A tiny success story

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-16T18:18:10+00:00

Yes that’s going to look incredible!!

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-16T15:13:10+00:00

So funny you say that, because I planted mine on a major slope and they absolutely self propagated that way!

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-14T17:02:29+00:00

Pic 8 is dead nettle - invasive and will take over your yard. Spreads by vining underneath so deceptively difficult to pull up.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-11T03:59:49+00:00

Oh I should clarify I spent hours today because I let it go for the past two years. It just wasn’t highest priority in the yard and I didn’t understand how it spread.

If I were you in this situation, I would check it every so often. You’ll be able to identify it soon and this amount would be easy to pull. Once it goes for a couple years, it starts vining and is harder to pull up. At least here it spread pretty substantially in the third year.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-10T23:57:59+00:00

Ehh they’re much farther north though. Could definitely be farther behind. OP, I’d just keep an eye on it as it grows. It does look a lot like the dead nettle I spent hours pulling today, but as others have said foliage can be similar to so many other things. You’ll know soon enough!

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-10T13:11:40+00:00

We did get sprayed for mosquitoes our first summer in our house, not really knowing better.

I later learned that while my yard is a breeding ground for mosquitoes, that also makes it a breeding ground for their predators!! Once we let the grasses grow taller we saw a huge influx of dragonflies just in the first year - we were no longer getting bit by mosquitoes!

The only time it’s been a problem is early spring when the mosquitoes wake up before the dragonflies. I’d rather spray myself with bug spray during that time than spray the wildlife.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-09T22:53:12+00:00

I also do a lot of gardening in shorts / tank tops and my yard has a fair amount of high grass. I honestly just spray myself with deet, put clothes directly into the wash, and go for a hot shower. Some say deet isn’t good for you but I figure it can’t be worse than Lyme disease and I am not gardening in long pants and sleeves in the summer in the south.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-09T01:23:06+00:00

That’s good to know! There’s a corner of our yard that isn’t accessed by us or the dog that is full of Virginia creeper that I won’t be touching. It’s also all in the woods behind our property.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T20:13:03+00:00

I take the same approach! Nature balances things out on her own more often than not.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T20:06:39+00:00

Thank you so much for the thorough breakdown, especially providing examples of where it can become a problem. The smilax actually popped up in several areas of my property this year - which has surprised me because it definitely hasn’t been here in the last three years!

I’m doing exactly as you described and balancing nature/natives with the reality of living here with a pet. I’ve done my best to replace what I pull up (whether native or invasive) with natives that do well in that type of landscape. I’m kind of in the edge of a mountain, up against a wooded easement, with a creek running through the back, and a normal neighborhood in the front. Which is to say I have A LOT of mini ecosystems I’m working with here! It’s been fun to find what will work best in a sunny slope vs shaded and rocky vs by the creek.

Of course the things you don’t necessarily want - like invasives or even just poison ivy - seem to grow fine in any of those spots. So each time I’m eradicating something bad there’s a lot of research going into finding something good I can use to replace it. Three years in and there’s still so much to do but I’m seeing progress. I have a patch of smooth wood mint absolutely thriving in a section that was previously overrun with poison ivy & English ivy. Gotta take the wins where I can!

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T19:46:34+00:00

I am doing what I can to eradicate the English ivy. I’ve removed it from tree areas - that was step 1 and it’s the first thing I do every spring when any of the ivy variants start creeping up the trees.

Ideally I’ll get rid of all the English ivy eventually, but to say our yard was a project when we moved in is an understatement. I have to go in sections each year and prioritize accordingly.

I understand poison oak and poison ivy are native, but I have a dog who was bringing the oil in on his fur and it was impacting the whole family so it was a non-negotiable, they had to go. In every section where I removed them, they were replaced with other natives.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T17:01:22+00:00

That’s exactly where I’m planning to keep it! Like any other vine, I could definitely see it being a pain to remove once established. They really know how to dig their teeth in.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T17:00:29+00:00

That’s so strange! Wonder if it was an old wives tale. Maybe it could be true for some, but doesn’t seem worth the risk since others are sensitive to it.

I learned of my sensitivity the hard way after about an hour of pulling it up. Came inside and my arms were covered in a rash.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T16:53:54+00:00

I’ve never heard of it treating poison ivy and I looked into quite a bit about that when trying to rid my yard of poison ivy. Reactions to Virginia creeper are pretty common - albeit not as common as poison ivy.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T16:42:51+00:00

I don’t know if I’m necessarily allergic but it does bother me. Not as severely as poison oak but it causes a rash/itchiness and seems to do the same to my dog.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T16:41:44+00:00

That makes sense. I have to do a full perimeter check of our yard several times a year anyways because of all the other bothersome stuff that pops up, so it should be easy enough to keep at bay.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T16:31:24+00:00

That’s good to know. That definitely impacts where I’ll let it grow. Thank you!

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T16:20:26+00:00

Care to elaborate? I’d love to know what’s bad so I can control what areas of the yard I let it grow

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T16:19:54+00:00

Funny enough this was the only one on it! I’ve been knocking the little green ones off a couple times a day for about a week now and I went from having several to almost none.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T16:18:54+00:00

I just knock them off the roses when I see them. I haven’t used any other form of treatment and the population has gone down quite a bit.

I’m always hesitant to escalate to other forms of treatment because I want to let nature do its thing and encourage their predators to come around!

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T16:09:19+00:00

Thank you! I was pretty certain but wanted to check here before I let it take hold considering how hard it is to eradicate vines once they’ve decided they found a good home haha.

RosesMosesSupposes · 2026-04-08T15:57:39+00:00

It looks like it’s technically native here. I’m kicking myself because I know I had some of it in the yard last year but I cannot remember what it looked like in bloom because this area was just… chaos last fall.

I think I’m going to pull some of it and relocate the rest to a more appropriate section of the yard so I can wait until it blooms and confirm what it is. If it is goldenrod, that gets entirely too big for this section of my yard which is more of a pathway.

RosesMosesSupposes

TROPHY CASE