What’s to love about native plants that spread like crazy? Everything! Enlist these hardy troopers to help reclaim habitat.
They were the last lonely leftovers: seven pint-size transplants I couldn’t even give away. Other beauties—boneset, coneflowers, bee balms, asters—had flown off the shelves of my cubicle wall, where a “Free to Good Home” sign invited friends and colleagues to give them a new spot in their own gardens.
But the golden ragworts, still small and fairly nondescript, had a harder time selling themselves. It didn’t help that their name sounded like “ragweed,” the plant everyone loves to hate, or that I repeatedly responded with an enthusiastic “Yes!” when asked: “Does it spread?” My fellow gardeners, trained to panic in the face of plants that refuse to be kept down, backed away in terror, eyeing the pots as they would a petri dish of ebola virus.
So it was that the remaining stash of this underappreciated groundcover—which feeds bees and shelters many other creatures—ended up back in my yard, though not in its rightful place in the ground. Putting the plants aside under some sassafras trees by our driveway, I intended to give them a better home, but life got in the way. As the leaves dropped and the snow fell and one season passed into another, there they sat, neglected and trapped in their plastic pots.
That spring, though, the plants gave me an unexpected gift in spite of my poor stewardship. As I headed past the driveway to tackle the onerous spring ritual of removing garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), a persistent European plant that crowds out native groundcovers, I discovered the little ragworts had gotten a head start on the task. Refusing to be held captive, their roots had burst forth from the holes in the bottom of the pot and rambled fearlessly into the garlic mustard patch.
To understand what a revelation this was, it helps to know a little about garlic mustard. Originally from Europe and Asia, it’s allelopathic, releasing chemicals that inhibit the growth of other species. It’s a threat to forest understories in the U.S. and Canada and also to the West Virginia white butterfly, which seems to mistake garlic mustard for its host plant, laying eggs of caterpillars doomed to die on leaves they can’t eat.
NEW in 2023: Read Part 2 of this article, “The Plant Are Coming Home,” in my guest post on IzelPlants.com
But in my yard, garlic mustard has finally met a worthy contender. Watching a habitat-harming plant succumb to an equally hardy native has opened my eyes to a more creative, life-affirming method of curtailing the less helpful plants on my property. Since it’s not in my nature to want to fight nature, I find the process of cutting, digging and pulling plants—no matter their provenance—a little heart-wrenching. And because I don’t want to support products that harm the land and the creatures who survive off it, I avoid herbicides. Besides, I’d rather not remove any vegetation that’s providing even minimal habitat if there are few other alternatives for nesting and food. Even my preferred, seemingly harmless method of laying down cardboard to kill grass has its consequences, potentially smothering the homes of native bees and other creatures nesting in the ground.
The idea of adding more wildlife-friendly plants while gradually removing less helpful ones, then, appeals to my sensibilities much more than declaring chemical and mechanical warfare to clear the land—and, in at least some cases, it can be more effective in the long term. Here are a few experimental methods that have proven successful on different types of sites, including my own.
1. Guerilla garden: Insert natives into patches of vigorous nonnatives.
Following the ragwort’s unexpected coup, I added more to the 12-by-12-foot garlic mustard patch and watched delightedly as it claimed the whole territory. And it took only three years—about the same length of time a similar experiment played out in the yard of Sue Barton, a University of Delaware associate professor and extension specialist. In her original attempts to eliminate Japanese stilt grass (Microstegium vimineum), an introduced species that crowds out other plants, she’d tried all the standard approaches—mowing, herbicides, replanting with low fescue, and pulling the remaining scattered interlopers that sprouted. Ultimately, the effort had failed. “It’s now just solid stilt grass,” she says.
When she later confronted a second patch of stiltgrass in the backyard, Barton changed her approach, manually weeding out the space before planting a combination of native woodferns (in the Dryopteris genus) and Japanese painted ferns (Athyrium x ‘Branford Rambler’). By spring, the fall project had taken hold and the plugs were thriving. “But the stiltgrass started to grow, and so that summer, it was like a treasure hunt, looking for the little fern plugs in amongst the two-feet-tall stilt grass,” Barton says. She again weeded the stiltgrass out by hand, and in the third year, the 1,000-square-foot space had filled in entirely with ferns. Disliked by deer, the plants were also large enough to shade the ground and prevent further germination of stiltgrass.
“I don’t necessarily know that ferns would work in every situation—what works in one instance is not guaranteed to work another,” says Barton. “It’s just our best guess.”
2. Employ Defensive Linebackers: Practice preventive planting.
Some native plants can hold their ground even against the most impressive offensive lineup. At one Maryland site, Southeastern wild rye (Elymus glabriflorus) has been observed staking its claim in a garden otherwise overtaken by Canada thistle. Proactively planning for this type of “competitive exclusion”—a term for describing species duking it out for the same resources—is the best way to ensure long-term sustainability in landscapes expected to thrive on their own, says Claudia West, coauthor of Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes.
“I’m on a consistent mission right now to find highly aggressive and thuggish native plants,” she says. “I am looking for native species that have all the ecological value, that can outcompete some of the invasive stuff we’re dealing with.”
I’d rather have a very thuggish, vigorous native plant take over an area than have it covered in honeysuckle or autumn olive. … We’re looking for plants that can stand their ground. —Claudia West
In planting projects she undertakes as the ecological sales manager for North Creek Nurseries, West sometimes sneaks in tough native spreaders like wild petunia (Ruellia humilis) and native sedges—species that provide food and cover for wildlife who’ve evolved to depend on them. Though some of the plants won’t leave room for much else, the tradeoff is worth it. “I’d rather have a very thuggish, vigorous native plant take over an area than have it covered in honeysuckle or autumn olive, especially for landscapes that we know from the beginning will not receive a lot of care,” says West. “Think about all the storm water maintenance along highways. Think about parking lots. We’re looking for plants that can stand their ground.”
It’s a useful strategy in many home landscapes as well, especially for gardeners with a heart and mind for helping wildlife but a property covered in turfgrass edged by invasive vines and shrubs. Preventing further encroachment of these plants in my own yard are mountain mint, blue mistflower, bee balm, elderberry, gray dogwood, Pennsylvania sedge and other stalwart defenders. Planted little by little over many seasons in areas where they can freely spread their wings—and roots and seeds—they’ve started to fill in previously barren or invasive-prone spots in our two acres.
3. Recruit Volunteers: Encourage self-starters.
“If I do nothing, what will happen?” asks pioneering landscape designer Larry Weaner in his 2016 book, Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change. While not advocating for a cessation of gardening, Weaner encourages readers to use the question as a guiding principle for creating an ecological landscape or restoring a degraded site. In other words, what native plants are already lying dormant in the land, waiting for us to stop mowing them down? What valuable seeds might migrate into the garden on the breeze or in the bellies of birds? Weaner has seen this strategy come to fruition in his planting projects, as when he added Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) to a client’s meadow and later saw it thriving in an adjacent lawn that a neighbor had let go—and grow.
Refusing to be held back, such unexpected visitors are an increasingly common occurrence on my property as well. Learning who they are and how they grow has been one of the great joys of gardening (or what I’m starting to think of as “un-gardening.”) Some are diminutive, like the blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) that came up singly in a patch of old turfgrass by our back deck. Others make themselves known with wild abandon, like the late boneset (Eupatorium serotinum) that shot up high above an old bulb garden we inherited from previous homeowners, beckoning fall-migrating monarchs. An entire field of broomsedge (Andropogon virginicus) and purpletop grass (Tridens flavus) graces our backyard where there used to be only mowed lawn, making way for more wildflowers—and eventually trees—with each passing year.
Two summers ago, as I pondered how to address ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) in the front yard, my husband stopped mowing there so the bees could feed on the plant’s early flowers and nest in the bare patches of soil between. By fall, when the ground ivy had continued to spread and I was still plagued with indecision, we discovered that nature had been thinking much more creatively. An inspection of the area revealed nine baby Eastern red cedars peeking up through the leaves, humbling me once again: The previous spring, I’d spent $30 on three diminutive plugs of the same species, and here were three times as many coming up for free. They were healthy and strong and ready to provide nesting, cover and fruit for many bird species, as well as food for foxes, rabbits, raccoons, and butterfly caterpillars who call that tree species home.
Ground ivy, the plant I didn’t want, was serving as a kind of nurse plant for the one I did—something that could only have happened when we’d stopped cutting everything off at the knees.
RESOURCES
NEW in 2023: Recently I wrote a guest post for the Izel Plants blog, “The Plants Are Coming Home.” It is effectively a Part 2 of this article, answering more questions and pondering more ideas that have arisen during the six years since I wrote this first post on the topic. (Bonus: You’ll also find more photos of my habitat!)
For more ideas, read the comments below and check out this handout I developed to help people identify and plant vigorous natives. It usually accompanies a talk on the subject, and now you can have it for free: How to Fight Plants with Plants: The Handout
See also this great article from Choose Natives: Plant Native Groundcovers and Make America Green Again
For more tips on working with nature in your garden, check out my book, The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Wildlife Habitat.
Featured image at top: A mountain mint (Pycnanthemum flexuosum) showed up on its own near a patch of golden ragwort. An Eastern tiger swallowtail signaled her approval. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)
Now I want to tackle the English Ivy and Pachysandra in our backyard with … something.
My last idea involves using a metal garden rake (the rigid, non-leaf rake) like a spaghetti fork and hoping it would rip it out. This sounds much easier, and definitely more likely to work.
Hi Zack! I think that would actually work well in concert with this method. You could clear a little space at a time. I may have forgotten to mention that that’s what I did with the garlic mustard. In order to insert more ragwort, I would need to pull a few of the garlic mustards. But instead of pulling it all at once, I just did a little at a time. If I had pulled it all at once and not refilled it entirely with plants right away, those garlic mustards or some other invasive would have just come right back. It makes it so much more manageable, both physically and mentally, to take it bit by bit. Also in this area, there used to be a zillion Bradford pear seedlings! I was forever pulling them out. The ragwort has shaded those out, too … so bit by bit!! 🙂
What would be a good replacement for English ivy? In my case it’s underneath a row of hemlock trees, one side is a slope next to the driveway, the other side is creeping into our flat lawn.
