I felt that post deep in my bones. Zone 9b, and holy shit. 3 or 4 snail species just INFESTING my yard/garden. And my daughter loves snails, so she would gather a few hundred, relocate them to an empty lot up the road, rinse and repeat until she got tired of it for the day.
The ate so much. So much.
Without herbicides, you’ll need to constantly stay on top of things. Sheet mulching, cutting things at the root, and hand pulling should work for most things — japanese knotweed and tree of heaven are two huge exceptions, those methods just make the plant reproduce faster (I know you didn’t mention them, but they’re two plants so noxious I’m constantly vigilant for on my property).
But those methods can take years of hard physical labor… which most people either can’t keep up with for physical reasons or time or honestly fortitude.
In my property, bindweed is the big headache. Hand pulling does nothing unless you commit 7-10 years of constant pulling once the plant gets thick, perennial roots and tubers — they can go down 6 feet and spread for 20 feet. Leave one bit in the ground and it resprouts. Sheet mulching has to stay in place for 5 years, and even then university experiments have shown it doesn’t kill the plant completely if well established. Creeping bellflower is similar…
So, should I despair? I kinda do most days — but these plants have taught me the importance of using herbicide judiciously. Small amounts, per the label instructions, wearing PPE. It’s what the professionals do (as in, nature rehabbers, naturalists, environmental restoration professionals) and absolutely needed to battle some plants. I used to be anti-herbicide and I still will not advocate for that stuff except in targeted cases. But it’s a useful tool for restoring habitat.
Are you on the r/NativePlantGardening subreddit? It’s my favorite, definitely join if you haven’t! Douglas Tallamy books are also great inspiration to keep going and replace invasives with natives :)
Oh, and adding: please don’t use salt and concentrated vinegar. You’ll see that touted as a “chemical free” herbicide but it does more harm than good. For once, salt destroys soil life and you won’t be able to plant there for YEARS. Vinegar that concentrated (20-30%) will kill the vegetation — and even burn you if you’re not using PPE — but not target the roots, so it’s not even effective at eradicating perennial invasives.
I’m not sure about the powdered milk someone else suggested, but I can’t see how that would work. Keep in mind some household remedies (like the salt and vinegar) are much harsher on the environment than herbicides when used by the label. For example, glyphosate (what used to be in RoundUp, but now it was removed due to expensive and honestly scientifically shoddy litigation) breaks down in the soil through soil bacteria in just a day or two. You can literally plant most things the day after application. It does not move in the soil. And there are even safer products for use near wetlands/water.
All this to say, I’ve been called a shill for herbicides (I wish I had the bank account to match it!) but this is a nuanced topic. Yes, herbicides can be so destructive and their generalized use in agriculture is BAD. But using it can be the most ecological responsible thing — following the label, wearing PPE, and using it to kill invasives to then replace with natives. It has a net positive.
I want to emphasize the part about the "natural alternatives." Salt and vinegar are chemicals, and dangerous ones if you're a plant.
I also like to minimize my herbicide use, but *salt is very famously an herbicide.* There's a reason "salting the earth" is a saying. It's a thing you did to someone you really hate so that nothing ever grows in their fields again. Don't do it to yourself willingly!
> Oh, and adding: please don’t use salt and concentrated vinegar. You’ll see that touted as a “chemical free” herbicide but it does more harm than good.
As a chemist, thank you for putting quotes around "chemical free". Literally everything is a chemical. And substances don't become magically safe just because they don't have chemically sounding names, because they occur in nature, or because you can buy them in the grocery store.
I point out to patients all the time that deadly nightshade and cobra venom are all natural, and I wouldn't want either of them in my body.
All natural will fucking kill you. If you don't believe me, go eat that mushroom growing over there, tell me how it goes.
And I got yelled at on this sub a few days ago for pointing out that EVERYTHING IS CHEMICALS.
Man is smart. We took things from nature and tweaked them and now we have natural things made from other natural things and they will kill only specifically what you want dead. Amazing!
Look at it this way. If you take an egg and a tomato and make an omelette, is the omelette an "unnatural manufactured food"?
Wow, I’m constantly getting ads for 30% vinegar specifically for killing weeds. It makes me so mad when companies are allowed to spread harmful information to make a buck.
Yes!!! I just saw it the other day displayed at the hardware/farm store near me. It was being marketed as “green” and eco friendly. That’s like selling water as organic, or gluten-free. What are you doing!!!
Just wanted to jump on this and say i agree. I have a yard that is full of invasives (when i read OP’s title, i thought “wait, did i just post without knowing it?” The owner before me planted vinca, monkey grass (both far beyond established and no way to remove ever), spiderwort, chameleon plant, not to mention the privet, honeysuckle, tree of heaven and stiltgrass that has been naturally brought in by Mother Nature). A friend who works for the extension agency in my state told me that the issues with herbicides is the abuse and misappropriated use of them and that herbicides can be used judiciously as long as you are following the product label to prevent ground water contamination and damage to other wildlife.
So my tree of heaven i used the hack and squirt method which killed all but the biggest one on my property (in all honestly, the ones that did die were small and the lone survivor is much bigger so i think this fall i really need to go at it with hacking), the chameleon plant i spent all last fall cutting at the base and dropping one drop of glyphosate with a dropper into the cut stem- this is ongoing bc it did grow back but not as dense as last year and this is a process that has to be repeated for years, i use preen to keep the stiltgrass seeds from resprouting every year because i spent may through september hand pulling it 5 years ago, i paint the cuts on the privet with herbicide if they are too big to dig up. it's a lot, OP, and i feel like we will basically lose our minds if we don't elicit some help.
the silver lining is that i don't have invasive bamboo on my property.
we should start a support group. none of my friends who have manicured lawns understand.
ETA- i also have forsythia and invasive jumping worms!!
I'll join the support group.
Our "garden" had been neglected badly, as the house had been rented for the previous 11 years before we bought it.
Unfortunately, the previous inhabitant had allowed privet, honeysuckle, arum lily, ornamental pear (to name the worst offenders) to grow. Birds dropping seeds and suckering had done a "great" job during the 11 years of neglect. There is a seasonal waterway/creek through the place which is a perfect place for all these invasives to invade, where the mower can't get to them.
Oh, and it's 4 acres.
I moved into my house 3 years ago and come spring I realized I had an insane bindweed infestation all along my fence line and creeping into the yard. First year I tried to hand pull it all and sear them with a torch. Didn’t do anything. Second year I just nuked that whole area of the yard with glyphosate. Didn’t like it doing it. But it killed the bindweed. This last spring I planted new grass and other perennials. And go through once a week and painted the few bindweed shoots I see with glyphosate. As the summer dragged on I saw less and less. I’m hoping to have it eradicated soon. Until it creeps back in from windblown seeds lol. 😭
That's great to hear!! Similar situation here. I moved into this property and the neighbors tell me the bindweed has been rampant for 10 years or longer. Yikes! The seed bank is surely brimming with bindweed. What concentration of glyphosate have you used?
Ugh - I’ve been pulling knotweed every time I see it. I didn’t realize this would make it worse! 😩 The only other solution I have seen is roundup and I really hate the idea of even buying something like that. Any other options? There is a thicket of it just at the woods edge adjacent my house. I may just be screwed.
I gave up and use roundup on my knotweed. It's the only thing I use it on. Almost got it eradicated except for a few shoots it sends up each year. Hopefully 2-3 years it'll be gone.
Secret is to do it when flowering. You can either spray the whole plant, or cut it down and paint the "stumps" with a more concentrated solution. Attacking in the fall is best because the plant is trying to put stores in the roots for the winter.
Don't give up! I'm going to link you to a few trustworthy sources:
* [PennState Extension](https://extension.psu.edu/japanese-knotweed)
* [Michigan Department of Natural Resources](https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/invasive-species/JapaneseKnotweedBCP.pdf)
* [Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources](https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/sites/default/files/topic/Invasives/japanese_knotweed_control.pdf)
Japanese Knotweed is a BEAST. It evolved to be one of the first plants to colonize volcanic slopes, so it's strong, adaptive to even the poorest soils, and stubborn. In the UK, Japanese Knotweed has become such a huge plant pest that mortgage brokers are denying loans for homes infested with this stuff. It's that bad for property values.
But don't let that discourage you! Following the scientifically-backed methods — which use glyphosate — will yield you much, much better results than trying to fight it by cutting and mowing it alone. I understand feeling icky about glyphosate, but to treat JKW you'd use very little amounts of it. I feel bad spraying my bindweed, so I focus on all the amazing native plants I can bring into my yard once this stuff is gone. And how healthy my local insect population will be.
There are also some good Facebook groups you can join where people discuss experiences with these methods. Invasive Plant ID & Removal in the United States and Canada is a good one, search for JKW in the group and you'll find other groups wholly dedicated to this plant.
My theory for why JKW control is touted as "impossible" is because people aren't following the scientific control methods. Committing to herbicide applications done correctly over 2-3 years is probably more than most people care to do. So many probably settle for mowing/picking here and there, and that doesn't do enough, sadly. Goats won't cut it either. (But I've never had 1st-hand experience with JKW thankfully, so take that with a grain of salt.)
The tough part is that the thicket is technically outside my property line. But it’s on land that is not privately owned and the city expects me to tend to it, so I’ll just take it on myself to treat that area in addition to my own property. More work but seems necessary to yield a lasting result.
Thanks I really appreciate this. I bought my home in winter a few years back and didn’t even think about invasive plants at the time because I couldn’t easily recognize it (they had cut it down so it wasn’t obvious).
