Invader

Happy Juneteenth Day, a day to commemorate the end of slavery. 

The weather was incredible again today so Samuel and I had a nice long walk this morning. I saw a man digging something in the park and talking with another man. Being a shy and reserved person, I stopped and asked, "what up?" This led to a fascinating discussion about native plants. The tree he was digging near was a Pawpaw tree, which I keep running across in my reading lately. He explained that a whole band of trees there were all actually one tree but that it had never borne fruit. Pawpaws have genders and you need another tree of the other gender to bear fruit so he was taking one of his from his yard and planting it here in hopes that it was the other gender. I have heard of this fruit and I heard it was wonderful but I've never had one or seen one. According to this there are actually THREE Pawpaw sexes. 

He's a certified Montgomery County Weed Warrior. They are a group that goes out and attacks invasive species killing other species. For example, there is a plant called kudzu that is slowly taking over the United States, destroying our democracy, spreading conspiracy theories, and persuading people not to get vaccinated or read woke books. How a vine can do all that I don't know. The point being that it was ok for him to be in the park doing stuff like this but he was thrilled that I asked because he mistakenly believed I was checking to make sure what he was doing was ok. I was not checking to make sure he wasn't stealing from the park, I was nosy aka curious. He was a teacher. He is retired now and does this out of passion. He gave me a book, Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas. The orange lily I've been enjoying this week - invasive. The wonderful mulberry trees that I love eating the fruit off of - invasive. A quarter of the plants I've noticed in the nursery - invasive. 

He was planting the tree because it isn't enough to remove the invaders, you have to replace them with native plants. 

Now, I have the coolest plants in my garden and many of them are native plants - entirely thanks to Kate. The pre-Kate yard had exactly ... zero native plants I believe. I complained and he agreed that a big problem with planting native species is you can't procure them. Why, one could almost see someone taking a spade and a bag and going into the park ....

Chuck's business card says "Building, restoring and repairing our world one homeland garden at a time." which is lovely. 

Lithuania is blocking the transit of goods that are subject to sanctions, including coal, construction materials, and some tech. These sanctions were adopted in 2014 in response to Russia taking Crimea and Sevastopol. 

Russian soldier morale is bad. Troops are dissenting. Whole units are refusing orders in some cases. There are some armed standoffs between soldiers and officers. The reasons are poor leadership, limited rotation out of combat, heavy casualties, combat stress, Because it isn't a war, Russia can't court martial them. 

Ben Stiller visited Ukrainian refugees in Poland. These aren't just public relations stunts, they are efforts to keep the issue alive for us and prevent people from getting tired and whining about gas prices and letting Russia take Ukraine. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the Group of Seven will make it clear that they will back Ukraine as long as necessary.