Into the Forums

With the first day of spring less than a week away, and prime gardening season fast approaching, it’s hardly surprising that the yearly headache of weeds has become a popular topic on the forums. But is there a way win the battle with Bermuda grass, kudzu, chickweed and fescue? Here’s a few of the highlights from the thread so far.

joeinmadco: So, I don’t know, the worst weed in WNC I’ve encountered was an intentionally planted grass for cattle: fescue. It has one hell of a root system, and is difficult to pull up if you let it go too far. And, even if you turn the soil and expose the roots to cold weather, years of its unmanaged presence on certain fields have created quite the seedbank.

Betty Cloer Wallace: I know what you mean about the horrible tall fescue. I have a field on which I have tried everything short of chemicals (plowing, planting corn, burning) to get rid of the stuff.  NOTHING good will grow through it. … I have been fascinated with bamboo for a long time anyway, and it occurred to me that timber bamboo might be the solution for that field of fescue.

brebro: I bet multiflora roses, (or as I like to call them, “brars”) would beat any opponent you faced them off against.

Davyne: I’ve gone the gamut in the bamboo thing. Not so much for fescue control, but enough to know what will do well in our climate. … You’ll hear lots of panic when it comes to bamboo, but you can control bamboo, by mowing down the new shoots in the spring, if you plant in a large area.

joeinmadco: No experience trying to grow bamboo in fescue territory, but I like the idea. As for multiflora, I’ve seen goats take care of it pretty well. Downside is, goats will eat all kinds of things.

brebro: I understand there are people who will rent a landowner their goats to take care of any weed problems, but I think you have to supply the fences to keep them where you want them and of course, there is the aforementioned problem of the goats not being selective in their consumption of all plant matter they voraciously consume.

pff It’s not limited to plant matter.

There’s more to the MountainX.com forum experience than gardening advice, however. For instance, efforts by local technology activists to catch the attention of Google in an attempt to bring a 1-gigabit network to the area has been the source of much discussion. Far from being gaga over the network, the Boarders are actually showing a healthy dose of skepticism, as shown in this condensed version of the thread thus far.

missemmalee: Being connected to a gig transfer isn’t going to give us squat if we’re not fully connected to the backbone in Raleigh right? There’s not much that can happen if the servers on the other end can’t transfer that much data – unless there’s future intent on upgrading our connection to the pipeline.

The Imposter: The bottleneck no one is considering will be with their own computers. … Unless you have bought a bleeding-edge computer in the last 12 months, the chances are good that you are not equipped to take full advantage of the fiber network Google is offering. … Doesn’t keep me from not wanting it, however.

mat catastrophe: Again, I think there are some pretty weird issues here that are not being addressed. For instance, if Google comes to town and wires up your house with this great big fat pipe to the internets are you then bound to use their services? What if you want to buy into U-Verse? Would that require a separate fiber connection or will google allow AT&T on their network? … Or, is Asheville just going to allow Google to serve Google through its Google so you can surf for Google while you watch Google and discuss Google on your Google?

missemmalee: Exactly, they’re not going house to house and plugging in a fat pipe into everyone’s house. … For the typical tronzer in Asheville its going to be like they raise the speed limit around town to 100, but as soon as you get on the interstate, it’s back to 65. No one is realizing this.

mat catastrophe: Is anyone going to tweet Gordon [Smith, Asheville City Council] and find out why he is willing to let a mega-corporation like Google sink its claws into Asheville? Hell, not let them, he’s inviting them in.

pff: Dude, what Asheville REALLY has to offer is naive, idiotic transplants who use meaningless buzzwords to describe concepts they dont comprehend. Seriously. From Google’s standpoint, this is a HUGE benefit, since it is probably a very lucrative demographic.

Other interesting discussions from this week include: a new local genealogy and history website; the weekly Machine Made of Birds discussion (which probably won’t make much sense unless you’re listening to the podcast as you read the thread); the introduction of a brand new, and none-too-serious political party with a warm beverage for name; thoughts on the death of ‘80s icon Corey Haim; and many, many more.

Of course, this is just a sample of the new discussions that took place on the forum this week. Don’t see a discussion about that burning topic you’d like to talk about? Why not start your own? All registered members of the MountainX.com have forum accounts, and if you aren’t a member, joining is easy — just click here.