Over the past few years, I've pulled up tons of Asian Jasmine, Japanese Honeysuckle, and Nandina. Now I am beginning to pull up the last undesirable legacy plant in my yard - a large bed of English Ivy. My hands are sore after several hours going at it, and I have most of it off the fence, but I have a LOT of ground cover to go.
Moral support and/or advice would be appreciated! :)
Dennis
Final battle has begun
Oh do I feel for you. I haven't battled Asian Jasmine and honeysuckle, but we do have Nandina, better known in our house as damdina. We dug up part of it and broke a hatchet and a pick ax in the process. What we have left to dig up is bigger than what we already dug up and very intimidating. Fortunately the other stuff you're fighting was never planted in my yard by previous occupants. I doubt that it's possible to completely get rid of it.
The really unfortunate part is that it is also in my neighbor's yard on the other side of the fence, so this will be never ending battle...
But on the plus side, this will give me a lot more space for good plants. I guess I'll have to wait at least a year or so, to make sure that most of the stuff it gone.
Dennis
My sympathies. I pulled out my Asian Jasmine many years ago and still get sprigs. I also get lots of nandina seedlings. I don't know if it would have helped to cover it for a year to "compost" it. The Asian Jasmine spread to my neighbor's, who loves it on the fence.I need to wack it back 2-3 x a year.
Have you heard of "Round Up"? I'm told it works wonders! You can even use it in your vegetable garden!
I have been removing wild honeysuckle for the past few weekends. Not just sore hands but my back is protesting. I have found the soil underneath to be an excellent leaf mold however and hope you find the same. Like you, I suspect it will take monitoring for a while to make sure it is erradicated.
Next, the removal of rows of embedded roots of cast iron plant. They don't spread quite as bad but the roots are a bear to dig. Good luck Dennis!
Has anybody ever tried neutralizing salt? Salt would kill that stuff, but then of course nothing will live there because of the salt. But if you could neutralize it...Twenty percent vinegar might work but it would kill most anything else nearby if you got it on the leaves. Anything that was dormant should be fine though. I'm guessing it shouldn't hurt tree roots. I think it becomes fertilizer when it hits the soil.
I feel your pain. My house had huge beds of Asian jasmine and every tree on the place was ringed with cast iron plants. I also had a back yard full of elephant ears and variegated ginger. None of this had ever been tended, so it was taking over the whole place. I finally got rid of all of it, but it was tedious and back breaking work. Like you, I still have jasmine slip under the fence from my neighbors yard, but I try to not let it ever get a toe hold and rip it out as soon as I see it. The elephant ears are bad as they still pop up in places and I can't get the whole tuber out. Some of them are up under the edge of the house foundation, so I just cut them off as soon as they poke their head's out. The ginger was the hardest to dig out. The cast iron plants pulled up fairly easily if the ground was saturated with water first. I'm sorry I don't have a magic remedy for you, but if you figure one out, you could make a fortune with it!
Crow
Dennis, you have my sympathy as well. We were in our previous home for 22 years. I had a 22 year war against English Ivy. The house was 5 years old when we bought it. So the ivy was well established and had a 5 year start on me. Pulling it off the fence was the easiest part.
Picks and shovels won't work because the thick roots are very spongy and absorb the blows with very little damage to them. The roots form dense mats up to 1-1/2' deep. I found many roots had diameters up to 3". To make matters worse, my ivy was on a hillside. I kept sliding down hill or my feet would get tangled in well anchored runners. I quickly realized I was not going to make any headway trying to remove it mechanically. Round-Up is ideal. It only works on green plants. Tree trunks are safe. It quickly breaks down in the soil into nitrogen products in a form plants can use. It is not a quick fix however. Even when used with a surfactant, Round-Up has to be re-applied repeatedly. English Ivy leaves have a thick impervious coat that makes it difficult for the Round-Up to penetrate. I found it works better if the leaves are thrashed with something to damage them. Then sprayed immediately with the Round-Up mixed at maximum levels. Repeat and repeat and repeat. I had killed most of it 22 years later when we sold the house, there were still a few patches left.
Dennis, I believe Dave's wife was wanting some ivy or Asian jasmine for their new place. You may ask about it and bring some to the RU for them. It of course transplants very easily. LOL
Charlene
By the way Dennis, I am so glad to have not found that you were ill with a fatal disease. When I saw the title about your final battle that is what came to mind. What a relief! I do hope you have a few battles ahead and that this is not your final one. It's the battles that make us stronger. In this case it's the muscles and hopefully patience that is getting stronger.
Charlene
I feel for you Dennis, just last week we got rid of the last of our Nadinas, they had been there for at least 35 years. They were given to me by a friend when we were new at the house and had been there ever since.
Don't get me wrong, I think they are attractive indestructible plants that can take heat, cold, drought and flood, and I have never seen any insects on them, but they are not native and they are also on the Texas invasives list.
So they had to come out, but without my husband's help there is no way I could have done it. It took everything we have including pick and ax, but they are all out now.
We have done it in stages so as not to kill ourselves.
Josephine.
Josephine,
I agree with you about the nandina - I really liked the look of it and the low maintenance aspect, but I found some coming up in the woods behind my house and decided I should pull it rather than contributing to the spread of an invasive. I pulled it out two years ago, and have had just a few small resprouts. If only the ivy will go so easily...
This ivy bed was old when I moved in 7 years ago. So far I have found a few vines that had a 2 inch diameter at the base. This only good news so far is that the soil is quite sandy, so I (hopefully) won't be fighting clay. I'm just considering this a long term project.
Also, the bed has a few trees and shrubs in it, so I am very reluctant to go the chemical route. I guess I'll just pull up as much as I can for now, and watch for new growth to see where I need to do more excavation.
I think that is a good plan Dennis.
Hi Dennis, Hey my husband and I bought a foreclosure a few years ago that had been abandoned for a while and the previous owners apparently gave up the fight against poison oak and greenbrier. I can't even count the days/weeks of time that I spent on the perimeter of my property chopping greenbrier and poison oak out of trees and the roots are horrendous! I dug up and cut down what I could and then used a paint brush with Roundup (full strength) to attack the new sprouts. I would go out there twice a week for several months and paint each new shoot as soon as it showed its ugly head. But now 2 years into the battle I have finally erradicated the greenbrier and poison oak from my property. It can be a long road, but hang in there and someday the battle will be over. I highly recommend hand painting on the Roundup around your trees and other plants so that it doesn't get on anything you care about and want to keep.
For the woody type vines, you might try using a vine and woody plant killer versus Roundup. While Roundup is good, the tougher vines like ivy, poison oak and ivy, etc. are not as easily affected by it. Careful when spraying it around trees and bushes though. For thrashing them, hit them with a weed eater first, then spray.
Cast iron plants - love them for their hardiness and evergreen look. Have you seen the price of a small one gallon container in the stores with a couple sprigs? Don't kill them, dig 'em and sell them. Perhaps one of your local garden centers will buy them from you for resale. I just dug several very large matted clumps from my mom's yard and planted them along the house as a border. It was a chore to separate the roots. I have seen a variegated variety lately that I would like to have.
Chuck
Chuck ~ you want some? LOL I wouldn't make you buy... Bring a pick axe and come dig... 8 )
Currently battling the English ivy mixed with honeysuckle. Don't want to use chemicals as then it would be a long time before I could plant something else. Sure makes a lot of blisters, even with gloves.
Christi