I've got a stream running through my front yard that seems to be fed by an underground aquifer. I don’t know for sure if someone accidentally hit it trying to dig a well years ago, but it’s only about 12 feet from my well house, so it wouldn’t surprise me.
This stream has basically turned into a little problem, and now it’s being overrun by Russian Olive trees. If you’ve never dealt with them, they suck—literally. They’ve got nasty thorns, and if you cut them down, they come back like Wolverine. I’ve also got a few good trees near the stream that are losing out because these Russian Olives hog all the water and sunlight.
The stream used to feed a small pond, but now the pond’s not getting enough water. I’ve had to supplement it from a secondary source, which is not ideal.
Clearing this mess sounds simple—just cut the trees back—but it’s kind of a dangerous job. I need to remove the Russian Olives and any other junk trees growing around the stream, right down to the ground, so the stream can flow properly and the good trees have a chance. The problem is, if I slack off for even a year, it’s game over. They’ll grow right back and undo all my progress.
There are ways to slow them down—like hitting the fresh stumps with glyphosate—but I don’t really want to mess with chemicals near a water source, especially since I’m hoping to fish that pond one day.
I’ve got a big dumpster, but only about half of it is free because my family fills the rest with household trash. That’s not going to cut it for all the brush. I’ll need to burn a lot of this stuff, but my window for doing that is limited each year. So I’m also going to have to load up my truck bed and make regular dump runs. Most dumps now require a tarp or some kind of cover over your load, so I’ll have to deal with that too.
This is my front-yard battle of Saigon.
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