Weed control?

For the past week the roadsides in our neighborhood have been full of crown vetch in bloom. In 2017 crown vetch was added to the Minnesota list of restricted noxious weeds. According to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture:

crown vetch in bloom

Photo by J. Harrington

Mowing can be effective to slow the spread if done on schedule to prevent seed formation, and for successive years. For complete eradication, mowing will need to be performed in conjunction with another control method, like herbicide application.

Minnesota Statutes complicate the mowing solution somewhat since 160.232 Mowing Ditches Outside Cities states:

(a) To provide enhanced roadside habitat for nesting birds and other small wildlife, road authorities may not mow or till the right-of-way of a highway located outside of a home rule charter or statutory city except as allowed in this section and section 160.23.

(b) On any highway, the first eight feet away from the road surface, or shoulder if one exists, may be mowed at any time.

(c) An entire right-of-way may be mowed after July 31. 

Judging by the condition of the blooms in late June, crown vetch may well have gone to seed by July 31. Although we haven't taken a tape measure to the local roadsides, it's not hard to guess that at least a notable amount of the crown vetch extends back more than eight feet from the road surface or shoulder. Perhaps this helps explain why we're seeing more and more crown vetch growing in the roadsides. It seems too many entities in government will never grasp the idea that, if you want to encourage a certain behavior, make it easy to do. Then, again, will US governments ever adopt the precautionary principle?

Rose Pogonias

Robert Frost - 1874-1963

A saturated meadow,
     Sun-shaped and jewel-small,
A circle scarcely wider
     Than the trees around were tall;
Where winds were quite excluded,
     And the air was stifling sweet
With the breath of many flowers,—
    A temple of the heat.

These were bowed us in the burning,
     As the sun’s right worship is,
To pick where none could miss them
     A thousand orchises;
For though the grass was scattered,
    Yet every second spear
Seemed tipped with wings of color,
     That tinged the atmosphere.

We raised a simple prayer
     Before we left the spot,
That in the general mowing
     That place might be forgot;
Or if not all is favoured,
     Obtain such grace of hours,
That none should mow the grass there
     While so confused with flowers. 

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