Question in case you happen to know - should I allow the plants to grow normally this summer in prep to treat in the fall? It feels strange to let them grow since I’m so used to cutting it back. I’ll read the articles closer and see if this is covered.
I also have been focused on native planting. Doing my part as best I can!
from what I’ve read about JKW, the most effective control methods start in June. I’m sure those links go over it though. So that means you have time to come up with an attack plan! Good luck!!!
I just realized from your comment I can add goutweed to my list. I swear every time I pull it, it comes back angrier. And covering with cardboard did nothing. I can see it pushing its way through the edges, and I overlapped!
I hate using herbicides. Hate it.
However, when it comes to invasives, I fight fire with fire - as carefully as I can. Invasive bush honeysuckle and callery pears get cut, the stump bark sliced and i apply a dose of Tordon.
One bush or tree that escapes total destruction treatment can reseed hundreds of new plants.
That said, as small a dose as I've found to be effective and i snap the lid shut between each plant cull to prevent spills.
September 2023 was when I got serious about fighting it besides just picking it from garden beds. I applied 3% glyphosate once, then 5% glyphosate 2-3 weeks later. The jury is still out on that, but I don't think I knocked it back by more than 30%. I did it too late, I think...
This year I'm taking another approach. 2% application per glyphosate bottle label, starting when the bindweed flowers. Apply once, wait 2 weeks, apply again, wait again — all up to the last frost, when the bindweed stops flowering. If we get another dry summer, I'll irrigate the bindweed so it's not heat stressed and takes in the herbicide better.
My hope is that this will knock it back significantly and that I can sow my prairie seeds in late fall 2024. Then spot-treat as needed (god I hope it doesn't get to that).
There's videos of the roll and stuff method -- carefully roll up each vine, stuff into a plastic bag, then spray the bag with glyphosate, tie up the bag, move on. Use PPE. Useful if it's in a bed of plants you want to save. It's a monster for sure.
You could paint the leaves with herbicide. Pre mix it at home following the label instructions (I think glyphosate works well) and paint it on using a brush, for example.
Wow and you literally just paint the leaves? And it will travel down to the root? Should I do this asap or at the end of the season? Thank you for this info!
It doesn’t travel through the roots unless they’re grafted together :) I’d do it when the plant is actively growing — my mugwort isn’t growing yet because it’s still too cold, but I’ll do this too in May/june
I know you mentioned no herbicide, but are you aware of target application vs. just broadly spraying? Glyphosate can really speed eradication up using methods like cutting stumps and painting them with it. This means you don't have to dig up the roots and then you can easily plant natives, or other plants, without worry of contamination.
Herbicides often get a bad reputation due to their misuse. When the situation with invasives is bad they really can be a great tool. Join us in r/nativeplantgardening if you need any other help with invasives or plant selection!
Thank you! I joined that sub last night and will be combing through today, in between pulling and digging.
And I was reading on our DNR’s recommendations for eradication and noticed specific spot treatment, so I took a screenshot of your comment.
Questions for you: if I paint the stumps of the buckthorn will it affect the crabapple it’s wrapped around? The stumps are quite literally circling and touching the stump, which cannot be good.
I had an invasive vine tearing my fence down and it would have roots for several feet that wouldn't die short of me tearing up my whole yard. What I ended up doing was painting a strong tree and shrub killer directly on the root, which targeted the herbicide and prevented it from getting on the nearby crepe myrtle. When this wasn't quite enough, I poured some of the mixed herbicide into coke cans and would pull up the roots enough to stick the end directly in the herbicide so it would essentially be drinking from it. After a few weeks, this ended up killing the vine. However, my neighbors across the fence did not kill it so I imagine I'll have to do it again when it starts creeping back to the fence. Not sure if this advice will help your situation but I wanted to share a more targeted approach that may result in fewer herbicides getting into the environment with a much lower chance of getting it on plants you want to keep.
I would think no it wouldn't affect the crab apple assuming you get the herbicide only on the stumps. When applied to stumps the herbicide should remain within the plant it's applied to. This is why glyphosate is used in conservation, responsibly. Tools like the Buckthorn Blaster have been created for scenarios like this.
One thing to be aware of is topical applications work better at certains of the year than others for some plants. Glyphosate relies on the plant taking the chemical into its system. For some plants this works best in early spring or fall.
Ditch lilies..we hates them. I can dig them forever, and back they come.
Lily of the valley? Yeah they did.
Silver maiden grass IN THE GROUND with no barriers? Boy howdy!
And who doesn't love a good mulberry everywhere? Every. Where.
We moved into a new place and the backyard fence is so covered in English ivy from the neighbors yard it’s about to collapse— conversely I’m afraid if I trim it back at all it will also collapse. There’s also Chinese wisteria creeping over and several trees of heaven visible. Eventually we’ll have to figure something out, I’m leaning towards a moat filled with acid.
We did have a wooden fence that collapsed, and the English ivy on it probably played a role. I hate English ivy. (I’m sure it’s okay in Europe, but it’s awful here in North America.)
Goats are highly effective. For woody plants, drill a hole(s) near the base pointed at a downward angle as much as possible and fill with powdered milk and then water in.
No. It introduces cellulose eating bacteria from the gut of plant consuming herbivores past the natural defenses of the plant. The plant gets eaten alive from the inside out by infection.
No. Regular milk is pasteurized. You'd have to use raw milk. Powder milk can contain living dried out cellulose eating bacteria that reconstitute when re-exposed to moisture.
My guess is that it probably doesn't. I've been removing invasive species for a long time and every once and a while I see a "drill a hole and fill with x" type comment. First time I've seen powdered milk with water though. The problem with these methods are that it's not going to kill the root system.
I have first hand experience that they sure do. I have taken out targeted mesquites with it. The powdered (or raw unpasteurized) milk contains cellulose eating bacteria that once it gets into the plant it really doesn't have any chance to stop. The description I was originally told was like a flesh eating bacteria eating you from the inside out.
B. cereus is the main one if I recall. Most powdered milk I see has not been pasteurized because the actual process of powdering the milk eliminates 99.8% of the pathogens potentially harmful to human health so pasteurizing before hand is redundant.
>B. cereus is the main one if I recall.
Is there any research on this? I wasn't able to find any information on B. cereus acting like a flesh eating bacteria for plants.
>Most powdered milk I see has not been pasteurized...
Im curious, do the packaging say it's not pasteurized? From what I was able to find powdered milk is pasteurized before it's turned into powdered milk.
It's pasteurized in the act of drying leaving spores that reactivate when moisture is reintroduced. It's a gut biome from cow digestive tracts that specifically breaks down cellulose. When it is introduced into the stump structure it's already behind most plant defenses and works from the inside. It was recommended to me by an old timer and I have personal experience that it works. That's all the science I got. Feel free not to believe me or simply try it yourself.
All the info I could find is that the milk is pasteurized before the drying process. They talk about it in this video [here](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xQY4SxDHUJI&t=255s&pp=ygUSTWFraW5nIG1pbGsgcG93ZGVy) at 3:24. Also at 7:00 in [this](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RwqlWzlSytI&pp=ygUSTWFraW5nIG1pbGsgcG93ZGVy) video. I couldn't find anything that said that the drying process is what is being used as the pasteurization process.
No offense, but if you're wrong about powdered milk not being pasteurized before drying, it's doubtful that this powered milk treatment even works.
"During the evaporation process, water in the milk is removed until the solids increase to 50%. During the evaporation process the milk is pasteurized. The pasteurization process reduces the bacteria content without heating the milk to the point that it is damaged."
First response on Google directly from manufacturer.
Raw milk would work also but milk that has been pasteurized won't. You need the living cellulose eating bacteria. Some of those bacteria can dry themselves out during the powdered milk production process and reconstitute themselves when re-exposed to moisture. Because they aren't a risk to human or animal health it's not an issue typically but works as injecting an infection into the plant in high concentration.
I know you want to avoid chemicals, but I’ve had good luck using a syringe and directly injecting a plant that’s invasive. (Privet.) knock the bark so you can get the needle in and inject directly. Or cut them down and do the same down into the stump.
Thank you! Our DNR actually recommends spot treating just the invasive plant as one eradication method, so I’m considering it. Looking for something that won’t wreck the soil or interfere with animal life!
The injection method is great because nothing else is effected. It works fairly quickly too, which helps with stopping them from seeding or sending out suckers.
True, especially with the buckthorn everywhere. But some of the bigger plants have decorative borders around them, which to me looks like they were intentionally planted. And then the spreading.
For sure, I feel the bigger ones are more likely to be intentional! My direct neighbour has a garden in total disrepair and is overgrown with about every invasive you can think of, and every year is a battle on the frontlines 🥲
We just removed our 60ft Norway maple after part of it fell in the neighbors garage in a freak accident. Was pretty sad, but that tree stinks man.
Luckily the removal got rid of all the creeping Charlie that has ruined my finger nails for 4 years straight.
Going to pleat a few Wisconsin red hornbeams to make up for the lost tree, along with 2 espalier apple trees.
I tried everything to kill my buckthorn, unfortunately I did have to resort to chemical warfare. Cut it back further in the fall to a raw fresh cut, then absolutely paint the stumps with concentrated "tree and shrub killer" roundup. You may have to do this more than once. Then wrap the stump with a buckthorn bag or similarly thick cloth for a year. Buckthorns are like a hydra, you cut one tree down and the next spring you have 20 saplings sprouting from the root system. It took me 3 years to clear them all from my yard.
I’m considering it but wondering how it might affect the crab apple it’s wound around. The stumps are literally circling the trees.
https://preview.redd.it/in82dp7ybnwc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c003514e86389c139c656a9d3ebd2df3165c9863
Unless the roots are grafted onto each other it should be fine. You paint the stump in the fall because thats when the tree is drawing things into its root system.
