User avatar
pinksand
Greener Thumb
Posts: 869
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2012 2:13 am
Location: Columbia, MD

Smothering Daylillies and Iris

As some of you may be familiar with, I've been fighting an endless battle with my neighbor's evil monster of a garden :evil: Their list of invasives grows by the day, but my biggest battles are with their oriental bittersweet that seems to engulf entire bushes in a day, honeysuckle, and japanese multiflora rose. The rose is probably my greatest enemy because those thorns haunt my nightmares and seem to grab me out of nowhere. I never come out unscathed.

My neighbors are the sweetest people and I know they don't have the time, so I've just been hopping the fence and hacking down anything near my side of the property. I cut down a small tree last weekend and had to wrestle with the oriental bittersweet to even get it out of there. It's a losing battle as a million saplings are now taller than me and this gives all the invasive vines even more space to climb... the monster seriously just continues to grow in size daily. One of their trees is starting to lean towards our house with the weight of the english, algerian, and poison ivy, so I cut a bunch of it off at the base in the hope of killing it.

Anyway, I have a stretch of my garden that was nothing but daylillies and siberian iris... though now it's been overrun by honeysuckle and vinca that I didn't catch in time before it made it to my side since it hides under the tall leaves. It's too hard to weed between these plants and I'm not much of a fan of them anyway since their blooms are so fleeting. I'd like to smother this section of garden and either make it grass so that it can be mowed to keep in in check or potentially try fresh with another garden with plants that are a bit easier to weed around. My question is, with these plants being bulbs are they even smotherable? My hope was to mow them down and lay landscaping plastic over them for a year to solarize them and then maybe lay cardboard next spring to finish the job of smothering anything left. Will it work or do you think I'll have to dig them all up? It's a very large space so I'm dreading the thought.

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Did they take away all that wood from the black cherry already? I would think if you laid them close boardwalk/floorboard style on top of them, then maybe cardboard and buried, it wouldn't be easy for them to come back.... strictly speaking, for working hugelkultur you use decaying wood, so using freshly felled wood may result in nutrient tie-up and unproductive area for a while, but you could layer good topsoil on top, maybe, if you want shallow-rooted stuff growing on on top right away.

User avatar
pinksand
Greener Thumb
Posts: 869
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2012 2:13 am
Location: Columbia, MD

They did take away all the wood :( However I have some rounds of black locust trunk lying around... though it isn't freshly felled wood.

I guess my concern is that in the places where I've used cardboard with a layer of compost/topsoil to smother sections of lawn, I've had a bunch of star of bethlehem bulbs and violets survive and then become super hard to pull because their roots are so deep down. I worry the dillydallies and irises will be the same, that's why I was thinking the black plastic down for a season, then removed and replaced with the cardboard next year for a season (or however long it lasts before decaying) may do the trick, though I'm not entirely confident. It's not a real prominent section of garden so I'm okay with it being a big ugly for a year.

UGHHH I just wish I could deal with my own garden and not have to constantly fight theirs.

ButterflyLady29
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1030
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2015 9:12 pm
Location: central Ohio

Have you considered giving the iris and daylilies away? I know there are places that you can advertise to give away stuff like freecycle and craigslist. And the added benefit would be that the rest of the invading plants would be dug up at the same time.

I feel your pain regarding neighboring invading plants. I've got some evil vine growing on my property that came across a fence and a similar blood-letting rose bush which doesn't even have the courtesy to have pretty flowers, or any flowers that I've ever seen.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I have the same problem with my neighbors' Desert honeysuckle coming over my fence and now invading half my yard. Not to mention the seeding from their allspice, fukien ti and, and African tulip trees. The owners are living in Texas and the renters are living there. There is a yard service but they are not keeping the vines off my fence and out of my yard. I am about ready to round up my side.



Return to “Landscaping”