Weed wackiness
Erika Howsare: Good article, “A quest for less lawn” [Green Living, June 29]. You rightly point out that if you stop mowing, trees start growing. It would be the same if you tried starting a meadow. It could only be done with lots of hand weeding or spraying of trees, poison ivy, prickly blackberry and multiflora rose, etc. In other words, you’d be substituting weeding and/or spraying for mowing. Most people won’t do it.
I have 10 acres, about half open, and have been wrestling with this issue for 21 years. I have lots of fruit trees, and I had hoped that once they were big that the weeds/grass would be shaded out. It helps, but stuff still grows under them, which must get mowed or weeded or sprayed.
I’ve been hand-cutting thorny stuff for all 21 years, and hand cutting or spot spraying Round-Up (glyphosphate) on poison ivy for 21 years. I assumed that in a few years I’d eliminate them, and they’d no longer be a problem. Not true. It’s much better, but somehow most weeds keep coming back, over and over, and in new places. Birds must drop seeds.
You can get someone with a tractor to bush-hog twice a year. Or you can do this yourself with some behemoth of a walk-behind machine (I’ve gone through two). This works somewhat, and sort of creates a meadow. It’s not nearly as pleasant to walk on, though, as a lawn or as a natural meadow.
David Consolvo
Hungrytown
A glassy affair
Ms. Headley: There is a third reason to pour a wine out of its bottle before drinking it: It lessens the likelihood of picking of pathogens from one’s drinking buddies [“Airing out the differences,” Working Pour, July 6]. While passing the bottle around for hearty swigs fosters a sense of community, it does convey a real possibility of spreading diseases that said buddies are harboring. If no vessel is available, one may fashion a temporary one by cupping one’s, ideally clean, hands.
I hope you and your readers will find this tip helpful!
Phil McDonald
Charlottesville
CORRECTION
Due to a reporting error, last week’s Restaurantarama listed O’Neill’s Irish Pub as a venue for watching the World Cup, however, O’Neill’s no longer exists. The space, at 1505 University Ave., is occupied by Trinity Irish Pub.
Due to a reporting error, Councilor David Brown and Mayor Dave Norris were erroneously referenced in last week’s cover story, “Whose lane is it, anyway?” as being in support of making West Main Street a one-way road in order to give greater space to bikers. In fact, Brown supports removing on-street parking on one side of West Main. Norris supports designating bike lanes and paths for bikers.