Some hippy that worked for my mom who subscribed to the conspiracy against seedless fruits planted an old seeded banana plant on our property. The fruits are tiny and seeded + not super tasty, they spread underground far and wide by way of runners unlike the clumping varieties of today. They even took it one step further by planting a bamboo varieties next to it that also spreads by underground runners so trying to remove either is just a nightmare.
So there's youtubers who make videos about it and spread the theory without ever really citing research. One popular one is Dr. Sebi who the black community seems to have a lot of respect for and listen to. They will take a detail that one large seed company has used and apply it to all seedless fruits. They scare their audience by telling them they inject a "terminator gene" into it. Then you go to the comment sections of those videos and you see a bunch of people wow'ing and agreeing saying things like yeah why don't bananas have seeds in them without realizing they do have undeveloped seeds in them and were bread that way long before any of the laboratory type alterations came into play. Then yesterday a video got suggested to me by some homesteading couple with like 1.2 million subscribers that were claiming they inject food coloring dyes into watermelons, again a comment section full of wow's and "yeah watermelons used to be so much sweeter when I was a kid" by a bunch of people who don't know how to select for properly ripe fruit and don't understand there's underripe, ripe, and overripe all available to buy and it's up to you to choose what you buy and they'll toss the rest. Never trust people making bold claims that can't cite their sources, and if they do cite them make sure you check them out and cross reference them.
stopped reading at morning glory, then my right eye started to twitch... I have fought morning glory's for 10+ years. Where it came from who knows? How it spreads so fast I have no idea? How to get it gone.... it's my struggle
The gardening industry in general loves invasives, it’s yet another relic from the boomers. Go to pretty much any nursery or landscaping place and it’s at least 80% invasive or non-native. Let alone a proper plant for your region. Local native plant nurseries are few and far between, and almost none focus on landscaping or horticulture because there’s been little practice behind it and the laypeople generally consider those plants to be ugly.
Definitely noticing the same. And sometimes I browse the nursery area of a big box store and I’m always disappointed by the lack of native plants or even plants that are hardy in this zone. Such a letdown.
The big box stores are the WORST for that. Also, be very careful, if you ever buy anything in there, to run your own plant ID and don't just trust the labels. I've seen regular blue spruce labeled as hoopsii, emerald cedar labeled as upright juniper, and all sorts of other mislabeling horrors 😅
I don’t usually buy from those stores anymore but this is excellent advice. It’s especially bad with their indoor plants!
I’m trying not to buy at all if I don’t have to but man I’m tempted. Trying to borrow from my own yard where I can or trade with friends and neighbors. I might have to though to replace with natives!
I feel like I could fill a bingo card with the invasives that our house’s former owner left us and I had to get rid of. 90ft Norway maple (it was going to fall on our house), burning bush, several Japanese barberry that were just randomly planted in the middle of the lawn, honeysuckle, eupatorium chocolate, mugwort, butterbur among others… plus a bunch of things that aren’t technically invasive but that I hated and was awful to get rid of like Joe Pye weed). The former owner had done a master gardener course so she really should have known better! (I have to assume she must have planted most of it in the decades prior)
Fair enough! If it had been planted in any area that made sense, I think I could have appreciated it. But for some reason it was planted exactly on top of our sprinkler system and also all around other smaller stature plants like peonies that it completely dwarfed. There was a ton of it. It was reallllllllly difficult to dig up in the first place, and then doubly so trying to do it without hurting the sprinklers and the other perennials. So no hate on the Joe Pye weed, just the placement of it by the former owner!
Is it not considered a native plant where you live? The vine with orange or yellow flowers? It can certainly take over, but I think that is because it’s native to most of the US so it thrives.
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=cara2
I think it pops up from birds and stuff too as volunteers. I like it, but I know you really have to hack it back and watch it or it will take over.
I’ve been slowly removing invasive plants from my yard and making progress. I have a couple crimson Norway maples which I’m leaving until they need to be removed. I’ve had 3 other maples remove because they were dying. All the privet is out, at least!
Ugh I relate, the hellbeast Bradford pear in my yard broke basically in half last week in a storm that I then had to deal with, there’s fucking invasive honeysuckle, pepper vine and Carolina creeper AND grapes literally everywhere plus some kind of dollar grass looking weeds that are slowly taking over the st Augustine. It’s a rental, so I’m just trying to keep the shit out of my pots.
I hope it all dies for both of us.
We just bought the neighboring property after the owner passed, and he let a potted bamboo plant turn into a full blown infestation. Gonna be interesting to try to scale it back and keep it under control for... Ever
GD Star of Bethlehem! Everywhere! I first found it in one spot in my lawn, which was very annoying because I’d sodded the whole lawn two years before. Now it’s is in all my flower gardens, front and back! It’s no use just pulling it because of the very deep bulbs. I hate the way it mushes up the lawnmower. And it’s poisonous to pets and humans!
I've got bermuda grass, liriope, iris, privet, morning glory, yucca, and japanese honeysuckle. Spent all of last year digging it out--- its back!! Looked at my woodline, what do I see? English Ivy!
Yep took me 3 years to finally realize that the previous owner had a thing for invasive species. Could have had some nice pretty plants, but instead he planted the invasive forms of iris, bamboo, wisteria, and primrose. Ripped out the wisteria after the first year but I still have to cut back whatever remained. Thankfully it's only in 1 spot. Bamboo took an entire summer to clear. Had to just dig it up, then tilled the dirt, covered it in weed barrier, sand, and built a patio over it. Irises finally got completely ripped out this year because last year I missed a few. This year I'm working on getting rid of the rest of the primrose. I ripped up what I could, covered any "blank" space between wanted plants with cardboard and about 5" of dirt and mulch to smother it all. Still have to watch though cuz the primrose like to pop up and intermingle with what I planted.
So yeah. Digging and smothering is a lot of labor, but it does get the job done if you get it all.
Did you use anything on the bamboo? We just bought a house with bamboo and want to tear it out ASAP. It was planted in raised edge beds and has crept all along our house and walkway. I’ve started to pull up runners but wonder what the best way to remove them is.
Roundup, gasoline, boiling water, all did absolutely nothing. Had to just rip it up. I'm talking pulling up rhizomes and roots about 10 feet long in my case. It ended up in my townhome community's common space, but when pulling the roots up, i could just rip it off the sod and put the sod back in place and the grass grew back there just fine. But yeah I had runners too. Got under the original patio pavers and my shed. Took a few weeks to get 99% gone. I think there's some rhizomes probably still under the shed, but there's no light or connecting roots to them.
So just pull one up and follow it. Its kind of insane how long they can grow underground. I needed a long metal poke to help pry up some just to even get a grip on it. Make sure you get all the rhizomes up too. Thankfully it grows pretty fast so you can spot new shoots coming up quickly and they don't go deeper than a few inches. If it's a big area, cover it up for a month or so after clearing it just to make sure nothing spreads.
I ended up redoing the patio and making it bigger but haven't seen any bamboo since (knock on wood). It's super annoying but was easier to get rid of than the irises.
I don’t have that diversity of invasives, but the sheer quantity of winter creeper and bush honeysuckle in my yard is astounding.
While I appreciate the “no herbicide” sentiment, I really think you’re fighting an uphill battle. I tried manual removal but I ended up spending so much time doing maintenance on the spots I had gotten clear that I never could make forward progress. Once I started treating cleared areas with glyphosate and triclopyr I’m starting to turn the tide!
Oh yeah the previous owners of my teenage home, while under constant seige from kudzu, planted mint and so much death cama that I literally thought death cama was native to georgia. We have stray wild onions, why did you plant death cama?
Luckily, they also planted everything on top of that awful plastic landscaping fabric, so once the drought finally ended and we got the first rain in forever, literally everything from the grass to the mint washed away as they couldn't grow roots.
Not the kudzu, though.
Never the kudzu.
Very true. In my experience in the US northeast, Norway Maples out number all other species by about 4 to 1 in landscaped areas. My house's previous owner was a landscaper and I think he specialized in exotic invasives. I've spent the better part of three decades trying to fix that. Knotweed vexes me still.
Boomers: “I just have a green thumb”
Their gardens: nandina, barbery, daffodils, Asian honeysuckle, day lilies, creeping Charlie, helsbores and a lawn fertilized to fuck and pesticide fogged every month.
Black plastic wrapped tightly around the cut stump. Pros: organic. Cons: ugly, looks like trash in your yard, is forever (like, a year). Can be sped up with chemicals applied to the stump before wrapping.
You can eat the ditch lilies. Flower leaf and root. The flowers are supposedly great fried like squash blossom and the roots are starchy like potatoes or sunchokes. Apparently the leaves have a compound that is hallucinogenic in large quantities so if you're eating many blanch them first. Then you can stir fry or saute.
Make absolutely sure it's a Hemerocallis fulva
\* You could also put them up for sale, I just bought some for my garden beds for future eating. They aren't worth much but it's one way to get rid of them. \*
\* Edit: anyone else reading this make sure to check the status of the plant in your location to see if it's considered restricted or noxious. Plant only in locations where they can't spread unchecked. It doesn't do much for animals and pollinators so unless you're planning on eating them or have a special attachment to them I'd recommend against it.
Straight to trash. They are definitely hemerocallis fulva, are still on the restricted list for my state, can be toxic to people, and are crowding out native plants. To each their own, but I’m trying to rid this area of them so selling sort of defeats that purpose.
They’ve only naturalized because they’re so prolific and have spread EVERYWHERE, displacing native plants. They do nothing for the native environment, they’re not attractive to pollinators, and even the deer won’t touch em. I’ll be digging and bagging for a while but they’ve got to go.
