Hello
I live in East Cobb and just fenced a wooded area in my backyard for use as a dog yard. This area has been overrun with "volunteer trees or bushes" for years and I've been pulling up roots for weeks it seems. I call them volunteer trees which may go by other names, but I've talking about the ground cover vines/roots (green leafed) that cover just about everything and germinate trees throughout an area.
I would like to clean up the ground cover somehow and with the dog, I'm just afraid to use any poisons. I was hoping there may be a better solution than just pulling on the veins/roots to clear out an area? it seems just as you pull on one root system, you end up pulling out several others. They never seem to end!
With no poisons, is it simple "man against nature" ?
How Do I get Rid of Volunteer Trees (bushes)?
Ha ha. Read all my posts! Welcome to the "pulling of the IVY club" ! It's hard work man, good for yer muscles, bad for yer back!
Sorry, Andyamp, I am in same position. We have a dog too and besides, Ivy doesn't get killed. And so yes, it is simple "man against nature" ? or in my case: "wo-man against nature"
I am in Dunwoody area, GA, we're almost neighbours.
Coby
I'm in West Cobb and if you are saving some mature trees, the best thing is a garden rake and a good heavy hoe (I like the fireman's axe/hoe). Rake leaves, limbs, and small plants to expose bigger saplings and vines. Cut those with the hoe and continue in a like manner. I rake all my debris into piles where they will make good compost after a year or two.
If you have open areas (no fear of cutting tree roots) then get (buy or rent) a tiller. You can cut the weeds and rake them in a pile like before or till them in where most should rot (some will survive but a lot easier to cut when they surface again).
A lot of people will burn a patch but that is risky and I can't see why burning is even allowed with all the commotion about pollution. That has never made sense to me.
It is a battle but inch by inch you can make your jungle managable.
If you have 6 weeks or so where it's pretty hot and you can keep the dog out or on one side, try putting down some clear plastic. It will do something called 'soil solarization'. With the sun here, it gets like 115 degrees under the plastic and cooks anything in the top layer of soil.
Jeff
Thanks for all the info. Sounds like I have some more work ahead of me!
We cleared out some paths for walking around with logs lined up on the sides and cedar mulch for cover. Everything is starting to look up so now its time to start investing in seeds/wildflowers to plant along the paths.
Soil solarization is a technique typically used for sterilizing your soil for veggie and flower beds - not sure how well it will work in the woods (depends on how well the sun can penetrate the canopy). You can also kill parts of the lawn using this technique as well but I don't know how long it needs to be down to kill the roots.
The thing I hate about this is buying the plastic and then disposing of it a few weeks later (unless you want to clean it and store it). At some point it becomes unusable, but then what doesn't?
What about weed cloth and mulch on top? Plastic will prevent water and air from passing through which might affect roots of trees, shrubs nearby and is also very slippery if you plan on walking this pathway.
Hey Andy.. I'm in East Cobb.. right off Woodlawn. Welcome..
Can you keep your dog in for a bit to spray until it Roundup dries?? Thats what I do with my kids.. Spray if needed when they are away. Good luck.
Susan
Andy, we haven't heard from you since few days.. digging around in the ivy huh?? Howzit going? I am going to dig in myself today, if it's any comfort to you, hopefully it won't start raining AGAIN! Soil must be pretty soft by now after what came down yesterday.
I was told by a gardener here, that he used a tiller to get rid of the most of his ivy. Does any of you have experience with this?
Coby
nope.. but I used a weed eater last week to get it from coming onto my property and I put it over the chain linl fence just along the property too.. nobody lives there.. and hasn't for years. I suspect this is very temporary.. as the roots are still there.. but I don't want to till!!
Susan
The weather forecast looks a bit better for few days, I might go for the tiller for a day and see how it goes. Doing it by hand is backbraking! and of course takes a long time, I try to dig up roots as deep as possible. I will let you know if it works well and really digs deep into rootsystem it might be handy for you too (and Andy of course).
