I’ve been at war with poison ivy for close to two decades now and I’d like to think I’m winning. I’ve managed to keep it in check without my skin suffering and without it taking out any of my precious plants.

But this has been staring me in the face for some time now.

This poor Catmint has had the life sucked out of it and is real close to throwing in the towel. I’ve made half-hearted attempts to yank out the poison ivy vines from the base but it’s only been cosmetic. A brief interlude of what appears to be eradication but it’s only been fighting off the inevitable. Within days, it’s back and with a vengeance.

So while it may have been 94 degrees Fahrenheit, accompanied with a blistering and blinding sun yesterday afternoon, I set out to give my Nepeta well earned relief.

And ended up with a crime scene.

What a tangled mess. The poison ivy had wound itself around the base of the Catmint like a pissed off cobra. There was little I could do to salvage anything amongst the carnage.

But I did.

She lives to see another day.

Not much but it’s something. I’ll nurse her back to health and will employ a 24/7 watch on any mutha f’ers that try to get near her.

And if I’m being fully transparent, I had to keep something alive in the front bed. Otherwise I’d be left with four Catmint plants and I can’t be having an even number like that.

One works.

Three works.

Five works.

Six works because it’s 3 + 3.

Four never works.

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A brief intermission or intermezzo, if you will, before we move on to more carnage.

Two photos of bees.

Enjoy.

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Do you grow Dwarf Alberta Spruce?

Has it been successful?

Has the shape remained palatable all these years later?

My goal is to get all of my DAS to look like Grimace.

And that hasn’t happened.

I removed one a few weeks ago as mentioned on this here blog. A spur of the moment chainsaw moment. I didn’t capture any photos and vowed to correct that with the next one.

And here is the next one.

Baby got back, right?

Take a closer look at how abnormal this has grown.

From certain angles it could suffice.

But it was time to move on.

So off with its head, so I could start removing branch by branch, irritated wrists and forearms be damned.

And then the chainsaw chain got jammed and shut itself down. No worries, it’s an electric chainsaw, I’m not that rugged.

I spent a good hour attempting to fix it while sitting in the grass, frying my arse off. I tried a few You Tube videos without any luck. It’s still not fixed a day later and this is what I’m stuck with, a jacked up bonsai.

I moved and divided some Ajuga instead. And then it rained. Which was ideal.

To be continued.