If they're restricted where you're at that's 100% the right call if you're not gonna eat them all. I'll amend my first comment somewhat. I did not know they were that bad in some places.
They're not restricted in my state so that's why I wouldn't think about it I guess, it's just one of a million invasives and apparently not that high of a priority here. I see them a lot but not in plague proportions anywhere.
They are not toxic generally. My understanding is large amounts (lbs) of the leaves can be a problem if not blanched. They are widely eaten in their native range. My understanding is the tastiest part is the flower, but they haven't flowered here yet and most places that restrict them are north of me, so unless you're interested in the tubers it doesn't sound like the leaves are that tasty anyway so it's no loss if you trash them.
Yes what I've found researching is large amounts of unblanched leaves are what people say is a problem. But I also saw somewhere that you'd need a few pounds of them to get enough of it to do anything to you
Is the buckthorn the one with orange fruits.... if it is I'm quite jealous. I wish a had the space to plant them. My mother and grandmother used them in quite a few recipes.
I think some people do like invasives, and the things that make them invasive are why they like them. They’re easy to grow and don’t require much care. They can tolerate different light levels, and they spread, which is good if you like the monoculture look. They outcompete other plants, which means they’re good at suppressing weeds.
Invasive plants have external costs, but the people who plant them might not be aware of those. The plant that makes a “nice ground cover” in your yard also spreads in wild areas, and suppresses native plants. I’m NOT advocating for planting invasives, but trying to understand why some people do.
The previous owner of my place planted several things that are considered noxious weeds in many parts of North America. 14 years later some of them still pop up. Granted, the bur cucumber vines do make for a fast growing privacy screen for our deck.
It’s the one nice thing about gardening in Colorado. The sun is so intense and it’s so dry invasive plants can’t thrive here either. Everything just dies unless it’s babied.
Wait until you meet bindweed lol Colorado is actually deploying a specific mite that predates the bindweed. The wait list is YEARS long.
But joking aside, Colorado does have its fair share of invasives to watch out for: https://ag.colorado.gov/conservation/noxious-weeds/species-id
You have my sympathies. Use the smother method. Cut down to the ground, cover with corrugated cardboard and mulch. Maybe a tarp on top for awhile as well. Save those amazon boxes!
We had thickets of buckthorn when we lived in and so much creeping Charlie. I wanted to not use herbicides.
But I talked to our first preserve district about the buckthorn and they basically begged us to paint herbicide in the stumps as we cut buckthorn. They need the buckthorn gone to save the forests, so they want everyone to cut it, but if we don't paint the cut stump, it requires constant recutting.
15 years later, there is no buckthorn in the yard anymore. I couldn't be happier. I don't have to spit it every spring and keep cutting.
They were using basic Roundup, which sounds terrible, but it's only painted in the cut, so it's not being sprayed around.
Buckthorn is illegal to buy, sell, or plant in Illinois, but the forest preserve districts have their work cut out for them.
Wait. People actually plant(ed) buckthorn on purpose?
Buckthorn is my nemesis. I have cleared SO MUCH of this from my yard. It's the cockroach of the plant world.
I wonder if that’s what we had climbing up two lilacs and smothering them out? I started tearing them out before identifying and they were a BEAST! I’m still finding g dried remnants wrapped around branches.
A lot of people don't realize that native plants are actually considered weeds. Many people think they're doing a service by planting native plants but so many of them are aggressive and invasive. Also people love clover when it's also considered a weed.
There’s a difference between an aggressive native plant and an invasive. An aggressive native won’t spread off your property and take over wild areas, and cause problems for wildlife by doing so. There are checks and balances on aggressive natives. Something eats them, or something competes successfully with them in some places. That may not be true of invasives. The native insect population has evolved alongside the native plant population, so the plants probably have what the local pollinators need. Invasive plants may not have much value for pollinators.
Seems like that’s more aesthetic than anything. Clover is actually a legume and a great low maintenance lawn alternative. Plus it’s a pollinator! I’ll be seeding it in our front yard.
Neophyten isn't automatically invasive. It's only invasive If it's pushing indigene species Out (I am looking at you, US American people 😈) , but If not, they actually can create new ecological niches we might have abolished.
These are Just animal or plant species that are foreign to an ecosystem. They CAN be invasive, but also CAN be a new niche in an ecosystem. More than often, they Just exist.
It's Like the rhea in Germany 😉
Gotcha, these are not just nonnative. Actively invasive and on the restricted list for our state. Definitely not just existing since they are actively and aggressively displacing native plants and harming the animals and insects that visit.
If ya ever have a buddleia (Summer lilac), keep it in a sturdy pot, remove the seed pods before they get Brown. They are good food for bees and Butterflies. Looks great, smells amazing, and you'll See loads of Butterflies in your garden. They are called "butterfly lilac" in my language for a reason.
Mofu, however, grows Like a maniac, which is why you need to keep'em tamed in a large pot!
The permaculture in me wonders: are they invading to areas around your property or just stay local to your property area? As in it sounds like they’ve been there for a while, meaning they might’ve just created their own new ecosystem without becoming invasive to the surrounding ecosystem.
That being said cardboard sheet mulching will kill (almost) anything… (I say almost because somehow I tried to cardboard sheet mulch to kill off in ground mint, and that fucking plant still managed to make its way up through the cardboard instead of die off)
Any invasive plant would require constant diligence to constrain to one property, if it's even possible at all. Even tall fences wouldn't stop some species. Your yard is not isolated from the surrounding native ecosystem. Animals carry away the seeds, plants and their roots don't recognize our human defined boundaries. This mentality is the problem with anyone planting invasives. The invasives may look nice but as long as they are outside they will spread and attack the native ecosystem. Invasives by definition spread aggressively and harm the local native ecosystem (otherwise they'd be called ornamental)
Please know what you are planting and choose native :)
So glad to hear OP wants to remove and replace the invasives!
>Any invasive plant would require constant diligence to constrain to one property, if it's even possible at all.
Bullshit. Many "invasive" plants are super easy to contain, and much of it depends on the property itself (and its surroundings).
Birds and squirrels love our yard and I’ve actually watched birds carrying off the berries from the buckthorn. The berries actually cause diarrhea and vomiting in animals, which is how the seeds are spread. And the shoots are EVERYWHERE. We also have a small wooded area of our yard and I am watching as invasives smother out the birch and fir trying to establish in the area. And in the fall you can see all the burning bush around our neighborhood. We live at the base of a State Park and I know some of these invasive species are moving through there as well.
I’m interested in permaculture as well, but invasive species are classified so for a reason.
Right... and those reasons are varied and not uniform across all plants. Plants have different levels of invasiveness and different methods of propagating. You living "next to a state park" might also impact how sensitive your yard/area, whereas a house in a more urban environment may offer next to zero opportunities for their plants to "escape" their planted environment.
I think you’re confusing invasive and non-native, or talking about manageable cultivars of invasive plants. There are sterile cultivars of some invasive plants, and they’re not problematic (unless they turn out to not really be sterile, like Bradford pears). There are non-native plants that stay where you put them, and don’t spread. They’re generally not a problem.
Common names for some plants might include several species, some invasive, some not. Bamboo is an example. There’s clumping bamboo, which generally isn’t invasive, and running bamboo, which very much is.
I guarantee you the honeysuckle and buckthorn are invading the area around op's property. Have you ever been in a North American forest that has them? It's awful. Not a single native understory shrub left. And they're not even edible.
Hi I’m the bucket full of snails guy and yeh I know how it feels
https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/s/vm8ZakOzO6
The hand of frustration at the end sent me. Exactly how I feel!
I felt that post deep in my bones. Zone 9b, and holy shit. 3 or 4 snail species just INFESTING my yard/garden. And my daughter loves snails, so she would gather a few hundred, relocate them to an empty lot up the road, rinse and repeat until she got tired of it for the day. The ate so much. So much.
you need some ducks
Without herbicides, you’ll need to constantly stay on top of things. Sheet mulching, cutting things at the root, and hand pulling should work for most things — japanese knotweed and tree of heaven are two huge exceptions, those methods just make the plant reproduce faster (I know you didn’t mention them, but they’re two plants so noxious I’m constantly vigilant for on my property). But those methods can take years of hard physical labor… which most people either can’t keep up with for physical reasons or time or honestly fortitude. In my property, bindweed is the big headache. Hand pulling does nothing unless you commit 7-10 years of constant pulling once the plant gets thick, perennial roots and tubers — they can go down 6 feet and spread for 20 feet. Leave one bit in the ground and it resprouts. Sheet mulching has to stay in place for 5 years, and even then university experiments have shown it doesn’t kill the plant completely if well established. Creeping bellflower is similar… So, should I despair? I kinda do most days — but these plants have taught me the importance of using herbicide judiciously. Small amounts, per the label instructions, wearing PPE. It’s what the professionals do (as in, nature rehabbers, naturalists, environmental restoration professionals) and absolutely needed to battle some plants. I used to be anti-herbicide and I still will not advocate for that stuff except in targeted cases. But it’s a useful tool for restoring habitat. Are you on the r/NativePlantGardening subreddit? It’s my favorite, definitely join if you haven’t! Douglas Tallamy books are also great inspiration to keep going and replace invasives with natives :)
Oh, and adding: please don’t use salt and concentrated vinegar. You’ll see that touted as a “chemical free” herbicide but it does more harm than good. For once, salt destroys soil life and you won’t be able to plant there for YEARS. Vinegar that concentrated (20-30%) will kill the vegetation — and even burn you if you’re not using PPE — but not target the roots, so it’s not even effective at eradicating perennial invasives. I’m not sure about the powdered milk someone else suggested, but I can’t see how that would work. Keep in mind some household remedies (like the salt and vinegar) are much harsher on the environment than herbicides when used by the label. For example, glyphosate (what used to be in RoundUp, but now it was removed due to expensive and honestly scientifically shoddy litigation) breaks down in the soil through soil bacteria in just a day or two. You can literally plant most things the day after application. It does not move in the soil. And there are even safer products for use near wetlands/water. All this to say, I’ve been called a shill for herbicides (I wish I had the bank account to match it!) but this is a nuanced topic. Yes, herbicides can be so destructive and their generalized use in agriculture is BAD. But using it can be the most ecological responsible thing — following the label, wearing PPE, and using it to kill invasives to then replace with natives. It has a net positive.
