Biodiversity survey on 1/4 acre

[Lanier_Lurker]

What is the best way to eradicate the Toxicodendron radicans?

[WDH]

Dodgy's mix will surely spell the death knell.  I think that full strength roundup mixed as a 3% - 4% solution with water and a splash of dish washing liquid (surfactant) will work as well if you cannot get your hands on triclopyr (garlon, remedy).  Triclopyr is probably the best for woody control if you can get it.  Maybe Dodgy can shed some light on available versions of triclopyr.

My favorite mix is a 3% solution of roundup and 3% solution of Garlon 4 in the same spray tank.  This concotion gets it all, grass, woody stuff, greenbriar, you name it.

[Dodgy Loner]

Yep, the triclopyr will work well.  It's sold in many formulations, but I got a brand called Crossbow that's a mixture of triclopyr and 2,4-D.  Look for a concentrated solution- it's sold as Brush-B-Gon, which you can purchase at Wal-Mart or Home Depot, but that stuff is very diluted and very expensive.  The more concentrated it is, the cheaper it will be.

I didn't use any Roundup (glyphosate) in my mix because the poison-ivy was encroaching on my yard, and I didn't want to kill the grass.  I used 3% Roundup on some poison-ivy earlier this year, and it burnt it back to the ground, but then resprouted a few weeks later.  I suspect that 2-3 applications of Roundup would definitely take care of it, but I'm hoping the triclopyr will take care of it the first time around.  The leaves were already wilted when I went to work this morning

[beenthere]

I've noticed over the 40 years I've been on this acerage, that the Virginia creeper chokes out the poison ivy patches, but don't really know how well one can depend on it happening.

Otherwise, 2,4-D treatments seem to work poorly for some persistent small patches along the edge of some lawn areas. It is in a neighbors field, that is sometimes corn and sometimes alfalfa. Neither like my attempts to rid the area of the poison ivy. 

I fight the virginia creeper mainly to keep it out of the hardwood trees, which if left to flourish in the crowns, will kill the trees.

[Riles]

You can add stinging nettles (Urtica spp.) to my list.  Mowed them pretty short and now I've got ten times the problem. They're small, but they took off everywhere. Anyone have any experience with Milestone? This stuff is in the pasture grass that will become my lawn in a few months.

The good news is that it's an indicator species of high soil fertility.

[SwampDonkey]

Yes it is a good indicator of soil fertility. Usually moist firm soil of alluvial plains.

It is also a good indicator that you walked somewhere you shouldn't have. 


I can remember searching for fiddle heads on the Skeena River. I found some all right enough. Just follow the local natives, they know where to pick'm.  But, in my search I walked through head high nettles and used my hands to part the way. My hands stung for 3 days like needle pricks and I had almost no feeling in my fingers. 

[Dodgy Loner]

I have one more woody plant to add to the list:

Smilax rotundifolia (Common greenbriar)

And last night I started documenting the herbaceous plants on my property.  Here's the list so far.  I figure I'm about 5% done, and these were just the easy ones   I'm not 100% sure about all of the species, but I know all the genera are correct.

1. Achillea millefolium (common yarrow)
2. Duchesnea indica (mock-strawberry)
3. Erigon annuus (eastern daisy fleabane)
4. Fragaria virginiana (wild strawberry)
5. Lepidium virginicum (poorman's-pepper)
6. Lespedeza virginica (slender lespedeza)
7. Lespedeza bicolor (bicolor lespedeza)
8. Lycopodium obscurum (groundpine)
9. Oxalis stricta (slender yellow woodsorrel)
10. Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
11. Plantago lanceolata (narrowleaf plantain)
12. Polygonum pennsylvanicum (Pennsylvania smartweed)
13. Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)
14. Rudbeckia hirta (blackeyed susan)
15. Trifolium repens (white clover)
16. Viola sororia (common blue violet)

[WDH]

Post some herbaceous pics so that we all can bone up on our herbaceousness .

[SwampDonkey]

Yes we have a lot of those here. We have wood sorrel, Oxalis montana instead of O. stricta though. Don't eat too much of the stuff in your salad though. Might effect your speech.

bah, rah, ah, erm :X

[Dodgy Loner]

My camera took an unfortunate tumble down a hill when I visited Providence Canyon in June and is not currently functional .  I will try to borrow a camera to take a few pics, especially of the plants I can't ID.

[WDH]

That is a pretty big hill to be tumbling down .

[Lanier_Lurker]

That is a pretty big hill to be tumbling down .

That's no hill, that's a space station.......(no, wait)........that's a big ole hole!!!

[Dodgy Loner]

It's a big hole alright.  I did manage to snap a few photos before my camera disappeared into it 

[SwampDonkey]

Step easy Dodgy, the young and fearless.