| Within the year after we moved into our house 10.5 years ago I learned that the prior owners had laid down black canvas and planted hyacinth & daffodils which come up early, and peonies which bloom much later. And the canvas meant "no weeding needed" which is perfect for me as I really don't have that kind of time.
Several years after that I learned that the canvas doesn't last forever. Ugh.
Last year & the year before I dug up all the violets that I could and gave them to a coworker who wanted them.
This year I have twice (once with help -- the spouse was removing weeds from somewhere else) filled the "yard waste" garbage bin. This morning that took two hours. I think I'm about half done pulling weeds and grass out of the garden-area. I am being completely indiscriminate, pulling even the violets and the Alexandria.
Found one plant I didn't recognize. It seems to be a vine that propagates by above-ground runners. I pulled out what I could. I eventually got to some leaves. Looked a bit like maple, but I know how maple trees grow and this isn't it.
Finally, pulling weeds and dredging my memory, I had a thought: Any bets on me having been rolling around in poison ivy all morning? |
Why pull now? Shouldn't the weather take care of them very soon?
I have grass a foot and a half to two feet tall (it was taller than the peonies most of the year) and I expect that if I just let the cold take care of it I'll either have lots more grass there next year, or I'll have a matted rotten mess with all sorts of cooties living in it come next spring.
I really need to learn to fabricate time so that I'll be able to deal with it sooner next year.
Plus I'm sure that they're clever enough that they'd either get into the neighbors' yards (getting me in trouble) or eat parts of the house that I'd rather they didn't.
Poison ivy isn't actually very ivy-like. It tends (note that word) to grow vertically in woody stems. In fact, some plants are large enough that what's called "Mother-in-Law Spoons" are carved from the stems.
Very susceptible to it, myself. "Leaflets three, let it be."
Anyway, washing good with hot water and lots of soap immediately after exposure will usually remove the oil before it soaks in enough to cause a rash. Usually...
This had both -- although it was not red. (I think it was the 3-leaves-together that called up that memory of possible identification.
And as to the threes, and the red, the one time my brother pointed out the poison ivy, I think I did not see 3-finger leaves, 3-leaves-together, _or_ redness, so I have never learned to recognize it. Unless it is climbing and near-choking a tree -- poison ivy is the only vine I've seen with a fuzzy stem 3-5 inches across climbing a tree to the top.
Poison ivy has three leaves on a single stem. The leaves are irregular; they have tooth edges, but the "teeth" aren't regular, either.
As susceptible as I am to it, I generally assume it's anywhere where lots of weeds aggregate, especially around woods. This is the reason I insisted on a shower next to the laundry room which is next to the mudroom, which is at the garage door. After I tramp through the grounds, I will strip, through clothes in washer, through myself through a shower.
There is supposed to be a natural de-poison-ivy-er; it's a plant that frequently grows where poison ivy grows, and the oil from the flower (?) negates the oil from the poison ivy. I've forgotten what it is, but I'm going to find out!
It can take a while for poison ivy to manifest -- if you were rolling around in it, it may not produce a rash until later in the evening. But, from what you've been saying, it sounds like you just might escape!
And that I'm as lucky... probably next week. It's gotta be done, and that may be my Sunday Morning Instead Of Con task.
Hmmm. This sounds much more like poison oak than poison ivy.
Like poison ivy, only worse.
I walked through poison oak smoke, once, at age 9 or so. I was out of school for two weeks. I had lesions all over my body and in *every* oriface of my body -- *all* of them. My eyes were glued shut. The damn thing stuff systemic, and required antibiotics.
*That* is when I became *so* sensitive to poison oak/ivy that I can catch it from wind. (!) Or at least I used to. It seems to have finally died down a bit -- but I'm still paranoid about dealing with it.
Mind you, I'm not infallible about recognizing the ivy, which is why I'm so careful in any woods. And, while I can identify the oak vine, I haven't seen the leaves, yet. (It abounds on the trees of the new property.)
Still, I do know that the *ropes* (read: vines) around the trees are the poison oak, not the ivy.
Never seen (nor want to see or experience) poison sumac.
Poison ivy generally grows up alongside trees or shrubs, in my experience (but I admit I'm no expert) so finding it in the middle of your garden plot would be unusual.
The poison ivy leaf is basically a spear shape with serrated edges, where the serrations are unevenly sized.
Three spears to a stem, one on top, two essentially parallel to each other below the head leaf. Sometimes the head leaf will be a bit bigger than the lower ones, probably due to growth patterns.
It's supposed to be a vine, and sometimes I do see it trailing horizontally (say, in a crack between cement blocks) but I also see it as fairly bushy, too. It is somewhat viny at the base of a tree, too, but it rarely grows very high up the tree.
Poison oak vines look like somthing Tarzan could swing on, except that he'd regret it later.
Ok, The leaves didn't look very spear-like, so maybe I'm "safe".
I suppose it could be a sort of "true" ivy, although I tend to expect more leaves and less stem/runner from that.