Last year (2008) about this time, I began my efforts to remove a roughly 1000-square foot patch of reed canary grass by covering it with geotextile fabric. With the help of my friend Todd Hardman, we got it done. Some grass naturally started sneaking out the sides during the summer months but I figured I could just cover that up this spring. But when it started growing through the fabric, I realized just what I was up against: nature. Hard to fight a plant's ability to spread and grow.

What sounded like a perfectly easy process I realize is a whole lot of work! Yet onward we go with adjusted expectations. The next recommended step: shading out the grass.

This spring (2009), I got the willow stakes, first from the Whatcom County Conservation district and thought oh, 50 should do it. Wrong. It's a number's game. I trotted off to Olympia and picked up 200 more willow stakes to finish the job. Threw in 25 dogwood stakes just to mix it up.




Happy to see them sprouting. But will it actually "shade-out" reed canary grass? We'll see!