PLEASE HELP rid my world of English Ivy, buttercups and morning glory

[HiDelight]

first the English Ivy ..if I could really truly hate a plant... this would be it! the more you pull it out the more stimulated it gets to produce more ..it thrives on abuse and destruction ..it is just a serious bully in the world of plants..it is just flat out ugly ...noxious and harbors vermin like rats (ok they are roof rats here and not the HUGE Norway browns but still they are rats and I dont want them here!) they also choke all our native plants in our beautiful green belt out and I just want it gone ..please any ideas ..non chemical would be best because we want to save the native stuff ..but if I have to resort to chemicals I will I am in that much of a mess with this stuff and it is relentless...

then the the buttercups and morning glory..oh my god whomever thought growing these things in Western Washington!!!! to you!!!!! they are so invasive here!!! ...I am sure I brought these with me from my old house because I do not remember when I did gardening for the former owner of this house in the past her ever having issues with these two monsters!

the morning glory chokes out everything and I hate when I am in pulling weeds and end up pulling something I wanted and have nurtured just because it was wrapped so tightly with morning glory I did not see it when I was pulling! ...the roots of the butter cups are horrific they spread ..go deep and hang on for life ...miss one tiny tip and a whole new family of them erupts and you have to do so much destruction of the area to dig them out it can not help but hurt other plants you want to say

I like to try and remain chemical free but am not militant and I just want to blast these suckers into space if I can ...so if I have to do chemicals ..to protect the rest of the plants ..I will ..but I only want to use the chemicals if they are going to work and not cause serious damage to surrounding plants ..I think English Ivy laughs its head off at Round up!

any and all help would be appreciated ...weeding is part of gardening that I understand and appreciate ..but this is crazy and needs the big guns!!! and mostly I use raised beds to avoid most of the weeding ..but the other day I had a tantrum because I actually found some buttercups in my beds! this is just too far!!! those suckers have to die!

so please help me and your help will be so much appreciated!
I am so lucky to have this amazing green belt and would love to preserve it with native species and get rid of the stinking ivy!


thank you so much in advance I will be waiting with tons of hope that you guys can help me here

 

[wifezilla]

Would you rather deal with bindweed?

Sorry, no sympathy here. I plant morning glory on purpose to choke out the MUCH WORSE weeds.

 

[bid]

English ivy does laugh at round up. Might as well just throw money at the stuff...it has about the same effect. Spraying works a bit if you catch the plants early when they are just beginning to put on new growth. The new leaves haven't developed that waxy coating yet and will absorb the poison.

I have had some success by cutting the vines a few inches above the ground and applying undiluted herbicide to the stem. I just use a recycled dish soap bottle or an old mustard bottle. IME no matter what you try it is labor intensive and time consuming. So far I have to say I think the ivy is winning the battle.

I wish you luck and hope someone else has a better method of controlling this stuff.

 

[seedcorn]

there are brush killers you can use that will kill english ivy. go to fertilizer plant and tell them you want to kill brush and they have the stuff.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

If you read here how to kill bindweed that works on Morning Glory too. I have not tried it with English Ivy (sorry, hate to say this but I'd love some of that here, but we can't grow it ) but it would likely work. You need to keep the top alive to kill the roots, as backward as that sounds.

 

[vfem]

Honestly, I am trying to kill trumpet vine... in the south... its like SATAN on steriods in plant form!!!

The big kicker.... cut it back.... weed whack constantly... don't let it flower.... don't let it go to seed.... and then till in the fall and again in the spring.


Even then you are stuck weed whacking the next year. We're on year 2 trying to get this under control. I give it 1 or 2 more years before I win this battle!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Reinbeau]

The problem with common names is they can be used on totally different plants, or two names can be used for the same plants in different areas. Bindweed and morning glory - both common names for the same plant, Convolvulus arvensis. Here's a good page on dealing with it without chemicals. Morning Glory also applies to weedy varieties of the Ipomoea spp, which casts dispersions on the wonderful morning glories many of us grow in our gardens with no problem.

I get a few bindweeds but I can easily control them, they aren't as much of a problem here as in some areas. We get more weedy 'morning glory' vines here, they aren't perennial, but they do twine through tightly and are difficult to control once they get big, all you can do is try to weed them out before they get to that point. But they're gone in the fall, so you've got another chance next spring to control them!

 

[HiDelight]

thanks you guys all good advice and info and basically I am in this battle for life I guess

the worst thing about the buttercups is the deep roots and how they stick close to the ground and are so freaking hard to tug out

the morning glory strangles everything and it happens so quickly you can finish an area turn around and there it is again!

the English Ivy is the worst for me because it not only has horrid deep roots but it also is sandwiched between my two fences and poking through the boards now I have to crawl around the back into the green belt and then tug from the back side to get it out of the fence first and I have put it off for way too long ..it is also tangled in there with some monster blackberries now the other weed of Western Washington (but at least you get great big tasty berries from that one so it is not all bad just very dangerous)

so I am deducing from reading ..hard work ...keep at it and stop complaining! part of gardening is fighting the invaders!!!!

thanks

 

[big brown horse]

HiDelight, you need a goat! (Or a sheep )

 

[vfem]

Oh yes... around here people RENT goats to tie up and use to eat down weeds in yards and in large lots they don't want to mow!

Seriously.... google goat rental in your area!

Its still so funny to me... but its so true!!!!