Himalayan Blackberries

These blackberries are a scourge around here. Once established it's almost impossible to get rid of this agressive thorny plant. A single plant can grow ten feet tall and spread twenty feet in one year.  We saw these canes reaching for our feet and growing in all directions on pavement. They were also busy engulfing a lovely pampas grass which is holding it's own for now. (extra) Wikipedia informs us that the seeds were imported into this country by none other than Luther Burbank. He acquired the seeds in 1885 from a trader in India and dubbed them Himalayan blackberries, though they are actually native to Armenia and Northwestern Iran. He is much lauded around here for developing a lot of new plants, but I don't know what he was thinking when he introduced this one. It does get a lot of fruit on it but the thorns are so vicious that it is almost impossible to breech the dense thickets to reach the berries.. The fruit is tasty but has a lot of very fibrous seeds...all the better to reproduce itself via birds and other wildlife that eat it.

Pedro came yesterday to investigate the leak. He thinks he knows where it might be coming from and will be back on Wednesday to dig down into a hole behind the retaining wall which once held the pump for a sort of spa like pool that we took out. Pedro and his guys took it out so he's probably pretty familiar with those pipes which were capped when the pool was taken out but might me broken or leaking now.

We have a lot of odds and ends from our garden so I'm going to make a vegetable soup for dinner. Although we have been warm afternoons it is quite misty...the 'marine influence'...in the mornings it clears by ten or so and the afternoons are quite pleasant giving way to cool evenings so a bowl of hot soup won't go amiss.