Setting the baseline for your garden and possibly new bright spots.
Days of steady showers present a couple of excellent opportunities in a garden featuring native plants or a garden that is about to feature native plants. If you have been thinking about removing invasive plants, this is a good time. The ground is moist making it much easier to dig up a shrub or pull a vine or plant out. Please be careful to minimize footsteps in garden beds. Compacting soil when it is wet can eliminate air spaces necessary for healthy soil. Standing on a 2 x 6 or other piece of wood can distribute weight and minimize any damage. With those precautions in mind, working in moist soil to remove plants is so far preferable to dry soil.
Removing Invasive Plants
I am very lucky to get to talk to a number of people who are just starting gardening or gardening with native plants. By far, the most unpopular news I share is the basic first principle of gardening for the Chesapeake -- do no harm. Before you move to more creative and fun parts of the process, it is essential to remove any invasive plants you may have. A short explanation of why is here. Not sure which plants are invasive in your area? You can check here for Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania or here for the National Park Service's fuller guide to "Plant Invaders of the Mid-Atlantic." Fortunately, most people report a definite sense of accomplishment once they have removed invasives from their garden, whether it was a DYI or hiring someone to do the work. This sets your garden baseline for all the fun to come.
Ivy & Vinca
In our area, ivy and vinca are the most common invasive ground covers. Here are some tips for successful removal.
Two People and 3 Hours
Prioritize
Ivy climbing on any structure
If you are not already aware, ivy can enter very small spaces where two materials meet, say concrete block and wood roof, as was the case in this garage. Ivy had entered the garage and was using light from the windows to continue to flourish. Ivy can pull down gutters, damage brick siding and do all sorts of unwanted damage.
To effectively remove ivy from structures without damaging the structure, the best approach is to cut the ivy at the base where it is growing from the ground and let it die. Pulling the ivy can loosen or pull down structures, remove paint, damage bricks and more.
Ivy climbing up trees
Ivy climbs up trees, sometimes forming roots many inches thick. When it reaches the top of the tree canopy, it spreads outward, effectively blocking the tree from sunlight. It can also create quite a sail, adding to the threat of falling from higher winds. It's often at the top of the tree where the ivy is producing loads of berries available for birds to carry far and wide. The good news is there is a fairly easy fix for this. It is sufficient to cut the ivy at the base of the tree. This will cause the vines growing up the tree to eventually die. Typically you will begin to see dieback in several weeks but it may take several years for the vines to decompose. It is also essential to be vigilant about periodically rechecking for new growth. Once a plant is cut, it responds to the wound by doing its best to produce new growth. Fortunately, the new growth is typically more tender and even easier to cut. Usually a pair of good hand pruners and a small pruning saw make this fairly easy work.
Please note, experts advise never to pull vines off of trees. Pulling ivy vines off of trees easily damages the bark which can adversely effect the tree.
Ivy on the ground
This is where the going can get tough. If you have a large area, and you are doing the work yourself, you may want to decide to work on sections over time. This can mean several months or several years.
The best time to do this is during the winter and after a period of soaking rain. The advantage of winter is that any herbaceous plants have died back and the ivy is easier to see. It is also not in a growing stage. Now is a close second in terms of best time, due to recent rain.
I try to grab one vine as close to the ground and gently pull to get as long a run as possible. This is the goal because you don't want to leave short pieces in the ground. If the strand I am pulling is pinned in by other strands, I drop it and move to the next one. With persistence, they will all eventually be freed and you can pull. It is sometime possible to get sections ten and twenty feet long. If the ground is dry, pieces will snap off much more readily.
Large Areas
I have limited but positive experience with another method. I once heard a speaker from the US Fish and Wildlife Service talk about removing invasives by applying a very thick, eight to ten inch, layer of wood chips over the area. He said the first year, it will really knock ivy back and the regrowth is much more tender and easier to pull. Faced with a location that has close to an acre of ivy, I tried this method in the summer of 2023. Now, in the second year, it seems to be working. It definitely requires vigilance in looking for and pulling new growth, but nowhere close to the effort of pulling ivy from across an acre.
A couple of notes. I am trying this in an area beneath mature tall pine trees. There is no other vegetation to speak of. A few rambling invasive shrubs were cut to the base before spreading the wood chips. If you have other plants in an area or smaller or shallow rooted trees, this amount of wood chip cover could easily damage them. As I said, I have only tried it once and now in year 2 - very small sample size!
Another method out there I have not tried is repetitive mowing. You can mow the ivy again and again until the roots have exhausted all of their stores of energy. This of course would work best where ivy, or vinca. is the only plant growing. All of these same approaches work for vinca. Now on to the fun stuff!
Identify Areas Which May Inundate from Time to Time
If, over a number of rainy days, you notice places in your garden where water puddles or pools, you may have found the perfect spot for some of the best of our native plants! Assuming you have ruled out other reasons for the water pooling, like a broken water line, an errant downspout or some other type of leak, check out some of these beauties. These plants thrive in moist soils and are easily able to withstand occasional flooding. Yes, they can be grown in average moisture soils but they do not live their best life as they do in moist areas.
Full Sun to Part Shade
Perennials
Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
Blue Flag Iris (Iris versicolor)
Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitca)
Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
Blue Verbena (Verbena hastata)
Each of these perennials, massed, would be striking. They can also be mixed or grouped and provide blooms from early summer through September.
Shrubs
Button Bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
Possumhaw Viburnum (Viburnum nudum)
Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)
These shrubs are standout garden plants, native or not, for their unique beauty. It's a mystery to me why we don't see them everywhere!
Shade
Perennials
Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa)
Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)
Shrubs
Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia)
From short to tall, an ephemeral, perennials and shrub, add color in moist shade. How great is that?
If you already removed your invasives and no puddles called out for plants, you are more than ready for fall, one of the most magical times in a garden in the Chesapeake Watershed.
Happy Gardening.
I often weed after it rains…there is something very soul-satisfying about the moment a weed with its root pops out of the earth and gets tossed in the bucket. 😀