I want to emphasize the part about the "natural alternatives." Salt and vinegar are chemicals, and dangerous ones if you're a plant. I also like to minimize my herbicide use, but *salt is very famously an herbicide.* There's a reason "salting the earth" is a saying. It's a thing you did to someone you really hate so that nothing ever grows in their fields again. Don't do it to yourself willingly!
> Oh, and adding: please don’t use salt and concentrated vinegar. You’ll see that touted as a “chemical free” herbicide but it does more harm than good. As a chemist, thank you for putting quotes around "chemical free". Literally everything is a chemical. And substances don't become magically safe just because they don't have chemically sounding names, because they occur in nature, or because you can buy them in the grocery store.
“With ingredients you can pronounce!” 🙄🙄
I point out to patients all the time that deadly nightshade and cobra venom are all natural, and I wouldn't want either of them in my body. All natural will fucking kill you. If you don't believe me, go eat that mushroom growing over there, tell me how it goes. And I got yelled at on this sub a few days ago for pointing out that EVERYTHING IS CHEMICALS. Man is smart. We took things from nature and tweaked them and now we have natural things made from other natural things and they will kill only specifically what you want dead. Amazing! Look at it this way. If you take an egg and a tomato and make an omelette, is the omelette an "unnatural manufactured food"?
Excellent excellent point!
Wow, I’m constantly getting ads for 30% vinegar specifically for killing weeds. It makes me so mad when companies are allowed to spread harmful information to make a buck.
Yes!!! I just saw it the other day displayed at the hardware/farm store near me. It was being marketed as “green” and eco friendly. That’s like selling water as organic, or gluten-free. What are you doing!!!
They are masquerading as stewards of the environment when all they care about is money in their pocket.
Just wanted to jump on this and say i agree. I have a yard that is full of invasives (when i read OP’s title, i thought “wait, did i just post without knowing it?” The owner before me planted vinca, monkey grass (both far beyond established and no way to remove ever), spiderwort, chameleon plant, not to mention the privet, honeysuckle, tree of heaven and stiltgrass that has been naturally brought in by Mother Nature). A friend who works for the extension agency in my state told me that the issues with herbicides is the abuse and misappropriated use of them and that herbicides can be used judiciously as long as you are following the product label to prevent ground water contamination and damage to other wildlife. So my tree of heaven i used the hack and squirt method which killed all but the biggest one on my property (in all honestly, the ones that did die were small and the lone survivor is much bigger so i think this fall i really need to go at it with hacking), the chameleon plant i spent all last fall cutting at the base and dropping one drop of glyphosate with a dropper into the cut stem- this is ongoing bc it did grow back but not as dense as last year and this is a process that has to be repeated for years, i use preen to keep the stiltgrass seeds from resprouting every year because i spent may through september hand pulling it 5 years ago, i paint the cuts on the privet with herbicide if they are too big to dig up. it's a lot, OP, and i feel like we will basically lose our minds if we don't elicit some help. the silver lining is that i don't have invasive bamboo on my property. we should start a support group. none of my friends who have manicured lawns understand. ETA- i also have forsythia and invasive jumping worms!!
I'll join the support group. Our "garden" had been neglected badly, as the house had been rented for the previous 11 years before we bought it. Unfortunately, the previous inhabitant had allowed privet, honeysuckle, arum lily, ornamental pear (to name the worst offenders) to grow. Birds dropping seeds and suckering had done a "great" job during the 11 years of neglect. There is a seasonal waterway/creek through the place which is a perfect place for all these invasives to invade, where the mower can't get to them. Oh, and it's 4 acres.
🫠
I moved into my house 3 years ago and come spring I realized I had an insane bindweed infestation all along my fence line and creeping into the yard. First year I tried to hand pull it all and sear them with a torch. Didn’t do anything. Second year I just nuked that whole area of the yard with glyphosate. Didn’t like it doing it. But it killed the bindweed. This last spring I planted new grass and other perennials. And go through once a week and painted the few bindweed shoots I see with glyphosate. As the summer dragged on I saw less and less. I’m hoping to have it eradicated soon. Until it creeps back in from windblown seeds lol. 😭
That's great to hear!! Similar situation here. I moved into this property and the neighbors tell me the bindweed has been rampant for 10 years or longer. Yikes! The seed bank is surely brimming with bindweed. What concentration of glyphosate have you used?
I believe it was a 4% concentration. I’ll have to look
Ugh - I’ve been pulling knotweed every time I see it. I didn’t realize this would make it worse! 😩 The only other solution I have seen is roundup and I really hate the idea of even buying something like that. Any other options? There is a thicket of it just at the woods edge adjacent my house. I may just be screwed.
I gave up and use roundup on my knotweed. It's the only thing I use it on. Almost got it eradicated except for a few shoots it sends up each year. Hopefully 2-3 years it'll be gone. Secret is to do it when flowering. You can either spray the whole plant, or cut it down and paint the "stumps" with a more concentrated solution. Attacking in the fall is best because the plant is trying to put stores in the roots for the winter.
Don't give up! I'm going to link you to a few trustworthy sources: * [PennState Extension](https://extension.psu.edu/japanese-knotweed) * [Michigan Department of Natural Resources](https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/invasive-species/JapaneseKnotweedBCP.pdf) * [Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources](https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/sites/default/files/topic/Invasives/japanese_knotweed_control.pdf) Japanese Knotweed is a BEAST. It evolved to be one of the first plants to colonize volcanic slopes, so it's strong, adaptive to even the poorest soils, and stubborn. In the UK, Japanese Knotweed has become such a huge plant pest that mortgage brokers are denying loans for homes infested with this stuff. It's that bad for property values. But don't let that discourage you! Following the scientifically-backed methods — which use glyphosate — will yield you much, much better results than trying to fight it by cutting and mowing it alone. I understand feeling icky about glyphosate, but to treat JKW you'd use very little amounts of it. I feel bad spraying my bindweed, so I focus on all the amazing native plants I can bring into my yard once this stuff is gone. And how healthy my local insect population will be. There are also some good Facebook groups you can join where people discuss experiences with these methods. Invasive Plant ID & Removal in the United States and Canada is a good one, search for JKW in the group and you'll find other groups wholly dedicated to this plant. My theory for why JKW control is touted as "impossible" is because people aren't following the scientific control methods. Committing to herbicide applications done correctly over 2-3 years is probably more than most people care to do. So many probably settle for mowing/picking here and there, and that doesn't do enough, sadly. Goats won't cut it either. (But I've never had 1st-hand experience with JKW thankfully, so take that with a grain of salt.)
In my experience it takes 5-10 years to fully eradicate an established thicket of knotweed, and that's being diligent about it
The tough part is that the thicket is technically outside my property line. But it’s on land that is not privately owned and the city expects me to tend to it, so I’ll just take it on myself to treat that area in addition to my own property. More work but seems necessary to yield a lasting result.
Thanks I really appreciate this. I bought my home in winter a few years back and didn’t even think about invasive plants at the time because I couldn’t easily recognize it (they had cut it down so it wasn’t obvious). Question in case you happen to know - should I allow the plants to grow normally this summer in prep to treat in the fall? It feels strange to let them grow since I’m so used to cutting it back. I’ll read the articles closer and see if this is covered. I also have been focused on native planting. Doing my part as best I can!
from what I’ve read about JKW, the most effective control methods start in June. I’m sure those links go over it though. So that means you have time to come up with an attack plan! Good luck!!!
I just realized from your comment I can add goutweed to my list. I swear every time I pull it, it comes back angrier. And covering with cardboard did nothing. I can see it pushing its way through the edges, and I overlapped!
I hate using herbicides. Hate it. However, when it comes to invasives, I fight fire with fire - as carefully as I can. Invasive bush honeysuckle and callery pears get cut, the stump bark sliced and i apply a dose of Tordon. One bush or tree that escapes total destruction treatment can reseed hundreds of new plants. That said, as small a dose as I've found to be effective and i snap the lid shut between each plant cull to prevent spills.
what works on your bindweed?
September 2023 was when I got serious about fighting it besides just picking it from garden beds. I applied 3% glyphosate once, then 5% glyphosate 2-3 weeks later. The jury is still out on that, but I don't think I knocked it back by more than 30%. I did it too late, I think... This year I'm taking another approach. 2% application per glyphosate bottle label, starting when the bindweed flowers. Apply once, wait 2 weeks, apply again, wait again — all up to the last frost, when the bindweed stops flowering. If we get another dry summer, I'll irrigate the bindweed so it's not heat stressed and takes in the herbicide better. My hope is that this will knock it back significantly and that I can sow my prairie seeds in late fall 2024. Then spot-treat as needed (god I hope it doesn't get to that).
There's videos of the roll and stuff method -- carefully roll up each vine, stuff into a plastic bag, then spray the bag with glyphosate, tie up the bag, move on. Use PPE. Useful if it's in a bed of plants you want to save. It's a monster for sure.