Hi Beth,
It depends where you live if you are looking to replace with something that’s locally native. But I am also trying golden ragwort on a friend’s property, this one with a whole side yard of English ivy. We are taking out the ivy one patch at a time and inserting the ragwort, and it is working so far. If we took out the entire ivy all at once, there would be too much opportunity for it to fill back in before the other plants spread.
Some native sedges are also really good spreaders and can take some shade. Pennsylvania sedge spreads well for me under shrubs where ground ivy would otherwise be encroaching.
In addition to state native plant societies, some of my favorite sources for finding native plants by zip code or state are on this page: https://www.humanegardener.com/native-plant-sources/ At Ladybird Johnson’s site, you can also find groupings of plants in your region by category – shrubs, vines, groundcovers, etc. They’ll tell you a lot about the growth habits, and another interesting place to find information about growth habits is Missouri Botanical Garden’s Plant Finder. It doesn’t have plants for the entire country, but you can find quite a few that are native to many regions: http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/plantfinder/plantfindersearch.aspx
Another interesting source that I really love to look at is a Forest Service database that provides all kinds of info about wildlife habitat offered by different species as well as growth habits and plants they naturally mix with. It’s a lot of info to look at at first, but easy to find what you’re looking for once you get used to it: https://www.feis-crs.org/feis/faces/index.xhtml
In general, anything that is going to quickly form a dense matrix — and that could involve one groundcover or a layered mixture of plants — could help not only hold the ground against more rooting but also shade out germination of the ivy’s seeds. Once you clear a spot, it helps to plant plants closer together than the standard guidelines recommend.
Nancy, 20 years ago we planted our first prairie. In the mix was Heliantous Molis or Ashy Sunflower. Eight years ago or so the sunflower suddenly started to spread and now due to its rizomatic and alleleopathic character it’s taking over once was a very diverse Prarie. What native plants might compete with the sunflower.
Thanks, Phil Grimm
For English Ivy and periwinkle and pachysandra, Virginia creeper should work very well (assuming tgat is native where you are)
Replacement for English Ivy/Pachysandra/Periwinkle:
Rhus Aromatica (Fragrant Sumac) is excellent on slopes in dry areas.
Pennsylvania Sedge is fantastic and you can divide it and spread it all around your landscape.
Christmas Ferns.
We just bought some Pachysandra procumbens (Allegheny Spurge) to try out. Too early to give an opinion.
Thanks, Kyle! These are great tips. I was just trying to figure out something for a friend’s slope and had forgotten about fragrant sumac! Great idea. I love the native pachysandra. It’s kind of a slow grower, at least where I am, so I think probably in a situation where a groundcover is needed quickly, starting with a number of plugs would be helpful.
how did it go with the alegheny spurge?
I love Christmas fern, but they don’t really spread.
Perhaps Parthenocissus Ciquefolia – Virginia Creeper.
I’m so allergic to Virginia creeper!
Suggest you first take it off any trees it might be on. That’s where English Ivy blooms and creates seeds. Unless you have very thick vines from years of it being left alone you will find it pretty easy. Be sure to look for poison ivy on the tree before you get into it. With some help I removed about 1/3 acre of very dense Eng Ivy. Suggest you pull it following a good rain because you have to pull the root up or it absolutely will come back. If you make a good effort of getting the root up, a relatively small amount will come back. Pull it when it does and eventually it will go away just like it did for us. BTW, I volunteered to clear the ivy off my neighbor’s trees too in order to stop that from being a source of seeds. It can be done, and you don’t have to do it all at once.
Not evergreen, but Virginia Creeper P quinquifolia has almost finished outcompeting periwinkle for me after about four years. Maybe worth a try.
I’m using this approach on a drier slope filled with non-native pachysandra, replacing it section by section with barren strawberry (Waldsteinia fragarioides). It’s been a few years and is working, with a little aggressive pachysandra removal from time to time.
Nancy,
Our group Second Sunday Gardeners planted a 1000 square foot Pollinator Patch in a park a year ago and it thrived, however Evening Primrose was too aggressive. We have some other areas of the Park we are rewilding and fighting invasives such as vinca minor and Ehglish ivy. Do you think Evening Primrose might be a good native aggressive helper?
Maureen May
Hi Maureen, I think for vinca and English ivy you’d want to plant species that spread in a similar way along the ground. Virginia creeper works well for this — if you clear patches of the ivy and vinca and then replant with the creeper right away. Also you could try golden ragwort. In my handout that accompanies this article, you might find other suggestions for ivy and vinca, but those are two that come to mind.
Just wanted to put in another plug (pun intended!) for Packera Aurea. It’s my hero native plant because of how fast it grows and spreads (Maryland Piedmont). I got a small pot of bare root plants that a fellow native plant enthusiast neighbor offered to me a few years ago, and it has provided me with dense groundcover in tough areas as well as new plants to plant in other areas every spring and fall. I have been doing a sort of guerrilla gardening in my wooded yard where I remove a small patch of all the nonnative vines (Japanese honeysuckle, vinca, English Ivy mostly) and put in a golden ragwort. While I’m conscious of not creating a monoculture, it is much preferable to what was there and does a great job of holding space. I have found that when I put it with other intentionally planted natives (in this case, Virginia bluebells, juncus Effusus, and ostrich fern), it has not overpowered them. I also get volunteer violets. The one exception is native columbine, but the plugs I planted of that have not been very successful in general, at least where I planted them!
I’m getting ready to combine both approaches: rake the ivy, then plant Sweet Joe Pye Weed, Rudbeckia laciniata, and poke milkweed in the midst of it. Would love to hear how your experiment went.
That was supposed to be for Zach
None of my rudbeckia is where it started, it moves around where it chooses, would not plant where I wanted it to stay
Hi Cindy, that does tend to be what reseeding plants do. But as long as you know that and are prepared for it, you can end up with a pretty amazing mingling of plants — they seem to know how to combine well together!
Anything that will compete with privet?
I have English Ivy all around the perimeter of my house. It’s a nightmare. I’m pulling it out by hand. It’s beastly.
Yes, pulling it out by hand, especially after a rain and bit by bit, can actually help you get ahead of it — as long as you immediately plant new native groundcover wherever you’ve pulled. Otherwise it comes right back.
Winter is a good time to do that. I pulled a big section of ivy and honeysuckle last winter and planted some mountain mint, swamp milkweed, swamp sunflower, mistflower, sedges, lyre leaf sage, golden rod and river oats in the area. Not densely, but hoping they spread!
I want creeping Charlie/ground ivy gone. Would love something to keep from coming in from my neighbors through the fences.
OMG I’ll take your Pachysandra and give you my hillside of Staghorn Sumac any day of the week.
What do you dislike about staghorn sumac?
Gosh, I actually PAID for a Sumac for my hillside. They’re beautiful, nice fall color, and you can make lovely tea with the berries.
But, I understand that you see them wild, and they are weedy. I guess I like some weeds better than formal gardens.
This is REALLY interesting. Thank you so much for this information. I just shared your story to all my Facebook pages!
I always love your blog posts! Thank you, Leslie Nelson Inman
Thank you so much, Leslie! 🙂 It will be great to hear people’s stories about their experiments with different plants.
Now just give me the name of something that will crowd out Bermuda grass, hateful stuff that it is…
I think I’ve used a combination of hand-digging, cardboard, leaves, and native groundcover insertion with that.
I love this post – thank you! We’ve experienced something like this in the past when we had a 5 acre abandoned soybean field we seeded with a mix of native grass seed and forbs. The first year we primarily saw ragweed and patches of field bindweed. The latter had me very nervous, wondering if we were going to end up with a huge expanse of primarily bindweed. Lo and behold, the ragweed seemed to outcompete the bindweed…and still allowed the native grasses and forbs to establish. An n=1 story, but I’d sure try to fight bindweed with ragweed again!
We just discovered that we have torpedo grass, Panicum repens, in one area of the yard. Your post is getting me to think outside the herbicide box to ponder what native species we might try to grow to combat that nasty invasive.
Again, thank you!
I love that! Thank you for sharing the story! Since ragweed is a pioneer species, it seems like if you just let it do its thing, it’ll eventually give way to more grasses and wildflowers — as it sounds like it did on your property. And it is helpful to wildlife along the way. How great to know that it also can help the gardener if we just let it! 🙂
I think it’s ragwort that the author was referring to, but it sounds super similar
Yes I love and proselytize about golden groundsel (sounds better than ragwort!) Incall it a living mulch for trees with benefits (it’s spring flowers)
LOVE this article and share your ethics! I have found jerusalem artichoke (helianthus tubrosa: https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=HETU) to eliminate the bindweed in my yard –and I get the benefit of an edible crop, a screen from my neighbor’s pool, and additional birds and bees:) Currently working on an experiment to see if Fragaria virginiana can overtake Glechoma hederacea:). Also trying to find something to take on quackgrass and sow thistle until our trees are actually providing a shade canopy.
Hi Jodi,
I think I forgot to reply to this, but if you see this, thank you! I love Jerusalem artichoke and was just recommending it to a couple of people for Japanese knotweed, based on a tip from the book Native Plants for New England Gardens. This past summer my neighbor gave me some Jerusalem artichokes that I inserted into a tough patch of burning bush roots, and it did the job there, too! I hope your wild strawberry experiment is going well. 🙂
how is your experiment with wild strawberry vs. glechoma hederacea going??
We live on a smallish corner lot in SE Nebraska, with very little lawn. I made the mistake of planting a non-native bellflower a neighbor gave me when we first moved here. I have been pulling it as often as I can. Last spring, I planted some clumps of a monarda of some kind, hoping it would take over. They didn’t spread much. Hopefully, they will this season.
Across the street, where I also garden, there is a huge patch of the bellflower, since I had shared some with the tenant who was there a number of years ago. I don’t let it bloom, but have not been able to keep up. Last year, I planted a couple thorny fruit bearing shrubs I was given in the middle of the patch. We’ll see if that helps or not.
I do have some of the plants you mentioned, and dig from the edges each spring to share them.
Hi Sue,
That’s a tough one for sure — if it is the one I’m thinking of, it spreads by both prolific seeding and rhizomes. Layers of different plants that both hug the ground and rise above, and that leaf out early and densely, might at least overshadow the seeds and prevent further germination if you work on it patch by patch.
