Tumbleweed is taking over ABQ backyards!

With dry weather and typical Spring strong winds here in Albuquerque, tumbleweed seems to be everywhere: highways, city roads, sidewalks, parking lots, but most annoyingly our backyards. No single most effective solution exists to dispose of it. They cling to each other forming huge clusters next to impossible to take apart. So, it is best to act quickly before you end up with a huge and heavy tumbleweed mammoth in your yard.

1. Isolate the smaller pieces first and take them apart from each other. Smaller bushes are easier to manage and you'll prevent them from sticking together forming big clusters.

2. Cut the smaller pieces you found at the base with sharp garden scissors and pack them tightly into heavy duty bags. You need heavy duty construction grade bags like Husky 3 mil you can get at Home Depot (http://www.homedepot.com/p/HUSKY-42-Gal-Contracto…/202973825). And of course wear long sleeve leather or heavy duty gloves to avoid getting scratched by tumbleweed spikes.

3. Cut bigger branches in half so they can fit into the bag. You may decide to use reciprocating saw if you have one for hard to reach places.

Do not set tumbleweed on fire! They are extremely dry and flammable due to the special oil inside them.

But most importantly, think about building new walls, especially if you don't have them, or improving existing walls or fence to avoid this problem in the future. Call us about the most cost effective fence and retaining wall solutions and we'll be happy to build it for you. We'll even dispose of some of your tumbleweed while we are at it as an additional bonus.

If you are not yet committed to having a new retaining wall or disposing of tumbleweed yourself this year, you can let them accumulate and participate in recent New Mexico tradition to build a Tumbleweed Snowman as in the picture above.