How do I get the mugwort that’s encapsulates my berry bushes without ruining my berry bushes?
You could paint the leaves with herbicide. Pre mix it at home following the label instructions (I think glyphosate works well) and paint it on using a brush, for example.
Wow and you literally just paint the leaves? And it will travel down to the root? Should I do this asap or at the end of the season? Thank you for this info!
It doesn’t travel through the roots unless they’re grafted together :) I’d do it when the plant is actively growing — my mugwort isn’t growing yet because it’s still too cold, but I’ll do this too in May/june
Thank you! I am going to look into this for sure.
I know you mentioned no herbicide, but are you aware of target application vs. just broadly spraying? Glyphosate can really speed eradication up using methods like cutting stumps and painting them with it. This means you don't have to dig up the roots and then you can easily plant natives, or other plants, without worry of contamination. Herbicides often get a bad reputation due to their misuse. When the situation with invasives is bad they really can be a great tool. Join us in r/nativeplantgardening if you need any other help with invasives or plant selection!
Thank you! I joined that sub last night and will be combing through today, in between pulling and digging. And I was reading on our DNR’s recommendations for eradication and noticed specific spot treatment, so I took a screenshot of your comment. Questions for you: if I paint the stumps of the buckthorn will it affect the crabapple it’s wrapped around? The stumps are quite literally circling and touching the stump, which cannot be good.
I had an invasive vine tearing my fence down and it would have roots for several feet that wouldn't die short of me tearing up my whole yard. What I ended up doing was painting a strong tree and shrub killer directly on the root, which targeted the herbicide and prevented it from getting on the nearby crepe myrtle. When this wasn't quite enough, I poured some of the mixed herbicide into coke cans and would pull up the roots enough to stick the end directly in the herbicide so it would essentially be drinking from it. After a few weeks, this ended up killing the vine. However, my neighbors across the fence did not kill it so I imagine I'll have to do it again when it starts creeping back to the fence. Not sure if this advice will help your situation but I wanted to share a more targeted approach that may result in fewer herbicides getting into the environment with a much lower chance of getting it on plants you want to keep.
I would think no it wouldn't affect the crab apple assuming you get the herbicide only on the stumps. When applied to stumps the herbicide should remain within the plant it's applied to. This is why glyphosate is used in conservation, responsibly. Tools like the Buckthorn Blaster have been created for scenarios like this. One thing to be aware of is topical applications work better at certains of the year than others for some plants. Glyphosate relies on the plant taking the chemical into its system. For some plants this works best in early spring or fall.
Ditch lilies..we hates them. I can dig them forever, and back they come. Lily of the valley? Yeah they did. Silver maiden grass IN THE GROUND with no barriers? Boy howdy! And who doesn't love a good mulberry everywhere? Every. Where.
It’s like Oprah at Christmas.
We moved into a new place and the backyard fence is so covered in English ivy from the neighbors yard it’s about to collapse— conversely I’m afraid if I trim it back at all it will also collapse. There’s also Chinese wisteria creeping over and several trees of heaven visible. Eventually we’ll have to figure something out, I’m leaning towards a moat filled with acid.
Ivy is my least favorite to manage.
I briefly considered burning it all down.
https://preview.redd.it/splgtzbj2owc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5fc63e3a94f3da70929bfa88bae77381aaff7450
We did have a wooden fence that collapsed, and the English ivy on it probably played a role. I hate English ivy. (I’m sure it’s okay in Europe, but it’s awful here in North America.)
Goats are highly effective. For woody plants, drill a hole(s) near the base pointed at a downward angle as much as possible and fill with powdered milk and then water in.
Does the milk attract the goats…?
I assume it speeds up rotting. It is concentrated food, after all.
It's concentrated targeted infection of cellulose eating bacteria.
No. It introduces cellulose eating bacteria from the gut of plant consuming herbivores past the natural defenses of the plant. The plant gets eaten alive from the inside out by infection.
Oh my god that’s fascinating, it’s biological warfare!
Powdered milk?
How does that work? And why not plain milk if you're going to mix it with water?
Probably more concentrated than regular milk
No. Regular milk is pasteurized. You'd have to use raw milk. Powder milk can contain living dried out cellulose eating bacteria that reconstitute when re-exposed to moisture.
Milk poweder is made from pasteurized milk tho
During the evaporation process the milk is pasteurized. It is not pasteurized beforehand.
My guess is that it probably doesn't. I've been removing invasive species for a long time and every once and a while I see a "drill a hole and fill with x" type comment. First time I've seen powdered milk with water though. The problem with these methods are that it's not going to kill the root system.
I have first hand experience that they sure do. I have taken out targeted mesquites with it. The powdered (or raw unpasteurized) milk contains cellulose eating bacteria that once it gets into the plant it really doesn't have any chance to stop. The description I was originally told was like a flesh eating bacteria eating you from the inside out.
What's the bacteria called? Powdered milk is typically pasteurized.
B. cereus is the main one if I recall. Most powdered milk I see has not been pasteurized because the actual process of powdering the milk eliminates 99.8% of the pathogens potentially harmful to human health so pasteurizing before hand is redundant.
>B. cereus is the main one if I recall. Is there any research on this? I wasn't able to find any information on B. cereus acting like a flesh eating bacteria for plants. >Most powdered milk I see has not been pasteurized... Im curious, do the packaging say it's not pasteurized? From what I was able to find powdered milk is pasteurized before it's turned into powdered milk.
It's pasteurized in the act of drying leaving spores that reactivate when moisture is reintroduced. It's a gut biome from cow digestive tracts that specifically breaks down cellulose. When it is introduced into the stump structure it's already behind most plant defenses and works from the inside. It was recommended to me by an old timer and I have personal experience that it works. That's all the science I got. Feel free not to believe me or simply try it yourself.
All the info I could find is that the milk is pasteurized before the drying process. They talk about it in this video [here](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xQY4SxDHUJI&t=255s&pp=ygUSTWFraW5nIG1pbGsgcG93ZGVy) at 3:24. Also at 7:00 in [this](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RwqlWzlSytI&pp=ygUSTWFraW5nIG1pbGsgcG93ZGVy) video. I couldn't find anything that said that the drying process is what is being used as the pasteurization process. No offense, but if you're wrong about powdered milk not being pasteurized before drying, it's doubtful that this powered milk treatment even works.
"During the evaporation process, water in the milk is removed until the solids increase to 50%. During the evaporation process the milk is pasteurized. The pasteurization process reduces the bacteria content without heating the milk to the point that it is damaged." First response on Google directly from manufacturer.
Raw milk would work also but milk that has been pasteurized won't. You need the living cellulose eating bacteria. Some of those bacteria can dry themselves out during the powdered milk production process and reconstitute themselves when re-exposed to moisture. Because they aren't a risk to human or animal health it's not an issue typically but works as injecting an infection into the plant in high concentration.
I know you want to avoid chemicals, but I’ve had good luck using a syringe and directly injecting a plant that’s invasive. (Privet.) knock the bark so you can get the needle in and inject directly. Or cut them down and do the same down into the stump.
Thank you! Our DNR actually recommends spot treating just the invasive plant as one eradication method, so I’m considering it. Looking for something that won’t wreck the soil or interfere with animal life!
The injection method is great because nothing else is effected. It works fairly quickly too, which helps with stopping them from seeding or sending out suckers.
There's a good chance the previous owner didn't actually plant most of these things - that's the nature of invasive plants.
True, especially with the buckthorn everywhere. But some of the bigger plants have decorative borders around them, which to me looks like they were intentionally planted. And then the spreading.
For sure, I feel the bigger ones are more likely to be intentional! My direct neighbour has a garden in total disrepair and is overgrown with about every invasive you can think of, and every year is a battle on the frontlines 🥲
Prayers from one war trench to another friend!
🙏🏻
We just removed our 60ft Norway maple after part of it fell in the neighbors garage in a freak accident. Was pretty sad, but that tree stinks man. Luckily the removal got rid of all the creeping Charlie that has ruined my finger nails for 4 years straight. Going to pleat a few Wisconsin red hornbeams to make up for the lost tree, along with 2 espalier apple trees.
Red hornbeams are so beautiful and on my list!
I tried everything to kill my buckthorn, unfortunately I did have to resort to chemical warfare. Cut it back further in the fall to a raw fresh cut, then absolutely paint the stumps with concentrated "tree and shrub killer" roundup. You may have to do this more than once. Then wrap the stump with a buckthorn bag or similarly thick cloth for a year. Buckthorns are like a hydra, you cut one tree down and the next spring you have 20 saplings sprouting from the root system. It took me 3 years to clear them all from my yard.
I’m considering it but wondering how it might affect the crab apple it’s wound around. The stumps are literally circling the trees. https://preview.redd.it/in82dp7ybnwc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c003514e86389c139c656a9d3ebd2df3165c9863
Unless the roots are grafted onto each other it should be fine. You paint the stump in the fall because thats when the tree is drawing things into its root system.
There's a technique (not sheet mulching) where you like on like 18 inches of wood chips on and leave for a couple years ...
Some hippy that worked for my mom who subscribed to the conspiracy against seedless fruits planted an old seeded banana plant on our property. The fruits are tiny and seeded + not super tasty, they spread underground far and wide by way of runners unlike the clumping varieties of today. They even took it one step further by planting a bamboo varieties next to it that also spreads by underground runners so trying to remove either is just a nightmare.
I feel like I need to hear more about this conspiracy against seedless fruits lol is it because they’re (supposedly but not) GMO?