One thing I’ve found is that if I simply clear an area without densely replanting all of it right away, it just gets filled again. But when I tackle one small area at a time in this fashion, I can make headway. The two books I mentioned in the post have useful examples, but even more valuable are the explanations of how these species with different growth habits both intermingle and compete below ground.
By the way, I found this post because someone shared it in the Facebook group, Gardening with Nature in Mind.
Wonderful article! Can’t wait to do “un-gardening” starting with using golden ragwort to battle the garlic mustard for me.
Hi Joan! I hope it is as helpful to you as it has been to me!
Me too!!!
I have been slowly adding violets of all colors under my “island planting” which are areas of different native trees, fruit producing shrubs, perennials and ground covers with bulbs. (Host plants for different fritillaries.) Dug out most of the garlic mustard last year before it seeded. (Did have an Appalachian White using the flower 😞). Noticed this year so far the garlic mustard isn’t as aggressive. Now if I can take care of the mugwort. (Using beebalms to try to strangle.).
Hi Marcy,
That sounds like such great habitat! How sad that an Appalachian white was using the garlic mustard. So do you think it’s the violets that are reducing their numbers? If so that would be another good thing to recommend. Come to think of it, I don’t think I even have any garlic mustard near my violet patches – maybe that’s why.
Mugwort likes it here, too. Kind of funny, but I have some wild bergamot near mine as well — may the bee balms prevail! 🙂
Would love an update on what folks have found successful against mugwort! I’ve got a patch in a shady, moist area that I’d love to have something like swamp milkweed in instead.
This kind of feels like there should be an OKCupid but for gardener’s trying to battle invasive weeds with natives for their area.
Hi KWu!
I do have some information on that now that I provide in talks, so I need to update my site with it too.
Black raspberry has been really helpful for us in pushing out mugwort. It volunteered at the edge of a huge patch of mugwort, and as we weeded out the mugwort next to it, the black raspberry moved in. One issue with this, though, is that underneath the black raspberry, in the place of mugwort, sometimes garlic mustard and Japanese stiltgrass move in. So I’ve been pulling that and moving violets, Rudbeckia triloba, and other groundcover-type plants underneath there. I’m so grateful for all this volunteer black raspberry right now — not only for the wildife, but we’ll be able to eat some too!
Another thing I’m trying is Jerusalem artichoke and common milkweed, since both spread densely and in a similar way. I also just put smooth sumacs near the patch.
That’s in a relatively open field area where I can grow anything — tall, short, spreading, etc. But in other areas where I’ve had mugwort, such as a shady corner of the front yard, I’ve gotten mugwort out by pulling it and then planting golden ragwort as well as ostrich ferns. I’m about to put some wild ginger over there too.
Let me know if you’ve found other good plants for this!
My mom has honeysuckle (planted before we knew how invasive it was) that is trying to take over one of her rose bushes, old blush. We have tried to cut it out but have not been able to eradicate it. What do you suggest we plant to help get rid of it? We are in central Texas.
Hi Stefanie,
You are right near the best resource for this — the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center. I don’t know the plants as well there, but I assume you’re talking about one of the nonnative honeysuckles. (The native honeysuckle – Lonicera sempervirens – is very valuable to wildlife and worth keeping.) In searching on the native plants database for a lower-growing, spreading plant that could grow in similar conditions to what Japanese honeysuckle prefers, I found wine cups. I searched for something that spreads and keeps its leaves much of the year, as this would help to shade out germinating seeds. http://www.wildflower.org/plants/combo.php?fromsearch=true&distribution=&habit=habit_herb&duration=duration_perennial&light_partshade=1&moist_dry=1&leafretention_evergreen=1
First I’d tackle the honeysuckle again. For invasive honeysuckle, which we have as well, I would cut to the ground (again) and then cover the roots with wet cardboard or newspaper before adding some mulch on top of that — just to prevent the plant from getting any sunlight. There has also been success with using black plastic to kill invasive plants after cutting them — see http://news.wisc.edu/buckthorn-baggie-kills-invasive-trees-without-chemicals/. I’ve done the latter in my own yard with things like porcelainberry, an invasive.
I’d then start adding the winecups (or another groundcover that you find to be appropriate) nearby. As they start to spread, you could remove the cardboard and mulch and put more winecups there or let your original ones keep rambling into the spot.
I would definitely check with Ladybird and search around on their site — but hopefully these are some ideas that can help you get started! 🙂
Hello! My yard is overrun with goutweed and patches of Japanese knotweed, both maddeningly tenacious. I live in northwest Connecticut. I am wondering what native plants could possibly oust these two particular weeds. Many thanks for your suggestions!!!!
I’ve been having some luck with canada anemone when it comes to gradually crowding out the goutweed in one of our overrun and otherwise empty garden patches. It’s a plant that also has a tendency to spread pretty aggressively, but it is a native, and I’ve heard that it’s much easier to pull out than the goutweed is.
Dear Yana,
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my post. I haven’t heard of Canada anemone, but I will look it up. Every day I am finding more and more goutweed, so I’m pretty desperate! Is Canada anemone considered invasive?
Thanks, Yana! That’s a great idea. Maureen, I think that’s native to your region, so it wouldn’t be considered invasive. I think it is even a threatened species in Connecticut. Also, my friend had a difficult time with goutweed in her Washington, DC, garden, and she ended up trying the golden ragwort mentioned in this post. That worked for her. The trick would probably be to keep taking out the goutweed as these other plants continue to spread — giving the ones you want a helping hand.
Hi, Nancy. Thank you for your suggestion re: golden ragwort. Where can one get these plants? Are they available at most nurseries or should I try to find them online?
Hi Maureen, you can certainly order from online sources (Prairie Nursery, Prairie Moon Nursery, Izel Plants), and I’ve done that. But at this time of year, there are so many wonderful native plant sales that I would recommend finding the ones coming up in your area. (Here is an example of one in CT: http://www.conservect.org/ctrivercoastal/PlantSale/tabid/321/Default.aspx) That way you can talk to people there who have knowledge of the plants.
Some mainstream nurseries do also carry natives, but usually the selection is limited. Here is another link from a national site, the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, which provides lists by state for suppliers, recommended plants, etc. This list has some CT native nurseries:
http://www.wildflower.org/suppliers/search.php?b_state=CT
Usually state native plant and botanical societies have upcoming plant sales listed on their sites as well. And one other thing, I saw that you asked about knotweed also, and this morning I noticed something in my garden: The area where I have a problem with knotweed also has fleabane (Erigeron species). I pulled a bunch of knotweed there last year, and it appears it has started to give a leg up to the fleabanes! They are beautiful native species that tend to grow naturally and volunteer themselves in lawns and gardens. People often pull them, thinking they are weeds — their first leaves look sort of “suspicious” in that way 🙂 — but they are just the sweetest little daisy-type flowers, and they can act as a groundcover. They also feed lots of tiny native bees emerging in spring. You can buy fleabanes at native plant sales and nurseries, and you can also learn their leaves so that you leave them when they volunteer. At any rate, this seems to be a good one for the knotweed so far … Here is a link to some info about them: http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/Plants/view/193
Dear Nancy,
I can’t even begin to thank you enough for your helpful advice and the links that you’ve provided. I’m deeply appreciative!! How on earth did you uproot the knotweed? Where they young plants? When we move to this house eleven years ago the knotweed and goutweed seemed well established and are sooooo difficult to uproot.
Oh, of course! I hope they help. Yes, they were just young plants, and the soil was easier to dig in than in other places in my yard. So it sounds like the conditions were better for getting it out here.
Hi Maureen, I don’t know if you are aware of the CT chapter of Wild Ones (www.wildones.org) a national non-profit devoted to native plants and natural landscaping. Our Mountain Laurel Chapter is based in New London but we have members all over the state. We can send you some info on controlling Japanese knotweed (without using herbicides), just email a request to [email protected]. I don’t have personal experience with goutweed but you could explore the CT Invasive Plant Working Group website (https://cipwg.uconn.edu/) or contact them for advice.
Hi, Lydia. Thank you so much!! Yes, I seem to have hit the invasive weed jackpot! I will certainly check out these resources. Be well!-Maureen
Hi Lydia and Maureen,
Lydia, thanks so much for chiming in and for your help! And you two may have already seen this, but in case not, the Native Plants for New England Gardens book (from New England Wildflower Society) has a great tip for a plant that gives a lot of competitive pressure to Japanese knotweed: Jerusalem artichoke.
I haven’t tried this myself, but last summer I did have success with using Jerusalem artichoke to crowd out a particularly difficult spot of dense burning bush roots and sprouts. So I thought I’d pass that along in case it also useful!
Fight plants with plants! YES! I love it. I have been doing just this. I also have a major goutweed problem. But I have been using Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) to fight it. After several methods of removing goutweed (http://savvygardening.com/goutweed/#comment-22490) I have been replanting areas with Cup plant from seed. Although native to the Great Lakes and Mid-West regions, it is apparently considered “invasive” in extreme north-east states (NY, CT, VT). That said, this plant is very useful and appears to be a “contender” in the fight against invasive plants. I have a rabbitry and routinely feed this plant to the rabbits. The flowers are amazing (July – Sept) attracting multitudes of insects and the seeds are devoured by goldfinches and other critters. It is a perennial and takes several years to reach maturity but the plants will survive for decades.
Hi Myles! That is great to know – a lot of people have been asking about controlling goutweed, so I will share your tip. Last year I bought a cup plant for the first time and am excited to see what happens. Based on your experience, I think I should try some from seed, too! I love the way cup plant leaves serve as little water dishes for animals, too. 🙂 Thanks for the tip!
yes, observing ground ivy for many years here and it is not only excellent for bees and pretty in bloom, but improves the soil it grows on which accounts for the germination you saw. I found that over time it does move around so no one spot has a patch permanently. But it is a chore to pull it from where its not wanted … but then the compost pile benefits.
It is an important point to observe over time before taking action. Nature can come up with better ideas than our preconceived notions if given the chance.
Hi Stuart, thank you – yes, I totally agree! Observing first is not only more effective but also more fun, right? I didn’t know that the ground ivy improves the soil, but that makes sense! I’m excited to see what the next phase will be.
