Garden

[Kabella]

Kudzu is a vine from Asia which was originally planted for erosion for the woodlands. Mid 1900's it was planted mostly in the South for Wooded Wetlands. It has become a vining climbing disaster here in Fl. & is moving forward attacking my Native wildflowers & flowering shrubs at at the edge of my wooded area. We weekly keep them at bay by pulling them out at the edges but its a weekly chore. The have choked a large majority of our native tree's as they spread rapidly. They die back in the winter but killed alot of the trees & then rapidly come back in the spring & spread up again. Do any of you have this problem where you live? 

[Kachina624]

Isn't kudzu prevalent throughout the South?  One solution, move to the desert.  No sign of it anywhere near New Mexico. 

[Kabella]

@Kachina624  Yes, Kudzu spreads mostly in the South but has been reported causing havoc in other states. I have acres of woodland so I didn't notice it until it started to come forward. I have had 3 other homes so this is my fourth & last, Kudzu and all. Just was curious to know if anyone here has this problem.

[happycat]

There is kudzu on the neighbors adjoining property, but somehow it has not ventured onto mine. My dh would spray with roundup if it did as that is what he does to everything deems as a weed. Maybe that would help? 

[JustJazzmom]

Kudzu is seen on our highway landscapes here along with Russian olive & purple loosestrife.

[Sweetbay magnolia]

It's wintercreeper euonymus here, and English ivy.  Honeysuckle, too.  I don't use chemicals in the yard but DH is frequently tasked with ripping the stuff out.  Right now we have a mountain of it on a sheet in the back yard, solarizing.  Our lot has dozens of mature hardwoods and we work to keep these things from climbing up the trees.  As it is they want to carpet the forest floor so that nothing else grows. It pops up all over the place.

I do let the Virginia creeper grow, but keep it to a manageable height (it's a native here).

We'll never get rid of this stuff but we do our best to keep it at bay.

[River Song]

Goats are used to control kudzu, no, I'm not joking.  Google it!

[Icegoddess]

@River Song The neighbor that lives behind me hired a herd of goats to clear out the underbrush in the wooded area behind his home.  The wooded area is what is behind us.  Hopefullly, no kudzu though.  Then, he started cutting trees down, Ugh!  My fight is with the marauding bamboo from the next door neighbor's yard.  The new owners don't want it either so last year they cut it down and salted it.  I think that just made it more aggressive in trying to move into my yard.  Last week, they brought in a backhoe to dig it out, but they're not removing the roots which will just re-root.  They claim they are going to put down some kind of poison that kills kudzu when it gets hot.  I don't know what it is or whether it will work. I can only hope so.  However, in the meantime, they broke through all three stringers on one of our fence panels with the backhoe.  No mention of fixing it yet either.

[River Song]

@Icegoddess ,

I sympathize with the bamboo.  I have ear leaf acacia, a fast growing exotic invasive tree growing on my property.  The only way to get rid of it is to cut it down and immediately douse the cut stump with concentrated herbicide, otherwise the stump starts growing again.  Ugh!  Makes me tired just thinking about it.

[GinaV24]

@River Song So right! I lived in Atlanta for 4 years and yes goats did a good job -- they will eat poison ivy too.