War Cry at The L’il Farm | Radical Joy Unbound

This year, on June 16’s Global Earth Exchange, I began working to rid the land of Johnson Grass, which came in on a load of topsoil I had delivered for my garden 3 years ago—a wound I inadvertently caused. To me, although I’ve been working to eliminate invasives all along, this represents my “War Cry” in my battle against this invasive and others, a renewal of my original purpose for and care of this land: “unbinding” the land from the grip of invasives to release its radical joy. I started out by flagging the circumference of three patches of Johnson grass, each about six feet in diameter. I then lopped off their heads! That was pretty satisfying. I loaded all the seed heads in a cardboard box destined for the fire pit. Once beheaded, the patches are ready to be smothered under several layers of cardboard. Because of family obligations, I have not reached this step yet, but will this week. In addition to the smothering and lopping off of heads, I also removed all the juniper seedlings in these areas, as well as three invasive chinaberry trees. During this removal process, I released several beautiful bits of my land —the most interesting of which was my discovery of several Io moth caterpillars! No, I did not touch them!!! I also discovered several native plants hidden under the invasives. I created my RAD Joy bird out of a mixture of native and invasive plants. I will be continuing my “War Cry” on my land over the next several years. I even special ordered some blue “war paint” to wear when battling invasives! I really feel like a strong warrior woman participating in this, both on my Li’l Farm and with High Hope, and I thank you for coordinating this each year!