The key point of landscaping is to control the way in which your property grows. Sure, untamed nature has its charm, but you simply cannot allow unrestricted growth on your property. Why? Well, because it’s dangerous for the foundations of your home, your pathways, your driveway, and because it attracts pests. Avoiding all of this takes more work than you would expect.
Now, removing and controlling invasive plants takes a lot of work. When developing a plan (and you always need a plan), you need to put a special emphasis on invasive plants. What are these invasive plants? Simply put, these are the plants that appear seemingly out of nowhere, grow more rapidly than the rest of your backyard plants, and steal nutrients from the rest of the plants on your property.
With that in mind and without further ado, here’s how you can spot, remove, and control invasive plants on your property.
Identify Invasive Plants
The first thing you need to do is identify invasive plants on your property. This can be done through a visual assessment – you go to your backyard and try to spot them. Then, you use your device to go online and check the list of local invasive plants. Here, you can find plants like:
Autumn olive
Kudzu
Wild grape
Multiflora rose
Asian privet
Of course, this list greatly varies according to your location, local climate, and local plant life. A huge part here lies in your ability to recognize the plant from the list. Once again, you should craft your strategy according to this.
One more thing to keep in mind is that invasive plants don’t have to exist in the nearest vicinity in order to make it to your own garden. Pests and birds carry the seeds, so as long as they’re present anywhere in your area, there’s a chance that they will find their way to your property. One more thing to keep in mind, if there are invasive plants on nearby properties, they are certain to appear on your property, as well.
Proceed With Removal
Anyone who has any experience knows of the regenerative ability of plant life. With invasive plants, this regenerative ability is even more prominent for a number of reasons. First of all, they can sprout virtually anywhere, especially near the remains of pruned or cut-down trees and shrubs. This is why you need to remove large tree roots from the lawn altogether once you’ve already cut down the trees. In other words, removed plants need to be removed in their entirety.
Hire a professional
Ideally, you would hire a professional landscaper to help you deal with this problem. A professional knows how to do this thoroughly and systematically. They also have professional tools which facilitate the process and reduce the likelihood that someone will get injured.
One thing that you always need to look out for is the process of removing these plants without harming the rest of your property’s growth. This can be incredibly difficult because a lot of these invasive plants develop a semi-parasitic bond with the rest of your garden. They become intertwined, almost leaching on some plants that you see as essential for your garden. What you want to do is kill these invasive plants without damaging the rest of your garden.
In a lot of scenarios, the use of herbicides will be used. It’s incredibly hard to use herbicides safely and effectively at the same time.
Be strategic about it
There are a lot of things you need to consider when getting rid of invasive species. For instance, you need to choose the best time of year to do so. Ideally, you would target a plant before it starts seeding. If you decide to go for herbicide, you might have to go with a specific time of the year in order to get the best effect. Just remember that each species and each area have its own ideal time.
Most importantly, you need to understand that this is a process that may take years. After eradicating them in one corner of your backyard, the plants are bound to sprout someplace else.
Replace Them
Now, while it is true that these invasive plants are usually undesirable, they do fill in the place. The more space they occupy, the emptier your garden will look once you’ve finally gotten rid of them.
Moreover, some other invasive plants may see this gap as an amazing opportunity for growth. After all, there’s all this space and all these unused nutrients. To make matters worse, if this is done unprofessionally and you fail to remove the entirety of the invasive plants, parts of it remain in the ground and may act as some sort of compost. Needless to say, this will facilitate the growth of the next invasive plant.
The best way to act in this scenario is to be proactive and plant your own replacement. There are some plants that act in a similar way to these invasive plants but are also far more aesthetic (or at least more to your own liking). By replacing this undesirable plant with a plant of your choice, you’re actually making a world of difference.
Just make sure that you understand what you’re actually trying to accomplish here. When growing an organic garden, it’s for the best to make nature work for you (instead of against you), but you also need to ensure that you do your preparation right. Composting, mulching, aerating, and irrigating the area will make your garden far more efficient, regardless of what you plant.
In Conclusion
Nature is neither for you nor against you – it just is. There are some rules and plants that exploit these rules more efficiently than others. Understanding these rules can help you turn the tables and make the garden you want with as little effort as possible. This will increase the aesthetics of your property, boost its resale value, and give you a sense of personal accomplishment. All of this put together is definitely worth the effort.