I really enjoyed this article! I’ve been working on beating back the vines and weeds and brush in our overgrown yard in Maryland since we moved in a year ago, so this is very timely. Is there anything you recommend to compete with bamboo? Our next door neighbors have a huge amount as a privacy screen (a running variety, unfortunately), which over the years has lead to a fair amount of it establishing itself in our yard. I cut it all down and have been working on digging out the large roots (tough stuff!) but am struggling with a long term strategy. We won’t have an easy time trying to put in a barrier because of a few large trees in the same area. Thanks in advance!
Hi Amy! Thanks, I’m so glad the article is helpful! Bamboo is so tough that I think you would need a backhoe to get to those roots. That’s something one of our local parks did to remove the bamboo encroaching from someone’s private property. They had actually already tried spraying and found that it didn’t work. The backhoeing did work, but the trouble is that if you’re neighbors don’t do it, too, the bamboo would come back without some kind of deep barrier, and as you say, that’s not practical in this situation and probably in most others. Is there any way you can talk with your neighbors about taking it all out and replacing with a different type of privacy screen? There are so many non-harmful and beautiful and actually beneficial ways to create screening.
Thanks, Nancy! I’ve thought about talking to them about it – I’m not sure what’s really practical for them at this point, but we’ll see. I really appreciate this article and your advice!
Any suggestions for fighting back poison ivy this way? I know it’s native and useful in ways, but it’s spreading and causing problems. What might be able to outcompete it in hedgerows?
Hi Colleen, that’s a good question. As you say, it’s good to leave where you can but not so helpful in areas where you need to garden and walk. I’ve seen some discussion about this in the comments section when people share this piece on Facebook. For the ground layer, I recommend sheet mulching — with cardboard topped by leaves, compost, and/or mulch or whatever other organic matter you have on hand. When it’s already climbing trees, I’ve seen wild grapevine outcompete it (but then of course you have to be willing to live with the wild grapevine, which is so vigorous that some people in smaller gardens don’t like it, but I have to growing up tree snags where the poison ivy used to be). Another idea I saw was to use woodland edge plants like tall meadow rue and New England aster to help shade out germination and young vines. I know in some restoration projects, native shrubs like viburnums, elderberries and witch hazels are used to effectively “seal the edges” by blocking sunlight enough to prevent vine growth. But for that to work you have to pull out or smother the existing vegetation that you don’t want. Let me know what other ideas you see!
We’re in southeast Massachusetts and get a lot of poke weed sprouts. I don’t want these tonmature andmprdice berries that I think are poisonous. What might be a good native plantingntjsyncould overtake pokeweed?
Hi Peter,
I’m not sure why I didn’t see this question before – I’m sorry about that. But I would leave the pokeweed. It’s native, and the berries are great for lots of wildlife. If you grow it near other natives, too, it tends to be more contained than if it’s just growing in a vegetable garden with plantless walkways. People definitely have to be careful not to eat the poisonous parts of the plant, but that’s not usually a problem.
I want to thank you for this article. I was starting to second guess my plan of using Sweet Joe Pye Weed, pike milkweed and Rudbeckia laciniata against english ivy. This really sold me. The butterflies will be happy.
Hi Eric! I’m so glad you found it helpful. That sounds like a good plan, maybe along with some ground-huggers intermingled underneath?
Thank you so much for this article. I love the idea of addressing noxious weeds this way. Here in the Pacific Northwest, my husband and I thought about which plants would fit the bill. We came up with three candidates for doing this here: false lily of the valley (Maianthemum dilatatum), nootka rose, (Rosa nutkana) and the Pacific bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa). Your thoughts on these, and other candidates you suggest, would be much appreciated.
Hi Diane!
Those sounds very promising — fast-growing spreaders. Some of the wild strawberries (Fragaria spp.) and fleabanes (Erigeron spp.) that are native to your area could make nice groundcovers too. What part of PNW are you in? A couple of people I love to recommend for resources include Kelly Brenner in Seattle – she does the website Metropolitan Field Guide, and I profiled her and her garden here: https://www.humanegardener.com/the-humane-gardener-seattles-kelly-brenner/ (and she plants false lily of the valley too! :)).
And then Eileen Stark in Portland was featured in my book and wrote a book of her own called Real Gardens Grow Natives. Her blog by the same name has an entry on groundcovers: http://www.realgardensgrownatives.com/?p=3673 … Just in case you haven’t seen those, maybe they will have some more ideas to add to the list!
Love the concept! I’m in SC and am inundated with nutsedge which I call satans spawn. Any ideas on that?
Hi Lisa!
I had nutsedge here in a spot where I’ve mostly managed to crowd it out now with the help of my plant allies! 🙂 In that spot I have golden ragwort (Packera aurea), which I think is native to SC too — and I think you probably have other native Packeras as well. I also have a short goldenrod species that has dense basal foliage that grows close together. And then there is some bee balm in that area as well.
Also, in your case, I would first look for natives with similar growth habits — including some of the grasses or sedges native to your area. Here’s an article about some of the ones native to Southeastern states: https://www.houzz.com/magazine/8-native-grasses-and-sedges-for-southeastern-gardens-stsetivw-vs~72478434
You can try the South Carolina Native Plant Society for ideas too: https://scnps.org/
South Carolina Wildlife Federation has a list of some good groundcovers: http://www.scwf.org/native-plant-list
This Choose Natives site in Virginia has some ideas for groundcovers as well — and I know at least some of these are native to South Carolina, like lyreleaf sage and green-and-gold:
https://choosenatives.org/articles/plant-native-ground-covers-make-america-green/
I would try experimenting in different spots with these plants and see which ones work! Hope that helps. 🙂
We have an enormous and pernicious infestation of Lesser Celandine. Any ideas for tackling it will be much appreciated. This article and blog are fascinating and helpful! Thanks!
Hi Janie, thanks so much for reading! I’m glad you find it helpful. Ugh, yes, lesser celandine is really tough. Where do you live? Our parks are covered with it here in central Maryland in the spring. Even ones that have used herbicides have had little success, and I suspect that’s partly because you need a competitor in there right away to compete with any plants that remain. We do have a small patch of it here, as do some of my friends in their gardens, and one thing that we have found helpful is to smother it newspaper/cardboard while at the same time replanting right away, either after it starts to break down or by cutting holes through the paper. We replant with golden ragwort because it is often evergreen here, and so it is already growing when lesser celandine starts to show up in spring. That’s the key in trying these different combinations — to look for a plant that has a similar growing habit but with a leg up on the invasive in some way. In this case the leg up would be that it’s evergreen and can perhaps should out germination of the lesser celandine. I tried several methods before this — just smothering and mulching first, and then later digging out everything, trying to get all the tubers. Neither of those worked, but the ragwort method did!
Lesser Celandine is wreaking havoc on our floodplain Spring woods. Can you recommend a native plant that might be able to do battle with this menace? Thanks so much. This article and all of the comments are amazing!!!!
Hi Elaine! Thank you! I am trying the golden ragwort with lesser celandine. The reason I think it has a chance is that, depending on where you live, the Packera species can be evergreen. And where it’s not evergreen, its leaves still come out early. Since the lesser celandine comes out early too, it’s important to look for something that can “one-up” in terms of emergence times. I have also dug it out and smothered it, and while the patch doesn’t enlarge, it does come back each year. The ragwort in that area is a new experiment, so we’ll see what happens.
I live in midwest Wis. and have been told to get rid of the Canadian thistle along our road because they say it is invasive and the city wants to cut it down. There are lots of monarchs and bees, goldfinch, etc. that like it. What can I do to save them when they cut it down. I have an area on a culdesac up the street that I have lots of milkweed and other wild plants…will all these creatures go to that area?
This is the most inspiring native plants thread I’ve found anywhere! Thank you Nancy.
We’re in Philadelphia and now in our second season of restoring a 3/4 acre property of rundown Pennsylvania woods. It’s been an amazing and frightening experience for me. I’m new to this, and I knew going in that clearing the bamboo, garlic mustard, multi-flora rose, english ivy, japanese knotweed etc. would be a difficult multi-year project. Thankfully, we were rewarded for our initial efforts with a now thriving grove of bottlebrush buckeye as well as a huge patch of ostrich and so much more!
But I didn’t expect that I would so quickly learn the names of dozens of other invaders: Lesser Celandine, Goutweed, Bush Honeysuckle, Barberry, Japanese Stiltgrass. It seems every week I identify a new threat already long established on our property.! Contrary to my first instincts, some, like pokeweed, virginia creeper and touch-me-not have turned out to be aggressive and useful friends.
I’m learning especially valuable lessons at the Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve near New Hope PA. Their staff give tours, fight invasives and propagate natives all year long, so they have tons of deep and useful knowledge to share. It’s also a great source for native plants. At Bowman’s I first heard the term I love in this thread “thuggish natives”. I’m using their advice to battle Lesser Celandine with ragwort, to plant foamflower in pachysandra beds, and to cultivate canada anenome as a buffer.
Now after two seasons of hard work, we’re about to put everything back in the hands of mother nature. My wife earned her sabbatical and we will be gone from January through August next year. We will certainly come back to an overgrown jungle, but I’m trying to find a way to still make progress in the landscape next year, The strategy I’ve settled on is to plant seeds this fall, lot’s of ’em. I’m planning to pull ivy and prepare patches of soil this fall. Much of the bamboo is gone with bare patches left behind. What seeds don’t need a lot of fuss to thrive?
I guess my question is, are there “thuggish seeds” that i could plant or overseed with favorable results? in areas of: goutweed? pachysandra? english ivy? stiltgrass? lesser celandine? woodland borders? any proven “thugseeds” for part sun? shade? wet?
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks everyone, for all the great ideas in this thread!
Just to follow up, we returned home in late May due to the pandemic. I was excited to see which of the seeds I planted last Fall might have already made a mark. Being inexperienced at this, I was also worried that maybe nothing would be there for us! The result I was most pleased with was Honewort (Cryptotaenia Canadensis). I had scattered 1/2 oz of seed over several spots including a 10 by 15 foot bare patch in part shade where I’d removed bamboo. The honewort sprouted everywhere I seeded it! There was a lovely green carpet of young plants that were already sturdy enough to transplant to other parts of our woodland garden. With the exception of underneath a huge white pine, it is establishing itself everywhere I’ve taken it.
