{"id":5357,"date":"2016-04-27T11:38:30","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T15:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=5357"},"modified":"2016-04-27T11:38:30","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T15:38:30","slug":"q-and-a-weeds-and-ramps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2016\/04\/27\/q-and-a-weeds-and-ramps\/","title":{"rendered":"Q and A: weeds and ramps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weeds<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know you mostly handle questions about growing, canning, and eating plants, but I need to know how to get rid of them for more than a few weeks. I have a gravel drive about 250 feet long that has big grass patches that look better than my lawn. I have tried everything to get rid of them. Vinegar, salt, combination of the two, pulling. Nothing seems to work. Any ideas?<\/p>\n

Marc
\nNew Deal, Texas<\/em><\/p>\n

Unsightly weeds and grass can sure look ugly where they’re not wanted. And using strong chemicals such as Roundup are to be avoided if at all possible due to the effects it can have on your soil, leaching into adjoining soil and water. Vinegar would work IF it were strong enough. Unfortunately, table vinegar is not acidic enough to kill stubborn grass and if you put enough salt on it to kill it, the adjoining soil would be damaged and your drive would have ugly patches of bare ground along it.<\/p>\n

There are several natural compounds that do work, however. One I’ve used with good results is BurnOut. I bought mine through ARBICO Organics<\/a>. One thing I’ve found is that once you’ve used any natural treatment, you have to keep watch on the area for regrowth. When it starts, immediately treat again. A few thorough treatments and your problem is gone for good. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Ramps<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have an abundance of ramps this spring. I found recipes for pickling them, but it is only for refrigeration. Can I pickle and water bath them to preserve some? What about freezing? Love your articles and knowledge!<\/p>\n

Lynette Czehut
\nChesterland, Ohio<\/em><\/p>\n

Ramps (wild leeks) are a wonderful wild food many folks collect each spring. Yes, you can pickle them. Simply bring your pickling brine up to boiling, add the ramps (bulb only), and bring back to just boiling. Place ramps in hot jars leaving \u00bd” of headspace. Ladle on boiling brine, leaving \u00bd” of headspace. Water bath for 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

Ramps also freeze well but only freeze the bulbs with the roots snipped off. They also dehydrate very well by just snipping off the leaves and roots, then slicing the white bulb in narrow rings. Dry until they feel like paper and store in an airtight container.<\/p>\n

Be sure to leave many ramp plants in the area you harvest as you don’t want to cause them to go extinct from over-harvesting. Luckily, ramps are, well \u2026 kind of rampant and often form large beds. — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weeds I know you mostly handle questions about growing, canning, and eating plants, but I need to know how to get rid of them for more than a few weeks. I have a gravel drive about 250 feet long that has big grass patches that look better than my lawn. I have tried everything to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}