A quick review of the blog shows that I have written surprisingly little about Japanese stilt grass over the years. I won't go into a big discussion of this invasive plant, there is plenty of English-language interweb warbling about it and there's lots around here. Mary doesn't want it in our yard, and I get that.
She pulled a bunch of it out on the LFA property that abuts our lawn just before it went to seed (she's pretty sure) and then left it on a tarp on in our yard. She doesn't think it would be right to have the town haul it away and resisted my putting it down below where we haul our excess leaves each year despite thinking she got it before it started generating a lot of seeds.
I had been thinking of burning it in our pandemic-era fire pit for some time. Yesterday, while out raking, I decided to give it a go. It burned nicely, but slowly. It took a fair amount of effort to burn the stuff in small quantities and to keep it going. But boy was it gratifying and also warm. I thought about Leslie, our family's truest and purest pyromaniac, and how much she would have enjoyed being there and watching all of this flaming and somewhat evil biomass.
As I burned it, I wondered to myself "is this legal here in Chapel Hill?" After I went inside after burning maybe 25-30% of it, I consulted the interweb on this question. It turns out that burning yard waste is not governed by a Chapel Hill ordinance but a North Carolina statute, which does in fact ban it. Whoops. Moreover, burning it is not even considered a good way to manage stilt grass since viable seeds could be scattered to the wind by the fire itself. Of course, Mary was pretty sure (but not entirely so) that she had pulled the stuff in time.
And so ends my little experiment in burning stilt grass in my back yard. It was illegal and probably not even a good idea. But it was fun.
2 comments:
I've always been jealous when I head down to NC and see all these people dispose their leaves by setting them on fire. In my little corner of New England, state law establishes a small Permit Raj around burning, and then specifically excludes leaves!
(And people say this is a free country!)
But doesn't NC actually allow burning? At least if it's your grass. . .
https://www.deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/air-quality/air-quality-compliance/open-burning
Forgive the interest, it's been a lot of raking and leaf blowing and mulching recently. Leaves are burning in my mind!
Hey man, thanks for the clarification. I was Googling and reading too fast, I suppose. I already dragged all that stilt grass down in the yard and also had read that it is not recommended as a means of slowing its spread anyway. The main thing is that I negotiated a means of disposal with my spouse. Another externality was the need to launder after stinking up my clothes.
But stick with the raking, not the blowing. Raking is inherently pro-social, builds core muscles and helps you cogitate, whereas blowing is anti-social.
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