I’ve only seen a couple of mentions online of people’s experience with honewort and would like to know more. I’ve been very pleased with it so far. It’s edible and has a pleasing parsley flavor. I’m excited that it’s a host plant for black swallowtail butterflies and would be thrilled to attract them. Does anyone have longer term experience with this plant? It seems a contender in the “thuggish native” category. Prairie Moon’s website mentions that it can be aggressive under the right conditions. That works for me in some parts of our little woods. I’m planning on seeding more this Fall, this time along the edge of a goutweed patch.
My other highlight was the nimblewill seeds i planted. I’ve enjoyed reading about it on Humane Gardener and now have little drifts of it along my shady paths!
Hi Steve!
I’m so happy to hear from you! I’ve thought of you often as the year has progressed and my mind wanders inevitably to mentally working on a Part 2 of this piece. I was wondering how you and your wife were doing on your sabbatical and when you’d be home — that’s too bad you had it to cut it short, but I bet you were excited to get back to your plants!
This is so awesome about honewort! I only started noticing its presence here in the past couple of years, and then this year I’ve had a similar experience to yours — where it has really seemed to spread and hold its own among the stiltgrass! I couldn’t remember whether I’d written about it yet, and it appears I only had it in a caption in this piece because at that time I’d noticed its help with garlic mustard: https://www.humanegardener.com/let-plants-choose-their-destinies/
So happy to hear about your nimblewill success too. Today and over the past several weeks, after the rains I’ve been so pleased that often when I pull stiltgrass, there is a nice patch of nimblewill getting started underneath. It’s also been really helpful in my new planting areas/gardens where it grows among perennials. Leave no ground uncovered, and let any native be that you can because they will all help you in that mission — that’s been my motto! 🙂
I’ve been excited by another situation — with blue mistflower. That’s one I often recommend for planting areas because it will hold its own and keep things like stiltgrass at bay, in addition to just being a gorgeous pollinator plant. But over the past couple of years — and especially this year — it has seeded itself all over the land here, so it’s in the little shady woodlands and in the sunny meadow, too. The longer it’s been there, the more the patches keep expanding. It does leaf out pretty late, so that’s one reason I tell people not to rely on any one plant but to allow them to form a matrix together. While blue mistflower is still dormant, other plants can be doing the work.
Another fun plant that’s filling things in even more this year is the elephant’s foot, which I got at Bowman’s Hill a couple of years ago, actually!
Your question about seeding was such a good one, and I hadn’t written back yet because I was still pondering some of the prolific reseeders. While I haven’t actually broadcast them, letting them go to seed will get similar results eventually. One is common milkweed, of course. Wrinkle-leafed goldenrod has really inserted itself in many places as well. I was surprised to see beaked panic grass in a maybe 10-by-10 foot clump come up this year! The purpletop grass is all over, mixed in with stiltgrass but really abundant. So those might all be ones to try with seed in sunny areas. Also American burnweed is so happy here. A lot of people don’t because when it comes up one at a time, it can look out of place. We have large stands of it now, mingling with boneset and pokeweed, and it’s beautiful.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention false nettle! That was already a favorite, but this year it is spreading like crazy on its own in many spots where there was stiltgrass. That’s such a great host plant too.
Have you ever planted wild basil (Clinopodium vulgare)? That’s been a really good one at the edge of the borders along with purple lovegrass and goldenrods. My friend gave me some last year, and the plants had seedheads on them, so we had many babies.
So glad you’re back and have shared your latest experiences! I’m going to go check on my honewort tomorrow and see how it is doing back there! It was quite prolific earlier in the season.
Hi,
I just noticed a dense patch of Canadian honewort in my yard nearly completely excluding garlic mustard. I was shocked. It is on the downhill side of a walnut tree. Curious if either of you have walnut trees and whether there is an association. Glad to hear it has had success with stiltgrass!
That’s pretty great! I love honewort so much and have found also that it outcompetes garlic mustard. Now that you mention it, one of the spots where it’s popped up is near a walnut tree! And we do have lots of walnuts elsewhere too.
Does anyone have experience of Virginia creeper competing with Japanese knotweed. A group of volunteers work on an old landfill site near London UK. We have areas of both of these which are invasive species here. It would be illegal to move knotweed, but how about Virginia creeper into the knotweed patches?
HI Dominic, I see that no one has responded to this yet. I meant to write back a lot sooner – sorry about that! It doesn’t seem like Virginia creeper would do the trick, given the growth habit. We’ve found that Virginia creeper is a good competitor for English ivy (which is really invasive here), but it has a similar habit. Do you have anything that grows like Jerusalem artichoke? That can be a good competitor for knotweed.
I don’t suppose you could recommend something(s) that could help squeeze out ligustrum sinensis? I’m having quite a time trying to keep that from taking over everything, especially now that I’ve stopped mowing so much. A whole lot of beautiful natives are also spreading, thankfully. Violets, fleabane, luzulla, holly babies, red cedar babies, oaks, oaks and more oaks. I wish I had room for all the oaks! But the ligustrum still keeps popping up everywhere.
Hi Dawn, where do you live? Since privet has a shallow and dense root system, I’d look for a native that grows like that too — and just keep adding it where you remove, cut or smother the privet pop-ups. I’ve been doing this with burning bush, which also has a mat of roots. Jerusalem artichoke grows in a similar manner, so it seems to be measuring up to the task on the side where I planted it. Are you able to cut and then layer over at least some of the spots where the privet is? After a Bradford pear (planted by previous owners) fell down in a storm, I tried to garden there and a massive number of Bradford pear seedlings came up because it was still pretty bare there. So I cardboarded over the area and covered it in wood chips made from the pear. It didn’t take long for it to regenerate into a grove of entirely native trees – sassafras, hickory, walnut. So that’s an option to try in select spots too.
Hi Nancy–I’ve been consulting this article on and off since you wrote it‐-it has really encouraged me to let enthusiastic natives duke it out with invasives. I too have had wonderful luck battling stilt grass with Mountain Mint (P. muticum)–it eradicated a 30′ x 30′ patch of the nasty grass. I am battling now Lesser Celandine that has exploded in one of my gardens. Luckily its a garden I want to restructure. I can get my hands on a lot of golden ragwort–would planting it be a good strategy? Any others?
Hi Nancy! Thank you – that’s great to know! I’ll be adding more soon – a collected list of potential plants to use. Yes! That’s exactly what I’ve done in the very small patch of lesser celandine that we’ve had her for years. I’ve tried several things — pulling it gently so I get the whole root after a rain, smothering with newspaper, etc., — but then after that I always add golden ragwort to wherever I’ve been working on it.
You just gave me an idea to move my mountain mint to the back field. That is where we have so many nonnative grasses, including stiltgrass, I’m still trying to crowd out. Mountain mint has been growing into the paths, so I can take those pieces and insert them back there – thanks for the idea! It has worked in a similar way to yours where I have it now.
This article and thread are so incredibly helpful-Very inspired by your work, Nancy-and love your book!
Any recommendations for dealing with wineberry? Wondering if I go through the effort of pulling it out if anything could compete with it-would love to replant some native rubus in its place but not sure if it could compete.
Hi Nancy, In the 3 years we have lived in our house I’ve been waging a mostly unsuccessful battle against lily of the valley. I’ve tried smothering, digging, cutting to the ground; everything but herbicide. Are there any natives that could possibly out-compete or even just hold their own against this beast?
I live in Montreal, Quebec and have a huge perennial garden. for the last 5 years, the gardens have been infested with what I believe is goutweed. With the risomes travelling all over, its hard to control. It travels amid and around all my flower beds., so I spend weeks just trying to pull it out by hand almost individually. It often snaps so I can’t get any root. and I’m so frustrated. Can you help me.
Hi, that is definitely so frustrating! If you do a control-f search through the comments, you’ll see some of the recommendations that others have for goutweed. One is Canada anemone – have you tried that yet? Another is cup plant, but you’d have to look that up to see if it’s native in your area, as I know it’s invasive in some of the further northern reaches of the U.S. A friend in D.C. has used Packera aurea to help crowd it out, but of course she also has to pull as well to give the Packera a leg up. In general, something that spreads and roots in a similar way — or something that leafs out earlier and stays green later — can be helpful competitors.
Loved this article and the comments. Black Medic has consumed what remains of my suburban Baltimore yard. Any suggestions on something to out compete that ? Thank you
Hi Linda, is it mixed in with the lawn? Or do you mean it’s in the garden patches? Normally if it’s mixed in with perennial plantings and such, I would just pull it and put a groundcover that leafs out all season in its place. If it’s in lawn, I’d smother it and replace with other plants. Let me know a little more about the areas where it’s growing, and I’ll think about some ideas.
Hi Nancy, Thanks to you and all the commenters for the thoughtful advice. Although I have many invasives in my wooded 1-acre back yard, my biggest nightmare is oriental bittersweet. We’ve tried mechanical removal several times – we even hired goats one summer! It comes back right away. Can you suggest a thuggish native that will reduce it to manageable levels? Thanks!
Hi Lucinda, I do a combination of pulling and digging by the roots (after deep rains) and cutting to the ground. I haven’t really found any one plant that would outcompete bittersweet, though in some areas it has just been overtaken by a combination of plants — such as by our front fence, where we have very thick coral honeysuckle as well as Virginia creeper. I think maybe just continuing to cut and weaken the plant — and also cut to the ground and then smother with cardboard and wood chips — is the best bet.
Hi Nancy, I have learned so much from you and others in this chain of comments about battling invasives with aggressive native plants. When I first moved to my townhouse in Northern Virginia, I was thrilled to find English Ivy in the backyard. It grew on the fence and gave my little garden an English feel. I read the Secret Garden at a young age and wow, it really influenced my style. But I’m now a Virginia Master Naturalist and realize how awful English ivy is for the forests, wildlife, etc. Amazingly, Virginia Creeper started moving in from the woods behind me, and seems to be competing with the ivy. As I clip & pull ivy, Virginia Creeper is filling in. I also LOVE the way it gracefully sends tendrils down over the fence. Do you think it can continue to compete with the ivy? Is this a good strategy? I kind of envision being swallowed up by Virginia Creeper but love it and know it has wildlife value. Thanks so much for your insights!
