Does anyone have any advice for me on how to get rid of (as in destroy totally) the fern that we know in South Africa as the 'sword fern' - it is a classified invasive species here and is all over my property. The veggie garden is thriving and everything else is going well, but the FERN - which manages to kill absolutely anything else around it - remains! I have been told by some local people here that covering with black plastic only makes the problem worse, gives them a boost for goodness sakes! The big problem is that I HAVE to get rid of it before the authorities come round with their poisons. I'm thinking the only way is boiling water and just intensive labour of manually pulling them out (but we are talking a seriously large area here). I also believe the salt water option will also be counter productive in the long run as I obviously would like to plant food and insect attracting plants once the wretched fern has gone. One other question....what, when I have removed the plants and all their horrible little bits, should I do with it? How safe is it to put on the compost heap?
