now they’re small and spindly, but if I don’t get them out of the ground they’ll become more robust, and thus more of a problem. [I didn’t get after them last year, as I recall, and I’m regretting it.] The soil is damp enough that they’re reasonably easy to separate and remove from the clods I remove with the shovel. It’s a dull chore, but necessary. We have youngish kids coming this summer, I hear, and they don’t need to tangle with the phytophototoxic compounds this plant contains.
In far more pleasant botanical news, the apple blooms are beginning to open. I should have waited until late afternoon when the sun came out to get a better picture.