Hi Elaine! Yes, I think this is a great strategy. Fortunately I don’t have to deal much with English ivy here (though I did some some mysteriously pop up in the oddest place for the first time)! But I helped with a couple of gardens in DC where English ivy has been quite prolific. One is at a friend’s home, and we’ve been pretty successful in removing the ivy a bit at a time and replacing it with Virginia creeper, which of course also grows in the pathways and steps — so we just replant it into areas where we removed the ivy, and off it goes. I did a fair amount of work there last year, and I did all the ivy removal right after rains so that I could really get at the roots. It will be an ongoing process, but we’ve made lots of headway!
I’ve been doing this for decades and it works for stiltgrass, glechoma etc. ! But still challenging for others that spread far by seed and berry and or cannot be pulled. For example lesser celandine and wavyleaf basket grass are exploding nomatter what we do (trying more packera aureus) Japanese Barberry is totally out of control and exploding in Sligo Creek Park above University Blvd and just like any infestation with berrying plants it’s only a matter of time elsewhere. These have unique eradication needs. More ideas on dealing with those this native competition way and others are appreciated. Im using my own landscape as a laboratory
Hi Kathy, yes, I think the key is going to be to have as much of a dense mix of native vegetation that shades out the reseeding of those berries. When I think about why the barberry has taken hold by the stream behind us (which is sort of property owned by multiple people and not really cared for) — and I see relatively few barberries seeding into our habitat — I realize that that’s likely why. We have such a dense matrix of vegetation working together to cover the ground. The packera/ragwort/groundsel is certainly a fantastic plant for outcompeting so many things, and I get excited when I see other species contributing to this effort in other ways — the clearweed, honewort, ferns, etc.
Thank you for this post! I had seen your post about Nimblewill and had let it and Deertongue help me with my Japanese siltgrass, and I found it so affirming. I just saw this post looking for ways to deal with the vinca that is all over my yard. I originally thought “oh how bad could it be?” Ha! I tried to clear it by digging, and made some traction but there is no way I have the energy to dig it all all at once. I also made the beginners error of clearing beds of vinca, ivy and weeds without moving something else in there. Now, I’ve wisened up and only clear when I have something else to move in, or on the edges where there is hardscape or other desirable native plants. Thanks for all the wonderful advice here!
Hi Christine! That’s awesome! I’m so glad the nimblewill and deertongue are helping! Vinca can be a best to get out for sure. Sounds like you have a good plan for working on it. 🙂
Hi, loved reading your ideas, I try to be organic & harmonious garden minded. I didn’t know a thing about native vs invasive when I bought my 1st house, so I was sold a few ground covers that I have loved, but now I’ve learned they weren’t the best options. I do like mint surrounding my chicken coop, liked Ajuga around the ugly well head area, the Parsley type plant in a damp shady area.
So…I have 2 questions, I wonder if you could advise me.
Question 1…I want to provide another safe area for visiting butterflies. I already have many butterfly bushes & ordered milkweed seeds. I already have a Parsley type plant that attracts Black Swallowtails & I was going to replant most of it to a better section, far from my pecking chickens, between a garage & row of tall Green Giant Evergreens (they look like Leyland Cypress but have deeper roots). Well, I think this plant may be Bishops or Gout weed. I never knew til now, that it’s considered invasive & negative. I’ve brought the plants with me when I moved & they only filled in where I wanted them to…never took over, so I have loved them for decades at both homes. Anyway…now I don’t know if I should move them to that spot or not…will they hurt the 20 foot high Evergreen trees? It is a mostly shady & low area, sometimes flooding in high rain a few times a year. I want to stop mowing through there & let the butterflies have a nice undisturbed habitat behind the garage, it’s 6 feet wide by 34 feet long. Would this weed root system grow under the garage floor & into the tree roots? I never had any issues with it in my previous house. From what I’ve read, this plant can be very invasive, but I never had a problem with it for 20 years, so I don’t know what to think. All I know is the beautiful butterflies have their cocoons and caterpillars on it, and butterflies love that plant as much as I have. Can I plant it there or would that be a bad idea?
Question 2…I have 2 acres worth of European Fire Ants! They sting the heck out of me every single day & are ruining my garden life, as well as stinging my sweet egg laying flock when they dustbathe. I’ve tried ant bait stations, but with 2 acres worth, it is not working & not financially feasible. Sprinkling Borax all over a 20×40 foot section did not work. I also tried orange oil & vinegar. Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you,
Liz in southern Delaware
Hi Liz!
Sorry for the delay in responding here. For your first question, I guess my first question back to you would be: Are you certain it’s goutweed? If it is full of butterfly chrysalises, maybe it’s a native. What types of butterflies? Are you seeing black swallowtail chrysalises and caterpillars on it? Is it different from the parsley-type plant you mentioned? The reason I ask is that there is a native groundcover, golden alexander (Zizia aurea) that looks kind of like across between parsley and dill and — like parsley and dill — it feeds black swallowtail caterpillars. But unlike parsley and dill, it’s perennial and spreads. A great plant.
Also, there are some other related native plants that are in the parsley family, and some do pop up on their own and spread really well. One is Canadian black snakeroot, which is in the Sanicula genus, and there are a couple of other similar ones in the sanicula genus. Also there is a plant called Canadian honewort (Cryptotaenia canadensis) that is a big spreader. All of these plants are said to be possible host plants for the black swallowtail, though I’m not sure whether that’s been confirmed or whether it’s just assumed because they are all in the parsley/carrot (Apiaceae) family. Here is neat page for you to look at — you can look at these and other species and see pictures for a lot of them that might help you identify what you have: https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/viewChecklist.php?family=Apiaceae
If you do have goutweed, I wouldn’t advise spreading it around more. But it sounds like you probably have something else — here’s hoping! 🙂
As for the fire ants, I am just not sure what to say about that because I have not researched that. It sounds like a very difficult situation. Your poor chickens, too! One thing I do know is that spiders and birds will eat the ants, so maybe the more habitat you add and the more predators you can attract, the better. If I come across something that might be helpful to you, I’ll let you know.
There’s only 1 natural predator of the fireants. That is the phorid fly. I’ve been looking for places that sell them, called all of the beneficial insect places, no one has phorid flies.
I looked at each of the photos, mine resemble the Bishops weed. My plants do get a white flower bloom, and they do seem to die in winter but always come back each spring.
I guess I will not spread the plants I have, and even though I’m not positive what they are, after looking at all of the related plant photos, they do resemble the Bishop’s weed the most, leaf and flower. It’s just odd, it never did spread out of control, stayed pretty much where I planted it. Well, I will get it out of here.
To be on the safe side, I will plant Golden Alexander. I have a large area that does tend to flood a bit when we get a lot of rain, but it drains well afterwards. It will be a nice safe haven for butterflies, beneficial insects, bees, etc., that when grown in, won’t be disturbed with mowing, etc. I’m planting wildflowers as well. It will be nice!
Thank you for your help!
Hi Liz,
I have these horrid ants AND the horrid goutweed too. My battles with them are legendary. When we moved into our old farmhouse 15 years ago we discovered a fallen 4’diameter pine tree about 30′ long COVERED in a living mound of these ants…it was something out of a horror movie! AND a long established network of them was found running from a stand of pine trees about 20′ from the house to an old tire the previous owners had planted flowers in to our house! (I only discovered it because the ants were in the kitchen in crazy amounts!)
For the ants, a few things have worked over the past 10 years.
My first battle was against a huge nest of them that old tire which oddly enough is also where the darn goutweed started… I went all out crazy on them after one bad attack of biting my kids. I got three huge canning pots filled with water, brought it to boiling, took it outside and added Borax to them. Then I poured it over the nest at night-time. I checked every day and as soon as I saw the smaller sized red beasts I poured more boiling water on it and placed diatomaceous earth all over the place. I also used Borax and Terro drops hidden on the trail under some plant pots with a heavy rock on top so no pets or kids could get at them. But I think the follow up below is what really cinched the battle in my favor.
Second– I have gotten rid of all dead wood, bricks anything that the ants will colonize– aka that keeps them dry. For example, I can’t solarize the goutweed with plastic — oh how the ants would just love that!! (I have often wondered that it seems that the ants prefer where the goutweed is next to the house… ) Anyway I also have a woodstove so my wood pile is raised on 3 piles of pallets with diatomaceous earth sprinkled underneath to keep them out of that…
BUT the final step against the ants AND the goutweed has been Cedarcide– an all natural bug repellant that has also diminished the darn goutweeds spread! (It’s also great on pet bedding against fleas!) During the hot dry days of Summer I keep an eye out for when the queens hatch from the colonies and any larger activity near/in the house and garden. I spray them with Cedarcide — it kills them on contact and when sprayed around windows and doors (any where I see them on the house or my garden shed) it keeps them and other unwelcome bugs out of the house!
It was while spraying the Cedarcide that I noticed the goutweed seemed to be drying up and dying… so I’ve been spraying it too in the hopes of reducing it’s spread. So far so good!
Inspired by the Cedarcide working against the fire ants & goutweed I also deeply mulched that area next to the house and along my garden paths in the early early spring with 8″ of pure cedar mulch– DO NOT use regular wood mulch the ants just use it to colonize with!!!
So far the cedar mulch has suffocated the goutweed but I monitor the area 1x a week pulling any small stalks right out and adding more cedar mulch every season. I also have seen none of the European fire ants in this area, and no spiders ect in the house. When I did down in the mulch I still have worms ect in the ground.
now that the ants are out and the goutweed seems to be surrendering, I’ve been struggling to find a plant to add to this area. I’m so glad to have found Nancy’s fabulous post here! I can’t wait to add native plants to my battle! I hope you have great success getting rid of the goutweed and European fire ants!!!!
I’m so excited by this post. I was losing hope 🙂
I live in Western North Carolina where invasives like English Ivy and that garlic plant and Tiger Lilies are taking over the hillside behind my home. And Bradford pears and Poplar Tulip Trees.
I feel like I never get to do fun gardening just fighting back invasives so this article is extremely helpful. I’ve been trying to get the tiger lilies to fight to the english ivy by planting in the middle of it and weed whacking the edge to try to keep it out of my space. I’m going to try introducing hearty perennials like coreopsis that supposedly loves a hillside.