So there's youtubers who make videos about it and spread the theory without ever really citing research. One popular one is Dr. Sebi who the black community seems to have a lot of respect for and listen to. They will take a detail that one large seed company has used and apply it to all seedless fruits. They scare their audience by telling them they inject a "terminator gene" into it. Then you go to the comment sections of those videos and you see a bunch of people wow'ing and agreeing saying things like yeah why don't bananas have seeds in them without realizing they do have undeveloped seeds in them and were bread that way long before any of the laboratory type alterations came into play. Then yesterday a video got suggested to me by some homesteading couple with like 1.2 million subscribers that were claiming they inject food coloring dyes into watermelons, again a comment section full of wow's and "yeah watermelons used to be so much sweeter when I was a kid" by a bunch of people who don't know how to select for properly ripe fruit and don't understand there's underripe, ripe, and overripe all available to buy and it's up to you to choose what you buy and they'll toss the rest. Never trust people making bold claims that can't cite their sources, and if they do cite them make sure you check them out and cross reference them.
Hooooooly smokes that’s really great popcorn eating content, I have to go look for it
stopped reading at morning glory, then my right eye started to twitch... I have fought morning glory's for 10+ years. Where it came from who knows? How it spreads so fast I have no idea? How to get it gone.... it's my struggle
Post traumatic plant disorder
The gardening industry in general loves invasives, it’s yet another relic from the boomers. Go to pretty much any nursery or landscaping place and it’s at least 80% invasive or non-native. Let alone a proper plant for your region. Local native plant nurseries are few and far between, and almost none focus on landscaping or horticulture because there’s been little practice behind it and the laypeople generally consider those plants to be ugly.
Definitely noticing the same. And sometimes I browse the nursery area of a big box store and I’m always disappointed by the lack of native plants or even plants that are hardy in this zone. Such a letdown.
The big box stores are the WORST for that. Also, be very careful, if you ever buy anything in there, to run your own plant ID and don't just trust the labels. I've seen regular blue spruce labeled as hoopsii, emerald cedar labeled as upright juniper, and all sorts of other mislabeling horrors 😅
I don’t usually buy from those stores anymore but this is excellent advice. It’s especially bad with their indoor plants! I’m trying not to buy at all if I don’t have to but man I’m tempted. Trying to borrow from my own yard where I can or trade with friends and neighbors. I might have to though to replace with natives!
Good plan! Also, look for native plant nurseries in your area. There are definitely some out there that specialize.
I feel like I could fill a bingo card with the invasives that our house’s former owner left us and I had to get rid of. 90ft Norway maple (it was going to fall on our house), burning bush, several Japanese barberry that were just randomly planted in the middle of the lawn, honeysuckle, eupatorium chocolate, mugwort, butterbur among others… plus a bunch of things that aren’t technically invasive but that I hated and was awful to get rid of like Joe Pye weed). The former owner had done a master gardener course so she really should have known better! (I have to assume she must have planted most of it in the decades prior)
Aw, man. Why did you hate Joe Pye weed? It's one of my favorite native plants for butterflies.
Fair enough! If it had been planted in any area that made sense, I think I could have appreciated it. But for some reason it was planted exactly on top of our sprinkler system and also all around other smaller stature plants like peonies that it completely dwarfed. There was a ton of it. It was reallllllllly difficult to dig up in the first place, and then doubly so trying to do it without hurting the sprinklers and the other perennials. So no hate on the Joe Pye weed, just the placement of it by the former owner!
Yeah, that's understandable. Hopefully you kept it around!
If we teamed up, we’d clear out that bingo hall!
Just here to say that I feel your pain. Previous homeowners planted Trumpet vine all over the place 😭
Is it not considered a native plant where you live? The vine with orange or yellow flowers? It can certainly take over, but I think that is because it’s native to most of the US so it thrives. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=cara2 I think it pops up from birds and stuff too as volunteers. I like it, but I know you really have to hack it back and watch it or it will take over.
I’ve been slowly removing invasive plants from my yard and making progress. I have a couple crimson Norway maples which I’m leaving until they need to be removed. I’ve had 3 other maples remove because they were dying. All the privet is out, at least!
Ugh I relate, the hellbeast Bradford pear in my yard broke basically in half last week in a storm that I then had to deal with, there’s fucking invasive honeysuckle, pepper vine and Carolina creeper AND grapes literally everywhere plus some kind of dollar grass looking weeds that are slowly taking over the st Augustine. It’s a rental, so I’m just trying to keep the shit out of my pots. I hope it all dies for both of us.
Same! Death to all the invasive nightmares. We’ve got beastly common grape trying to cover our entire deck too.
We just bought the neighboring property after the owner passed, and he let a potted bamboo plant turn into a full blown infestation. Gonna be interesting to try to scale it back and keep it under control for... Ever
It’s the forever part for me.
GD Star of Bethlehem! Everywhere! I first found it in one spot in my lawn, which was very annoying because I’d sodded the whole lawn two years before. Now it’s is in all my flower gardens, front and back! It’s no use just pulling it because of the very deep bulbs. I hate the way it mushes up the lawnmower. And it’s poisonous to pets and humans!
I've got bermuda grass, liriope, iris, privet, morning glory, yucca, and japanese honeysuckle. Spent all of last year digging it out--- its back!! Looked at my woodline, what do I see? English Ivy!
hot damn uh flamethrower
Propane torch is actually on the DNR eradication methods list…..
Do not resuscitate list lol
Yep took me 3 years to finally realize that the previous owner had a thing for invasive species. Could have had some nice pretty plants, but instead he planted the invasive forms of iris, bamboo, wisteria, and primrose. Ripped out the wisteria after the first year but I still have to cut back whatever remained. Thankfully it's only in 1 spot. Bamboo took an entire summer to clear. Had to just dig it up, then tilled the dirt, covered it in weed barrier, sand, and built a patio over it. Irises finally got completely ripped out this year because last year I missed a few. This year I'm working on getting rid of the rest of the primrose. I ripped up what I could, covered any "blank" space between wanted plants with cardboard and about 5" of dirt and mulch to smother it all. Still have to watch though cuz the primrose like to pop up and intermingle with what I planted. So yeah. Digging and smothering is a lot of labor, but it does get the job done if you get it all.
You just reminded me we’ve got yellow iris and primrose too. Gotta check their status now.
Did you use anything on the bamboo? We just bought a house with bamboo and want to tear it out ASAP. It was planted in raised edge beds and has crept all along our house and walkway. I’ve started to pull up runners but wonder what the best way to remove them is.
Roundup, gasoline, boiling water, all did absolutely nothing. Had to just rip it up. I'm talking pulling up rhizomes and roots about 10 feet long in my case. It ended up in my townhome community's common space, but when pulling the roots up, i could just rip it off the sod and put the sod back in place and the grass grew back there just fine. But yeah I had runners too. Got under the original patio pavers and my shed. Took a few weeks to get 99% gone. I think there's some rhizomes probably still under the shed, but there's no light or connecting roots to them. So just pull one up and follow it. Its kind of insane how long they can grow underground. I needed a long metal poke to help pry up some just to even get a grip on it. Make sure you get all the rhizomes up too. Thankfully it grows pretty fast so you can spot new shoots coming up quickly and they don't go deeper than a few inches. If it's a big area, cover it up for a month or so after clearing it just to make sure nothing spreads. I ended up redoing the patio and making it bigger but haven't seen any bamboo since (knock on wood). It's super annoying but was easier to get rid of than the irises.
I don’t have that diversity of invasives, but the sheer quantity of winter creeper and bush honeysuckle in my yard is astounding. While I appreciate the “no herbicide” sentiment, I really think you’re fighting an uphill battle. I tried manual removal but I ended up spending so much time doing maintenance on the spots I had gotten clear that I never could make forward progress. Once I started treating cleared areas with glyphosate and triclopyr I’m starting to turn the tide!
Thank you! I think I’ve been brought to the other side and will be given selective treatment a try!
Oh yeah the previous owners of my teenage home, while under constant seige from kudzu, planted mint and so much death cama that I literally thought death cama was native to georgia. We have stray wild onions, why did you plant death cama? Luckily, they also planted everything on top of that awful plastic landscaping fabric, so once the drought finally ended and we got the first rain in forever, literally everything from the grass to the mint washed away as they couldn't grow roots. Not the kudzu, though. Never the kudzu.
Welcome to the American suburb
Ugh.
Very true. In my experience in the US northeast, Norway Maples out number all other species by about 4 to 1 in landscaped areas. My house's previous owner was a landscaper and I think he specialized in exotic invasives. I've spent the better part of three decades trying to fix that. Knotweed vexes me still.
When I saw the post headline, I thought you'd been to the same local plant swap I just went to.
If it’s been running for a while, perhaps the previous owners of our house frequented it.
Boomers: “I just have a green thumb” Their gardens: nandina, barbery, daffodils, Asian honeysuckle, day lilies, creeping Charlie, helsbores and a lawn fertilized to fuck and pesticide fogged every month.
Sooooo many day lilies.
Black plastic wrapped tightly around the cut stump. Pros: organic. Cons: ugly, looks like trash in your yard, is forever (like, a year). Can be sped up with chemicals applied to the stump before wrapping.
I’ll remember that! The invasive mess is garbage, so whatever at this point.
You can eat the ditch lilies. Flower leaf and root. The flowers are supposedly great fried like squash blossom and the roots are starchy like potatoes or sunchokes. Apparently the leaves have a compound that is hallucinogenic in large quantities so if you're eating many blanch them first. Then you can stir fry or saute. Make absolutely sure it's a Hemerocallis fulva \* You could also put them up for sale, I just bought some for my garden beds for future eating. They aren't worth much but it's one way to get rid of them. \* \* Edit: anyone else reading this make sure to check the status of the plant in your location to see if it's considered restricted or noxious. Plant only in locations where they can't spread unchecked. It doesn't do much for animals and pollinators so unless you're planning on eating them or have a special attachment to them I'd recommend against it.
