Send the unwanted aliens home before they take over!!!

We have a serious problem in the Pacific Northwest. From other countries they

come in and take over our land. Something extreme has to be done to keep them out.

I am referring of course, to English Ivy, Japanese Morning Glory and Himalayan Blackberry, the

three most invasive exotics I have ever seen in my life. Any one of them can completely

capture almost any site. I've seen the ivy destroy whole forests. And lucky me, I just found

a huge presence of two out of three in my new perennial site. Nothing destroys them. This

ground has been covered with weed cloth for years but today when I was digging I

saw that it is criss-crossed with blackberry rhizomes and Morning Glory roots. I mean, a massive

amount.

The only solution I can see is to physically dig out every inch of soil from the whole

area and sift through to remove all the runners and then surround the area with some kind of

rhizome barrier so they can't re-invade from the surrounding area.

This qualifies as a set back. A major one.

I could sell ya a couple goats on the cheep
they eat the heck outa the blackberry canes and ivy

but to tell the truth I'm not having a lot of trouble controlling the blackberries and morning glory here, 20 minutes a week with a set of hand clippers and a wellbarrow keeps the blackberries in manageable patches(and the goats think I love them) and the lawnmower or garden hoe take care of the morning glory while I'm doing my normal chores

And I easily manage English Ivy - if it wasn't for the un-managed ivy in the neighbors yards all mine would be gone now, but I don't want that.  It holds the soil in place, doesn't mind the rain free PNW summer or acid soil and looks nice and green all year.  My chickens take it completely out in no time when they have access to the fence line.  Not watering in the summer and exposing it to direct sun keeps it in check too. 

Nope, English ivy on my property is no problem at all.  Before you go bonkers, I didn't plant it, I just manage what's been here since I arrived.  To many plants disappear in our water logged winters, leaving ugly mud to look at.  So I appreciate a plant that looks the same year round. 

I'll take the blackberries, you can have all the russian thistle that you want.  We call 'em tumbleweeds.

We how the blackberry out with a garden mattock and then hang them up to dry, as a neighbour said they take root. They are spread by birds, so the most important thing is to how them out before the berries come.
Council here sprays against blackberries, but I hate that, they're growing back anyway, while the native vegetation dies. If you want to poison them then you must scrape the canes with a knife and then you use 3 drops of roundup. But this must be done when they are actively growing.

PaulB wrote:
, you can have all the russian thistle that you want.  We call 'em tumbleweeds.

You can eat them! 

Well, not to go "bonkers" or anything, but I don't want to have to trample down all

the perennial herbs and flowers I will be planting in this area every other day. Goats

and chickens, while great animals, would decimate the entire planting area and

eliminate what I am trying to create. These invasives WILL capture the area if not eradicated.

My best hope is o go over every inch of soil with a fine toothed comb and get as much as I can

out in the hopes that they will not completely rebound during the growing season

and then go in when my herbs have died back and cut out the stuff I missed with as little

disturbance to the rest of the area as possible.

on the east coast, I just mow them till the give up and cut them at the base of trees and pull them away from the bark as high up as I can swing away from the tree. Makes you feel like a kid till you hit the ground a few times .

so far thank God those plants have not gotten to our area..you can keep them or send them back to where they came from

Dr_Temp wrote:
on the east coast, I just mow them till the give up and cut them at the base of trees and pull them away from the bark as high up as I can swing away from the tree. Makes you feel like a kid till you hit the ground a few times .

Ha ha ha - ain't that the truth!

Matthew - run at them like you say and they should be just a memory after one season.

All the best ♥

PaulB wrote:
I'll take the blackberries, you can have all the russian thistle that you want.  We call 'em tumbleweeds.

IT'S A DEAL!!

LOL, you should start a 'YOU DIG!' operation.

Make a few coin while others get rid of them for you. And remember that these sell for a higher price because they are a 'HARDY  ' variety.

Cancer cure?  Here's a possibility for bindweed - convolvulus arvensis
http://www.prostate.net/prostate-health-supplements-a-z/convolvulus-arvensis-bindweed/

Convolvulus arvensis, a flowering plant that belongs to the bindweed family Convolvulaceae, is also known as bindweed or morning glory. About 250 species of flowering plants belong to the bindweed family, but one in particular, C. arvensis, has been the subject of at least one scientific study to evaluate its use in fighting cancer.

Researchers extracted components from convolvulus arvensis, which are composed primarily of proteins and polysaccharides, in boiling water . The extract was used to determine its effect on fibrosarcoma growth in mice and angiogenesis (capillary growth that nourishes tumors) in chick embryos, as well as its impact on lymphocytes (white blood cells that fight infection) ex vivo and tumor cell growth in vitro.

The researchers found that bindweed extract inhibited tumor growth in the mice by about 70 percent. Bindweed extract also interfered with angiogenesis in chick embryos and improved survival of lymphocytes, but the extract did not kill tumor cells in culture. (Meng 2002)

To our knowledge, no other scientific studies have been published regarding the impact of bindweed on cancer. Consult your healthcare provider before taking supplements that contain convolvulus arvensis.

Reference

Meng XL et al. Effects of a high molecular mass Convolvulus arvensis extract on tumor growth and angiogenesis. PR Health Sci J 2002 Dec; 21(4): 323-28

I agree with edibilecities about blackberries, the birds bring them rather than that they grow from their roots i have cut them down and they seemed to stay down for a long time i have ppulled them up after cutting them down without taking care not to pull up all the root and they have not come back but I took some earth from the garden for pots and two blackberries came out from seed in one pot, I reckon they reconquer the garden from seed and so keep me exercised cutting them down again when i am not trying to keep some patches for the wild life.
  It maybe that the dry climate makes them easier to control, they can mange the summer drought but maybe they can't manage being cut down and suffering summer drought. agri rose maccaskie..