Invasives! (Second May 2025 post but life got in the way)

 It has been a while since I have written anything about the house. That's not because we're not doing stuff because we are! It's just that it's summertime and we have so many different projects on the go that I just don't have time to write. (Plus I have started making art again so priorities!)

This year is very different from last year. Last year was finishing the upstairs bathroom starting the kitchen and just getting a feel for what our issues are around the outside of the property. Fixing the things that absolutely had to be done. I cut down a lot of cedar bushes, I made a huge growing mound out of all the dead trees, I tidied up the yard and observed. This year is really about trying to wrest the yard from Mother Nature. I have been in a Non-Stop battle against invasive plants.

I am losing.

There are many reasons why I bought this property, some of them sensible and some of them silly. One of the reasons was that when I walked through the property it was like being in a fairyland. Just lush and green and so many different plants in so many different places. I've always loved to garden, putting my hands in dirt is therapeutic. I love the promise and hope of a garden, of what might be. It may not come to fruition but nature will out. People actually stop and want to walk the property because it is so pretty and backs onto Irish Creek. 

Taken in late May. The shrub rose patch Peter cut down for me. I am still digging up the roots and hit it with the weed whacker regularly.

Lady's Mantle in late May. Needs to be moved. I need to invest in a small backhoe!

Lily of the Valley. Beautiful but invasive.

Still trying to identify this. Plants are tall and pink and feathery. But the leaf structure looks wrong for Astilbe. And yeah I have too much Iris too.

Fricking Siberian pea tree! Or Caragana Pea Trees. Do not plant! Highly invasive!

A form of sun chokes! Beautiful. 8ft of more in height with beautiful flowers. Highly invasive if you don't but into into a contained area! And no it has been allowed to run wild.

Ferns. Everywhere. There are two hydrangeas, and the sticks in front will be a dark red hardy hibiscus. I have lots of those!

One of the day lily patches with ajuga. The ajuga is all through my lawn which is great!

Periwinkle. It has got to go!

Buckthorn shoots. Literally everywhere. Plus who  would have thought I would think "I have too much bloodroot and trillium." (Don't worry! You can never have too much bloodroot and trilliums!)

The dreaded Japanese Knotweed. Like all of these photos it was taken in late May. It is now 8ft tall. I will be spraying on a ladder.

Chinese Lantern. This thing runs off of rhizomes. There is a large patch of it in the back.

You wouldn't think that violets would be an issue but they are everywhere.

Goutweed. I have both types. The variegated and the non variegated because you can never have too much of a bad thing.

The problem is there is just too much of a good thing. Lily of the valley? Love it! But it is everywhere. Periwinkle? Tucked away in the corner of a rock garden, divine. In every shadowed place in the yard, ugh! Daylily? Fleeting but beautiful, just not in 15X15 foot sections of the yard. 

Literally there is too much of everything. Hostas? Got them! Everywhere. Hydrangeas?  Same. Forget-me-nots, Ajuga, Ferns, Ladies Mantle! Yup! Just too, too, much! Oh and please do not let me forget the oak trees, maple trees and black walnut trees just popping up everywhere because squirrels.

But mixed in amongst it are the bad plants, the ones that you have to kill because they damage and destroy not only your garden but your actual physical property. Goutweed, Chinese Lantern, Buckthorn. And, yes, Japanese Knotweed.

I have Japanese Knotweed growing on my septic bed. heading towards the creek. This is an absolute no-no. The plant is capable of destroying my septic system and destabilizing the barn as it can grow through concrete. I am strongly against using pesticides in my garden battles. Usually it is me (and Peter- he cleared out a 20 by 20 foot patch of shrub roses gone crazy- picture above) and my trusty spade and shovel as well as a heavy duty weed whacker with steel blades (Thank you Chris!) and my pruning shears. But that does not work against Japanese Knotweed (ask me how I know.)

Instead I joined the Japanese Knotweed support group on Facebook and I will be using Roundup in the window (after it flowers- two weeks before first frost) to kill it. I just don't have a spare $60,000 to redo my septic system!

My timelines have changed. I know that the yard cannot be whipped into shape immediately and that it will take several years. But I am not going down with out a fight!

And if you are in the area and want an invasive plant to take home or just a plant because I have so many come round and I will give you some!