Hi Lorraine, I’m so glad it’s helpful! I will also email you a list of plants that I keep adding to that might help with this – probably a lot of the species are native to your area too. 🙂
Thank you! What do you think of Mugwort? I know it’s invasive and not a native but I do find it kind of pretty. It is for a hillside that is behind my lot. I’ve been pulling out garlic mustard, ivy, grapes, and many other vines. Oh, and the dreaded Bradford seedlings are there too along with many many tulip poplars…
Hi Lorraine! Sorry, I meant to get back to this sooner! Mugwort definitely is pretty and it smells great, and I’ve found the ladybugs love to hang out in it. It’s one of those plants that will really crowd out so many others if given the chance, though, so I pull it out. It’s actually been one of my big projects the past year or so. Years ago we inherited mugwort along with heirloom asparagus — it came with the asparagus and pretty much took over the entire huge patch when we got busy for a couple years and weren’t paying attention. As I pull and smother with cardboard and woodchips, I’m also replanting the area with plants that will give good coverage on top of the soil and/or will spread with good underground roots so they can have half a chance in the face of the mugwort. So that includes mountain mint, Jerusalem artichoke, wild basil, golden ragwort, wild strawberry, black raspberry (which came in on its own but needs groundcover underneath to help compete), wild bergamot, Robin’s plantain — and I’m even trying horsetail in a wet part. So far so good; I’m still pulling mugwort, but at least there is more diversity now in the patch!
Nancy, this post is so helpful. Do you have any thoughts on a plant that would compete with the chameleon plant? We have a patch that was planted by the previous owner and is taking over the bed and spreading to the lawn, and has spread to the neighbor’s yard. We are in central NJ. Any thoughts appreciated!
I have the same question and no idea where to start. Creeping Charlie seems to hold its own, but it’s pretty much a weed itself (I read that it’s native to England but has been in the states for 200+ years, so maybe we could call it a native). If you have luck with anything, I’d love to hear about it! Our chameleon plants are incredibly aggressive and I’ve had no luck with Roundup, digging up the rhizomes, etc.
Some other interns and I are trying to come up with solutions for controlling goutweed in a silver maple/ostrich fern floodplain forest next to the Winooski River in Vermont. We don’t think complete eradication is plausible, but we established some pilot sites where we’re going to try to prevent it from spreading by planting a perimeter of native plants that can outcompete goutweed’s root system. Any suggestions?
I’ve been “playing” with goutweed control for ten years now. It is an impressive stubborn plant. If you can’t get rid of it all, it is best to start with smaller manageable areas. I have eradicated several ways 1. tarping for several months, 2. digging out all rhizomes over several weeks to months as they pop up (lots of effort) and 3. putting chickens on the area for a year (other small livestock may work too). Tarping kills everything in time so you obviously need to establish something else in that area quickly after dieback from tarping. I have used several aggressive native plants such as cup plant and Virginia waterleaf (rhizome spreader). Search this blog to find others. Chickens prefer eating goutweed compared to many other plants so you may get an abundance of non-preferred plants taking hold while destroying goutweed (e.g., ragweeds, stinging nettle, pokeweed, fleabane, smartweed)
if containment is all you are after. I would think burying garden perimeter edging or other material might be an effective viable solution. Goutweed rhizomes are usually only several inches deep in my experience. I don’t know how big of an area you are working with.
Thank you, Myles. We are testing different methods on five, 20ft diameter subplots.
Hi Nancy,
Great article! I have been blessed with gifts of both packera aurea and anemone canadensis.
I have areas of vinca I am always battling, as well as an assortment of roadside invasive weeds in my “heck strip”, as my daughter calls it.
If I plant the anemone and the packera, will they allow other natives to grow in their midst? Will they be contained by a wood fence or a wood chip path? If I plant them both in my heck strip, will they co-mingle, or will one outcompete the other?
I’ve been looking for answers to English Ivy and Dead Nettle (Lamium galeobdolon) with native plants and came upon your website. Good stuff. We’ve pull about 1/3 acre of English Ivy by hand in our mature sloping woods. We have that under control now, but the Dead Nettle . . . any suggestions welcome. It’s strangling out the Dutchman’s Britches and taking over everything. For what it’s worth the ASPCA has a list of toxic plants to pets and ragwort is on the list. https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants/golden-ragwort
Hi Jack, I’d try pulling it when the soil is wet enough to get it quickly and easily, as much as you can when you have the time. (Or if you have entire areas of it with few other plants, you could use the newspaper/cardboard smothering method.) We used to have it too, but it’s gone now (though of course we always have other ones to content with!). Golden ragwort does have toxins, as do many plants, but for that reason the mammals usually don’t touch it. Our dogs and the dogs we petsit know to avoid it, too.
Thanks, we have rain predicted for tomorrow. I’ll give it a try, see how that goes.
I know this post is five years old, but I just discovered your blog recently and want to say how much I appreciate it. I was just introduced to the native-planting/lawn-release movement two years ago, and this year I have really begun in earnest to tend the land where I live. I let the yard simply grow for the first couple months of spring this season—as you allude to in this post, I wanted to see what was there if I didn’t mow.
It has been fascinating to discover, though I do live in town, and the town did not appreciate my declining to mow the front lawn. So in the face of threats of fines, I did so…mostly. I left a strip/patch of “garden” that had vetch (I still haven’t discerned whether it’s common vetch or American vetch) almost covering it, along with some (non-native, sadly) iris my boyfriend had planted the year before. These two things ended up being quite handy this year, as they allowed this area I set aside to look intentional while I started planting native plants within it.
I feel very similarly to how you described about killing any plants, regardless of what they are. I did release quite a bit of Amur honeysuckle that was spreading to an astonishing degree in my backyard, as well as a Russian olive that was thriving in a side yard. It felt painful to me to release a shrub that was so healthy, even though I read about their invasive effect on the local ecosystem (I live in Virginia).
I do wish I knew how do I identify plants as well as you do. I feel like my biggest challenge right now is not knowing what so many of the things growing are, and even when I look them up with an app, a lot of times there are several different choices, some native and some not, and I genuinely do not recognize the distinctions between photos of different species much of the time.
Anyway, I really appreciate your blog and have learned much from it already, in addition to feeling philosophical resonance with it. So thank you very much for offering it!
Best,
Emily
Hi Emily, thank you so much for taking the time to write such a thoughtful note — and also for all the time you’re spending on careful cultivation! I’m so glad that my articles have helped! I think you’ll start to recognize plants more as time goes on. Sometimes it has taken me quite a bit of Internet sleuthing to really find good pictures; I’ve gone down many rabbit holes. I don’t know if you saw the handout; it includes some of the sites I’ve consulted over the years. It’s amazing to see how many new species (or long-suppressed species) make themselves at home when we stop mowing everything down. I hope the summer has brought you more treasures!
Hi Nancy! Thank you so much for your response. It’s been such an interesting process—after feeling somewhat disheartened by all the non-native species I was finding in my yard, a few weeks ago I saw something I had let grow bloom, and it turns out it’s a type of goldenrod. It’s so heartening and lovely to see such a helpful plant voluntarily growing in my backyard! I can already tell this is a profound and expansive process (possibly a degree of patience might be helpful as well), which of course makes sense because, well, nature is involved.
Thank you so much again for your beautiful blog. I just read your new post, and I wish you all the best with your latest book!
Oh gracious, and I’m so sorry that I forgot to express deepest reverence and condolences to the profound losses in physical form you and your family have experienced. All love.
Hi,
Your posts are like a breath of fresh air for those of us battling invasives without pesticides. I have them all, the worst being Japanese honeysuckle and privet, but what I’m really trying to seek a competitor for is Johnsongrass, sorghum halepense, where I’m trying to start a wildflower field. Any ideas?
I second the “encourage self-starters”. My most aggressive re-colonizers have been the handful of local species struggling here before I started discouraging invasives. Mayapple, solomon’s plume, white snakeroot, christmas fern, ebony spleenwort and jewelweed have all expanded very noticeably from much smaller colonies.
That is great! It’s one of my favorite things to do too. 🙂
Hello! I love the article on volunteering natives to outcompete invasives.
I find that in my wooded patch, the garlic mustard doesn”t groww where there is jewelweed, Canadian mayflower, creeping dewberry, or Pennsylvainia sedge.
I have this neglected area of my yard overrun with creeping buttercup and Cypress spurge. I was going to weed, smother and intrroduce some tough natives but just found some trout lily growing in this same bed. Any suggestions on erradicaating weeds without harming trout lily?
Carefully hand pull the weeds following a rain when the soil is still wet.
Hi Kelly, I’ve got similar situations where I just end up hand pulling around the native plants and then smothering the little spots nearby that don’t have any natives. I call it spot-mulching. Or if the natives are moveable, I will transplant them to an area where they don’t have to compete with all those invasives, and then I smother the invasives. I don’t know how thickly mingled your trout lily is, but one of those two methods – or a combination – might work.
Nancy, thanks for this incredible advice. I’m a Watershed Steward and environmentalist in my very special peninsula community in Northern AA County. I was blown away by your beautiful WSA keynote and would love to have you come speak to my sadly heavily turfed community. Your talked touched my heart and I’m relishing your books. I was delighted to find this article.
We have two natural areas which our HOA has devegetated. I’m doing best to help restore them. One is a shoreline area which is being lost to tidal erosion since they removed all vegetation and replaced the upper half with turf. I’m fighting for a living shoreline and hoping that we can replace some of the lost soil and replant with natives. Once upon a time it was a beautiful natural meadow in the upland area with trees and sea grasses below. It was full of life and incredible birds. It broke my heart when they devegetated it.
The other area is a mature 3-acre forest next to a quiet inland cove. The HOA removed all the understory plants to create better sightlines. That caused both English and Poison Ivy to move right in and take over. They’ve mowed it annually and that has made it proliferate and kept anything to compete with it out. I’ve convinced them to cut it away from the trees to protect those and prevent fruiting and I’ve pulled a lot off of trees myself, but it’s overwhelming in this large a space. Do you think that mugwort or some combination of native thugs could knock back the two ivys? There is a big patch of sedge and that area is clear of ivy which gives me some hope. I welcome any of your wisdom.
I’d love to hear of anything that competes with ivy. I vigorously weed whack the edges every year and pull out new plants. I’m in 7b and it seems to me that it grows over the winter, which is a distinct advantage over the other plants. I’ve been watching patches grow on the steep hillside behind my home over 10 years and it’s voracious. One winter, over 2 mild months I found it had gained 6′ to come down behind my home and nearly take over.
