Pest Plants | Walter Reeves: The Georgia Gardener

Purslane – Control

Common purslane, Portulaca oleracea, is a weedy summer annual, invading vegetable gardens, bare areas, low-maintenance lawns, and ornamental plantings. It is particularly well adapted to the warm, moist conditions found in Georgia. Common purslane is edible, with a sweet, yet...

Wild Strawberry (Indian Mock Strawberry) – Identification

Indian mock strawberry, Potentilla indica, is a non-native weed only slightly related to “real” strawberry. It’s flowers are yellow while those of edible strawberry are white or pink. The fruit of mock strawberry is not poisonous but the taste is...

Wild Lettuce (Prickly Lettuce) – Control

It looks like dandelion leaves at first…..but it makes a tall stem. What could this be? It’s wild lettuce…..and it’s edible! You can dig the long taproot with a dandelion fork (click for sources) or uproot it with a Water...

Sowthistle – Control

The spiny leaves make this weed easy to spot. Fortunately, spiny sowthistle is easy to control. You can dig the long taproot with a dandelion fork (click for sources) or uproot it with a Water Weeder. A spot spray of...

Poison Ivy Oil – How Long is it Potent?

Copied from http://mailman.cloudnet.com/pipermail/compost/2000-April/006688.html A couple of weeks ago, Sharon Barnes asked a question on this listserv about the fate of poison ivy during composting. I found the question intriquing so I decided to use it for the BioCycle Q&A column....

FIVE STRATEGIES FOR WEED CONTROL

My friend Daryl Pulis and I share a common passion. We enjoy learning more about odd and uncommon plants and sleuthing out practical information about them. When the rare amorphophallus bloomed at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Daryl posted breathless accounts...

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...

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...