Luck with Vines
I apologize in advance - this is not one of the prettier pictures I've posted to my weblog.This is a passiflora (passionvine) that my aunt gave me, a piece of her plant, which has gone crazy, and which I was hoping to get to grow, to cover an ugly fence and bring some color to my yard. Passionvine is supposed to be aggressive to the point of being invasive, but this is the second one I've killed so far.
This vine, on the other hand, is doing really well in my garden. You recognize it, don't you? Leaves of three, let it be? Yes, it's poison ivy. Gah. What's a (mostly) organic gardener to do? I know how good organic gardeners deal with poison ivy - two plastic bags, gloves, and a hell of a lot of prayer - but this ivy is growing in from behind the fence. I've pulled it before, but I never get the whole plant. There's some city-owned no man's land behind our property, so it's uncultivated. I can get back there, but I'm not sure I'd want to - it's all tall brush, mosquitoes, and, well, poison ivy, obviously. Plus, I've only just gotten over a nasty skin issue that may well have been poison-ivy-related. (If no one at Spring Fling saw me scratching, I was doing well.)
And the monster is creeping into my yard in at least three or four places along my back fence. So what do I do? Break down and buy some Roundup?
Suggestions are very welcome.
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I've used a product called Perfectly Natural Weed Killer with some success. I think it is clove oil and vinegar or something like that. I found it once at a store, but had to mail order some of it to use last year. You might give it a try.
Sorry the passionvine didn't make it. Try again, because third times a charm, right?
Hi Rachel,
Condolences on the passionvine - hope you get a second chance!
I'm terribly allergic to poison ivy myself and had bad experiences in a former Divas of the Dirt garden so am always on the alert!
Maybe Carol's product will work! If not, I've heard the same advice in both print and on radio: Some people who are otherwise organic draw the line at poison ivy. What I've heard is that you wear two layers of disposable gloves and use a throw away foam paintbrush to carefully dab the Round up liquid on all the exposed leaves. I think Tom Spencer also said the newest leaves are most vulnerable, so do it when there's been a flush of new growth. The killed leaves can still get you and the smoke can make people super sick so disposal is also critical.
Whatever you do, Good luck!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
There's a citrus oil you can get at the Natural Gardener that is an organic herbicide. It's very strong and will kill any other plant it gets on, so apply carefully. But I do also recommend judicious use of Round Up for tough weeds like poison ivy and Bermuda grass. Good luck, and I hope you have success with your next passionflower.
Good luck with the poison ivy. I think you've gotten some good ideas so far. I just planted two passion vines last week so I am keeping my fingers crossed they will survive. If they do, you will be welcome to a cutting and any ideas for success that I've come up with in the meantime.
I'm gong to have to vote to round-up that sucker.
Your photography is beautiful! The poison ivy even looks pretty. Thanks for finding me on Blotanical! I'm excited about learning from the Austin garden bloggers.
I would Round-up that one. Spot-treating with Round Up isn't going to do the environment too much damage, just don't go all crazy and start having a garden party with the pesticides ;)
I'm with the round-up crowd on this one, too. That's bad stuff and my DH is really allergic. And the organic gardening book I won from Kathy Purdy's organic contest says it's ok as long as you carefully apply it to plant leaves and don't get it get into a pond or any sort of frog habitat. I couldn't kill my passionflower, and man, I tried. It was in a full sun, well-watered bed and tried to choke out all my other plants. Can't win, huh?!
You've had some good ideas about getting rid of the poison ivy. I hope you get rid of it quickly - that is vile stuff.
And how unfair that it thrives and not the passionvine. I hope you keep on trying with passion vine. I used to have trouble keeping them going because I wasn't always on the bit with watering when they were just getting established. Now that I have a few mature vines, they take more abuse than they did when they were still little( unfortunately I have to grow them in pots and haul them inside every autumn).
Oh, you are singing my song. We've got poison ivy coming through our fence too. The other side of the fence is undeveloped land with a nice woodpile for good measure. We're organic too, but we didn't even bother, especially afters suiting up to pull it out last summer. After much googling, my fiance bought something called Brush Be Gone (it may have a new name now), climbed over the fence, and hit it hard. Then he hit that on our side of the fence in a more spot treatment way. Too soon to say if this is going to work, but if I discover we're successful, I'll definitely post about it. We're planning to grow vines on the fence and don't want them intertwined with poison ivy. Sigh. I believe it may be an ongoing battle.
Good luck!
nifty pictures (yes, even the poison ivy).
and i would say use the roundup.