My neighbor just used roundup on the entire portion of his hillside. I won’t do, that but I sure understood the battle. It’s worrisome with ivy growing up the trees as our homes are beneath. The tree service hired by the community does keep an eye on dangerous ones, and often they’re the ones taken over by the ivy.
I’ve put 8″ of mulch over areas in my yard that had ivy(after pulling up what I could), and it still finds it’s way back up. It weakens it, but ultimately that mulch is food and I’m back where I started.
The very first thing I did was to get the Ivy off the trees and never let it come back. Ivy flowers only on trees (posts, etc.) not on the ground. Those flowers send out seeds which can start up new plants. The first time through doing that was somewhat difficult in spots. Of course we only gut the vines from the ground to about 4 feet up as that was all that was necessary. The vines above that on the trees withered, died, and eventually fell off. Every Spring I would follow up by pulling or cutting off any new vine growing up the trees. It was easy and cut back substantially on colonizing new areas.
We cut the Ivy that had climbed the trees on our property 3-4 years ago when we moved in. Last week, there was a dead vine hanging off a maple tree. I thought it was just a piece but when I pulled it, pretty much the entire dead vine came crashing down. It was a gratifying clean up! Now if only my neighbors would all do the same. Thankfully the new owner next door just did. Ivy killed several trees over there, and it definitely had berries that landed on my property.
Hi Raina, when I pull ivy I immediately add vigorous groundcovers in its place – like Virginia creeper, ostrich ferns, wild ginger, golden ragwort, etc. When I smother it, I put cardboard or newspaper down first, prior to mulch or compost, because without that initial layer to tamp it down and keep out sunlight, the ivy will just come back.
Hi John, thank you so much for coming to my talk and for the very kind feedback. I am so grateful that you found the talk worthwhile.
I was so sad to read about your HOA’s rampant destruction of such a beautiful and peaceful and life-giving oasis. And feeling much gratitude for your efforts to bring it back.
Mugwort is something you would want to plant — it’s a nonnative and very invasive. After four years I’ve finally replaced a large mugwort patch with a combination of many different natives.
Virginia creeper is something we’ve used successfully — not at my property but at the homes of clients — to keep English ivy at bay when it’s creeping across the ground layer. It has involved pulling the ivy after soaking rains and then immediately replacing those newly bare areas with Virginia creeper. I would also try wild ginger, golden ragwort and ostrich ferns. The fact that the sedges are coming back is a good sign. In the handout listed at the end of this article, you can find more suggestions for vigorous groundcovers. Usually I try a combination of them, plus the smothering method, to make a dent in these types of areas.
Hi. I’m new to native gardening and my eyes are being opened to the invasives we are fighting from adjacent neighbors and public alley here in Northern Virginia. This spring I “discovered” lesser celandine one property over and on the opposite side of our 12′ alleyway. It is already beginning to encroach the corner of our property. Any suggestions for aggressive natives that can create a barrier to its further spread into the alleyway behind our fence and onto our property? The alley is used by walkers and neighbors walking their dogs; but it is not maintained by the local government. Everything I’ve read indicates lesser celandine will overtake the natives and several applications of properly-timed glyphosate is the only answer. I don’t believe I can do that on public land/land I do not own. Thank you for your article – it gives me hope! I know this is an old blog, but i really hope someone is still answering questions!
I have heard golden ragwort/packera aurea can outcompete it. Among Maryland native plants enthusiasts, we joke that we are the Church of the Holy Packera, because it is so aggressive and will crowd out tenacious invasives.
Well, learn something new every day! I looked that up and it’s the invasive I’m trying to hold back! It seeds so easily everywhere in my beds. It grows on a hill behind my yard and every year I’m forced to pull up the babies as fast as I can. It has such pretty leaves but I’ve grown to loathe its flowers.
Raina, with Lesser Celandine, you really need to carefully dig up the bulbs or apply herbicide—I believe I read that merely pulling it or mowing does not do enough. It spreads by seed and (I think) rhizomes. Thus far I have only had one plant encroach on my property (that I found) but I know based on the park areas and yards around me that it’s only a matter of time before I get infested. Well timed (not fully flowered) and careful glyphosate application seems to have taken care of that one plant at least. I have much of that area planted with packera aurea and keep dividing and spreading it to take over more area. I know it has helped keep other things—like false strawberry at bay.
Thank you. I’ll give it — and just about anything else anyone suggests! – a go.
Golden ragwort is definitely a great competitor in this situation, as Shiri mentioned. I’ve used it to outcompete small patches of lesser celandine in different places, and I have in friend who has a situation very similar to what you describe. Behind her is a yard full of lesser celandine, and to keep it from coming through the fence, she planted a barrier or ragwort from transplants that I gave her. She had already tried glyphosate, and it didn’t work. You really need other plants to fill in and hold that ground.
One way of quantifying the aggressiveness of native plants is by using the Coefficient of Conservatism (CofC) score. This sounds scientifically intimidating, but it really isn’t. A lower number indicates that the plant has less specialized needs (and can thrive in more areas). Several states have published there own CofC scores for plants existing in their specific state. This is important because the Enchanters Nightshade that is an aggressive under-story plant in Ohio may not do as well in Oregon.
Ohio’s list is published here…
https://epa.ohio.gov/static/Portals/35/wetlands/Ohio_FQAI.pdf
Sorry if someone already mentioned this. It’s a way of scientifically quantifying exactly what this post is talking about.
Thanks for the tip! How does one look up whether other states have compiled that information? Do you look it up by plant or by state!
It seems like most states call the assessment document an FQA or FQAI (Floral Quality Assessment Index). I googled “Ohio FQA”. I know Indiana and Wisconsin have published them… not sure about all the other states.
Thanks, Jason! What a neat resource. No one has mentioned it, and I hadn’t seen it before, so I appreciate the heads-up!
I wonder if this author knows the many culinary and health benefits of garlic mustard?
Sometimes the invasive only last a short while and they are full of nutrients far beyond what his produced on a farm . So many wild greens are chock full of nutritious and medicinal properties. .I have been lucky enough to read about these “native weeds” only to find them growing among rocks in my yard . Before spraying to kill the weeds ( I use vinegar mixture) I transplanted these powerhouses and look forward to using them more in my diet. I think that “foraging ” could become an answer for feeding our world.
Yes, I do! I make quite a delicious pesto with garlic mustard. A few years ago I posted the recipe on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile/100064524437045/search/?q=garlic%20mustard%20pesto
But there is way more garlic mustard around than could ever be eaten, and I like to focus on nurturing all the native edibles that feed not only humans but also wildlife. So we’ve got ramps, chokeberries, elderberries, sumacs, pawpaws, American plum, native wild strawberries, and many others that are good for our diets as well as for animals and the environment.
I tried making garlic mustard horse-radish out of the roots one time. It was ok but had an unappetizing coloration and I was worried about how long it would keep in the fridge.
I agree there is wayyyy too much of it to ever be used and embracing it too thoroughly risks losing native plants that have their own unique culinary and medicinal properties.
Two issues:
I have about a 1/4 acre of oak/pine woods that’s infested with wisteria. I hack it out of the trees, and pull it up as best as I can, but its roots are in the ground like a dense net and I really don’t seem to make much headway. Any ideas on how to mitigate it?
Second issue – I had to have my septic system redone and now a big part of the formerly mostly native yard is bare, sandy soil. The company wants to spread topsoil and plant with grass. I don’t want a lawn. Is a no-mow fescue lawn a good idea? What other seeding options would you suggest that would keep the invasive weeds out (hawkweed is awful here all of a sudden)? Ideally I don’t want anything too tall. I live on Cape Cod.
Thanks!
Hi Jody, have you tried covering the wisteria roots after you hack them down? Maybe with thick black plastic (like black plastic trash bag) wrapped around them tightly? I’m thinking of the product called Buckthorn Baggies, and that’s essentially how it works to kill buckthorn and other invasives.
I’m not sure if you’ve already got your septic area redone, but I would look for a native planting mix or seed mix that works well with your soil. This is from a New Jersey company, but there are nonprofits and companies in your area with similar expertise: https://newmoonnursery.wordpress.com/2020/07/02/native-and-other-plants-for-septic-drainfields/
Hawkweed is suddenly an issue here, too! But it mainly is an issue in spots that are not planted densely enough, so as long as you have a dense matrix of natives you should be able to keep that under control.
Thanks so much for this article! I, unfortunately, pulled out a full-grown Pacera aurea when I was still learning about natives. At that time, I often thought that, anything that came up “volunteer” had to be bad! I have since been soooo sad and now will search for some seeds to just scatter because you have shown me the value of this and other “weeds”. Thanks so much for this! I have made a partial list of things that I want to now scatter, grow, and love!
One of my favorite “volunteers” is the mentioned Eastern red cedar! We had none when we bought this house, but now have one taller than our 1 1/2 story house! It gives me little, lovely seedlings occasionally and I spread them around where I want them as I start to “build” a nice, rear “fence” from our alley! I “top” them to make a shrub! I sing the praises of this lovely tree/shrub all the time! The cardinals love to nest in them. The blue berries are prized by returning robins. They are easily recognizable in the lawn and easy to move and “build” your own “fence”! I watch as I walk my dog through the neighborhood and “gather” them to place in my yard when they are being used as lawn!! Thanks for opening my eyes to other helpful “volunteers”! : ) Susie
I need something drought and shade tolerant that can out-compete privet. My yard is near a noisy highway and the privet is a good sound barrier because it is dense and evergreen. That is the only thing good about it! I’m in central Oklahoma and the weather is extreme in that we can go from a wet spring into a blazing hot summer without rain for three months. Red cedars and yaupon holly are not dense or aggressive enough. Do you have any other shrub ideas?
Hi, I’d be grateful for your thoughts on this idea. I have a large plot of Jerusalem artichoke and I’m thinking of surrounding it with a border of solidago rigida in hopes that the thick deep root system of the solidago will hem in the sunchokes while the top growth will provide support for the tall helianthus stems. My hesitation is due to concern that the goldenrod plants might be more invasive than the sunchokes. I’d be grateful for your guidance.