Pest Plants
Bradford Pear – Wildly Sprouting Thorny Bushes
Curtis Young , editor, and other contributors to the Buckeye Yard and Garden Line have shed light on why there are so many thorny sprouts of wild pear showing up unwanted every year. “One of the certainties of education is...
Microstegium (Basketgrass, Stiltgrass) – New Disease for Possible Control
Microstegium is a terribly invasive grass in shady gardens. The great news is that researchers have identified a disease that has potential to control it! News release: In 2009, a previously undescribed disease was found on the nonnative invasive annual...
Microstegium (Basketgrass, Stiltgrass, Eulalia) – Identification and Control
This grassy weed is common but it doesn’t yet have a widely accepted common name. Most gardeners refer to it as “That summer weed that I can easily pull out by huge handfuls but it still comes back!” Eulalia grass...
Smilax ID and Control
It has wicked thorns, it laughs at herbicides and it always seems to come back, no matter how much you pull it out of your shrubs each spring. Nobody smiles when smilax vine appears The pest is smilax (deer thorn,...
Lichens
Every kid (and most adults) can remember being falsely blamed simply because they were standing nearby when an accident happened. Although accidents do seem to happen more often when kids are present, it’s erroneous to assume that they are the...
Invasive Pampas Grass
I live in Hall county and drive to work in Forsyth county. I listen to you every Saturday morning on my drive to work. In early September 2006 I heard you and Teresa Schrum talking about renegade pampas grass on...
Lichen Quiz
PETER RABBIT? Here is a quick trivia question: What do Peter Rabbit, canaries and moose have to do with lichens? It turns out that Beatrix Potter, the author of the Peter Rabbit tales, was also a respected biologist. She was...
Chickweed – Control in Fescue
Fall tilling brought up plenty of chickweed seeds that had been lying dormant underground. They sprouted last fall along with my fescue seeds. The recent warm winter weather has caused the unwanted plants to explode across my lawn. But here’s...
English Ivy – Control
I accompanied my son’s class on an overnight Environmental Education trip to Rock Eagle one year. One of his classmates was a great source of fascination to me. Whenever I stood next to him he was a model of decorum:...
Bamboo – Control
Technically, bamboo is a grass, but certainly not one you’d describe as a premier turf product. The sprouts that shoot up from the ground each spring can grow 12 inches per day. Common fishpole bamboo usually tops out at 15...
English Ivy – Dermatitis
My son recently spent a day helping a neighbor clear English ivy from their landscape. He woke on the following day with itchy, spreading blisters on his arm. He says he saw no poison ivy in the English ivy patch…so...
Pokeweed (Poke Sallet) – Don’t Eat It
DON’T EAT POKE SALAD Auburn, June 18, 2002—Pokeweed is probably the best known and most widely used wild vegetable in America and Europe. However, a food scientist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System says no part of this plant should...
Poison Ivy – Pictures
Poison ivy can be mistaken for other flora outdoors. Just in case you are unsure which “leaflets of three” to avoid, here are pictures of poison ivy and its mimics. Note the “leaflets of five” leaf in the third picture....
Yellow Archangel – Control
I believe I am finally rid of the infernal archangel. Several years ago I found a plant that seemed to be just the ticket for my shady back yard. It had silvery green foliage and yellow flowers in the spring....
Poison Ivy – Control
My neighbor and I acted as if we were surrounded by rattlesnakes. “Ease your foot down there, slowly…slowly. Now take a quick step to the right and hop up onto that cinderblock!” We were curious about the land clearing that’s...
Poison Ivy – Herbicides
Several herbicides will kill poison ivy. Triclopyr (Brush-B-Gon) kills kudzu and brambles as well as poison ivy. Non-selective weed killers like Round-Up, Finale or Next Day will kill poison ivy, too. With care, spot spraying can take the offending vines...
Wisteria
Its flowers are gorgeous but the nature of a wisteria vine is to conquer everything around it. Cascades of lavender or white blooms announce that the vine has woken up after a winter nap and is poised to start climbing...
Air Potato
Q: I have a problem with a lovely but horribly invasive vine that grows little potatoes on its stem. It sprouts and spreads like a demon – nearly taking over a 3 acre lot! What is it and what can...