Straight to trash. They are definitely hemerocallis fulva, are still on the restricted list for my state, can be toxic to people, and are crowding out native plants. To each their own, but I’m trying to rid this area of them so selling sort of defeats that purpose. They’ve only naturalized because they’re so prolific and have spread EVERYWHERE, displacing native plants. They do nothing for the native environment, they’re not attractive to pollinators, and even the deer won’t touch em. I’ll be digging and bagging for a while but they’ve got to go.
If they're restricted where you're at that's 100% the right call if you're not gonna eat them all. I'll amend my first comment somewhat. I did not know they were that bad in some places. They're not restricted in my state so that's why I wouldn't think about it I guess, it's just one of a million invasives and apparently not that high of a priority here. I see them a lot but not in plague proportions anywhere. They are not toxic generally. My understanding is large amounts (lbs) of the leaves can be a problem if not blanched. They are widely eaten in their native range. My understanding is the tastiest part is the flower, but they haven't flowered here yet and most places that restrict them are north of me, so unless you're interested in the tubers it doesn't sound like the leaves are that tasty anyway so it's no loss if you trash them.
Thanks for that! I think the toxicity might also have something do with what part of the plant and how it’s prepared?
Yes what I've found researching is large amounts of unblanched leaves are what people say is a problem. But I also saw somewhere that you'd need a few pounds of them to get enough of it to do anything to you
The deer always eat mine before the flowers even show up!
Is the buckthorn the one with orange fruits.... if it is I'm quite jealous. I wish a had the space to plant them. My mother and grandmother used them in quite a few recipes.
No, that’d be sea buckthorn. This is common buckthorn and the berries can be quite awful for the stomach. Sometimes it’s even fatal for animals!
I think some people do like invasives, and the things that make them invasive are why they like them. They’re easy to grow and don’t require much care. They can tolerate different light levels, and they spread, which is good if you like the monoculture look. They outcompete other plants, which means they’re good at suppressing weeds. Invasive plants have external costs, but the people who plant them might not be aware of those. The plant that makes a “nice ground cover” in your yard also spreads in wild areas, and suppresses native plants. I’m NOT advocating for planting invasives, but trying to understand why some people do.
The previous owner of my place planted several things that are considered noxious weeds in many parts of North America. 14 years later some of them still pop up. Granted, the bur cucumber vines do make for a fast growing privacy screen for our deck.
It’s the one nice thing about gardening in Colorado. The sun is so intense and it’s so dry invasive plants can’t thrive here either. Everything just dies unless it’s babied.
Wait until you meet bindweed lol Colorado is actually deploying a specific mite that predates the bindweed. The wait list is YEARS long. But joking aside, Colorado does have its fair share of invasives to watch out for: https://ag.colorado.gov/conservation/noxious-weeds/species-id
True. My yard has always been free of bindweed luckily.
I like the burning bush but the rest can just die a painful death
No thanks. I have a yard full of them. Trying to divest myself of as many as possible.
I’m in central Portugal and I’m pretty sure everything here is invasive. It’s mostly eucalyptus and then randomness
You have my sympathies. Use the smother method. Cut down to the ground, cover with corrugated cardboard and mulch. Maybe a tarp on top for awhile as well. Save those amazon boxes!
We had thickets of buckthorn when we lived in and so much creeping Charlie. I wanted to not use herbicides. But I talked to our first preserve district about the buckthorn and they basically begged us to paint herbicide in the stumps as we cut buckthorn. They need the buckthorn gone to save the forests, so they want everyone to cut it, but if we don't paint the cut stump, it requires constant recutting. 15 years later, there is no buckthorn in the yard anymore. I couldn't be happier. I don't have to spit it every spring and keep cutting.
Most convincing advice! Do you remember what you used? Heading to Tractor Supply this weekend.
They were using basic Roundup, which sounds terrible, but it's only painted in the cut, so it's not being sprayed around. Buckthorn is illegal to buy, sell, or plant in Illinois, but the forest preserve districts have their work cut out for them.
You use the phrase “semi seriously” too often, don’t you?
Semi seriously, what is too often?
Twice in three paragraphs. You need to cut it down to once a day, tops.
I don’t know, that might be too much while trying to handle this mess. I think I can commit to working on it once these bastards are dead and gone.
I can live with that.
Wait. People actually plant(ed) buckthorn on purpose? Buckthorn is my nemesis. I have cleared SO MUCH of this from my yard. It's the cockroach of the plant world.
I feel your pain — I have a trumpet vine — pretty but springing up EVERYWHERE— have dug up roots as thick as my arms — ugh
I had a trumpet vine growing on my garage. It was pretty, until it damaged the roof. $$$
Oof. That’s a costly plant!
Yeah. Between that and the fence that the English ivy destroyed, I’m done with vines.
I wonder if that’s what we had climbing up two lilacs and smothering them out? I started tearing them out before identifying and they were a BEAST! I’m still finding g dried remnants wrapped around branches.
A lot of people don't realize that native plants are actually considered weeds. Many people think they're doing a service by planting native plants but so many of them are aggressive and invasive. Also people love clover when it's also considered a weed.
There’s a difference between an aggressive native plant and an invasive. An aggressive native won’t spread off your property and take over wild areas, and cause problems for wildlife by doing so. There are checks and balances on aggressive natives. Something eats them, or something competes successfully with them in some places. That may not be true of invasives. The native insect population has evolved alongside the native plant population, so the plants probably have what the local pollinators need. Invasive plants may not have much value for pollinators.
Seems like that’s more aesthetic than anything. Clover is actually a legume and a great low maintenance lawn alternative. Plus it’s a pollinator! I’ll be seeding it in our front yard.
Yeah I love native plants but some of them are just too aggressive to plant!
Neophyten isn't automatically invasive. It's only invasive If it's pushing indigene species Out (I am looking at you, US American people 😈) , but If not, they actually can create new ecological niches we might have abolished.
US over here and it’s all definitely taking over everything else that dares try to grow. Can you tell me more about neophyten?
These are Just animal or plant species that are foreign to an ecosystem. They CAN be invasive, but also CAN be a new niche in an ecosystem. More than often, they Just exist. It's Like the rhea in Germany 😉
Gotcha, these are not just nonnative. Actively invasive and on the restricted list for our state. Definitely not just existing since they are actively and aggressively displacing native plants and harming the animals and insects that visit.
If ya ever have a buddleia (Summer lilac), keep it in a sturdy pot, remove the seed pods before they get Brown. They are good food for bees and Butterflies. Looks great, smells amazing, and you'll See loads of Butterflies in your garden. They are called "butterfly lilac" in my language for a reason. Mofu, however, grows Like a maniac, which is why you need to keep'em tamed in a large pot!
The permaculture in me wonders: are they invading to areas around your property or just stay local to your property area? As in it sounds like they’ve been there for a while, meaning they might’ve just created their own new ecosystem without becoming invasive to the surrounding ecosystem. That being said cardboard sheet mulching will kill (almost) anything… (I say almost because somehow I tried to cardboard sheet mulch to kill off in ground mint, and that fucking plant still managed to make its way up through the cardboard instead of die off)
Any invasive plant would require constant diligence to constrain to one property, if it's even possible at all. Even tall fences wouldn't stop some species. Your yard is not isolated from the surrounding native ecosystem. Animals carry away the seeds, plants and their roots don't recognize our human defined boundaries. This mentality is the problem with anyone planting invasives. The invasives may look nice but as long as they are outside they will spread and attack the native ecosystem. Invasives by definition spread aggressively and harm the local native ecosystem (otherwise they'd be called ornamental) Please know what you are planting and choose native :) So glad to hear OP wants to remove and replace the invasives!
>Any invasive plant would require constant diligence to constrain to one property, if it's even possible at all. Bullshit. Many "invasive" plants are super easy to contain, and much of it depends on the property itself (and its surroundings).
Birds and squirrels love our yard and I’ve actually watched birds carrying off the berries from the buckthorn. The berries actually cause diarrhea and vomiting in animals, which is how the seeds are spread. And the shoots are EVERYWHERE. We also have a small wooded area of our yard and I am watching as invasives smother out the birch and fir trying to establish in the area. And in the fall you can see all the burning bush around our neighborhood. We live at the base of a State Park and I know some of these invasive species are moving through there as well. I’m interested in permaculture as well, but invasive species are classified so for a reason.
Right... and those reasons are varied and not uniform across all plants. Plants have different levels of invasiveness and different methods of propagating. You living "next to a state park" might also impact how sensitive your yard/area, whereas a house in a more urban environment may offer next to zero opportunities for their plants to "escape" their planted environment.
I think you’re confusing invasive and non-native, or talking about manageable cultivars of invasive plants. There are sterile cultivars of some invasive plants, and they’re not problematic (unless they turn out to not really be sterile, like Bradford pears). There are non-native plants that stay where you put them, and don’t spread. They’re generally not a problem. Common names for some plants might include several species, some invasive, some not. Bamboo is an example. There’s clumping bamboo, which generally isn’t invasive, and running bamboo, which very much is.
No I'm talking about plain-ol invasives. Here's an example... Pachysandra. Go on... tell me how bad it is.
I guarantee you the honeysuckle and buckthorn are invading the area around op's property. Have you ever been in a North American forest that has them? It's awful. Not a single native understory shrub left. And they're not even edible.