Coby
Thanks for all the info. Still afraid of using a spray in that area, so thus far I've just pulled up new growth as it emerges. Some areas are thicker than others. The wooded area is on a slight slope and I want to prevent erosion of course, so now I'm in a catch 22, because with all the root systems running along the ground and surface, by pulling them up I'm afraid I may increase the erosion rate unless I replant or add ground cover (pine straw). Any thoughts?
Newbie question: Do i break up the root ball when planting a new plant purchased from the store? Many of the 1 gal or 3 gal plants you purchase have thick roots all clumped up. I've been using a shovel to break it up somewhat before planting in the ground but I want to make sure this helps to promote growth vs causing damage to the plant??
I don't think you would have to worry too much about erosion unless it is a very steep slope or the soil is very loose. I would think your soil would be mostly clay anyway. Mulch would be good to keep the mud down anyway.
You should "score" the root ball of a plant if it is root bound. A knife works well to score the edges and bottom of a root ball but a shovel will do as well. If you don't do this and a few years go by and you wonder why the plant isn't growing and dig it up to see what is going on, you will probably see that the roots are still in the shape of the original pot.
Some plants are potted up to bigger pots and sold as a bigger plant but when you pull the pot off you can see that the roots aren't well developed (should this be legal? It happens all the time but you can see that you paid for a gallon (or 3 gallon) plant when it should've been sold as a much smaller plant). Anyway in this case, do not disturb what roots it does have. More than likely a lot of the soil will fall away anyway.
the root ball info makes good sense. when you say "score" do you mean make cuts with a knife or shovel along the sides and bottom? Also, does it matter how deep?
I have some 3 year old evergreen plants that were not scored when planted and to date have grown very slowly if at all. In fact I never really dug the hole as wide as I should have or added planting soil : ( Would it be a good idea to dig those up now and replant correctly, or would that cause too much damage? They are evergreens about 3 ft tall.
When I say score, I mean to cut or scratch the root surface all the way around including the bottom enough to get rid of the circling pattern of the roots. Some roots are very fibrous such as azaleas and might need a lot of their roots disturbed/trimmed. Sometimes a hand cultivator works well (it allows you to get in deeper and rake the mass loose).
If you want your evergreens to grow, then I'd dig them up and check the roots. If they are still the same shape as the original pot, then you know what is wrong. If you don't dig them up, then you may never know what the problem is. If you want them to stay small, then let them alone.
An example is a hydrangea P.G. I saved from the last house due to shading out from the trees. I cut a couple of pieces and rooted it easily enough but left it in a small glazed pot for a few years so it never really got large. The excuse was I didn't have a place to plant it and we had been talking for a couple of years about moving. So when we moved it stayed in the same pot for another year. I finally planted it two falls ago and it hasn't gotten much larger other than the thickness of the trunk and looks healthier overall. I really can't remember if I broke up the roots when I plugged it or not (I may have been thinking that I was just planting it temporarily so it didn't need its roots disturbed). I'm thinking about cutting a couple pieces off of it and getting some new ones going and see if I can get a good size plant in a few years.
thank you very much, i will dig up the evergreens and take a look at them one of these weekends to see how the roots look. i bet they are still balled up tight!
on starting new hydrangea's from an existing plant, can you walk me through that one please..... my neighbor has some beautiful full size hydrangea's in his yard and has told me I'm welcome to use shoots(?) for starting my own plants. I'm just not sure quite how to do that....
"learning more each day!"
The easiest thing on propagating hydrangeas is air layering. Simply bend over a long branch (maybe scrape the bark along a couple of nodes) and weight the branch with a rock with the (scraped) nodes in contact with the soil. As long as the soil remains damp, it should root in a couple of weeks. When it has rooted pretty good, cut the branch from the parent and dig up the rooted branch and plant where you want it. Cuttings should be as easy but I've only done that on P.G.
If the hydrangea is fairly large, then more than likely there will be many small plants already rooted due to its nature of falling over and rooting.