Honsetail

Horsetail is a peculiar plant. It's a reed-like herbaceous plant with hollow, segmented stems that many people confuse for a type of bamboo, and has the peculiar property of propagating via spores rather than seeds. It also has a running habit, sending out lateral roots that can sprout new plants many meters away from where it's growing, and these roots can regenerate even if sliced up into relatively small pieces.

All this makes for a rather obnoxious garden plant, despite its otherwise pleasant appearance.

And so this horsetail in front of my house needs to go.

Preferably before it takes over my entire yard.

You might think, given the above description, that this would be a difficult task. And it might be, if I were not armed with the gardener's secret weapon: a very sharp hoe.

Luckily I am indeed armed with a very sharp hoe, which made quick work of it.

Now I'm quite sure that this plant will try to come back as it's nearly impossible for me to remove every last bit of its roots. But the good news is that my hoe isn't going anywhere and I won't hesitate to use it to keep it knocked down.

With any luck it should be dead and gone by next spring at the latest, at which point the current plan is to plant some lemon thyme here, which should pair nicely with the rosemary bushes just on the other side of the hose reel.