Sherry Thompson on tue 10 jun 97

I have been fighting the spread of my neighbor's ground ivy for 7 years. I
have easily over 100 hours in hand pulling it from my vegetable bed, from the
black berries, and even from the strawberries growing in a raised bed. I
spent last weekend trying to get it out of my compost pile which it loves to
grow on the outside of . I dare not complain to my neighbor because he does
not agree with my organic pursuits. His solution to everything is to see what
"Ortho" has to say about it. Is there anything I can do to stop the ground
ivy other than hand pulling it?

Sherry

delirium on thu 12 jun 97

Counterattack! Plant some nasty invasive thing on your side (with a
sensible barrier) and send it out to wage war on the ivy. Hey, it's a
possibility.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
delirium@afn.org
"A word after a word/after a word is power" Margaret Atwood
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

Carol Jensen on mon 12 apr 04

Today my daughter came with a new kind of potato (organic) and I went out to find a spot for them. One spot I found had three (!) blackberry vines and a lot of ground ivy and some dock on it.

Well, I am still feeling very "physical" so I got out the 3 blackberries (unfortunately I left some root in the ground) and the ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria, which no-one seems to know) (like quack grass you need to get every single inch or centimeter root, but it is a tiny bit easier to see). Planted the potatoes, digging up docks as I walked backwards.

I found a site today you might like to bookmark if you like to do research via internet.

http://www.questia.com

They have entire books. I found them writing Israel AND history and now I have an online book to read! My daughter came with a book about Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, so I thought I would clear up some confusion in my mind about Israel's geography and history. (I cannot for the life of me understand why Israel doesn't extend to the Jordan!)

Well, I was only 11 in 1948, but I read the papers every day and was very interested.

Carol

jalleman on mon 16 jan 06

Greetings,
My GP says the patch of grass in front of the house must be rid of
ground ivy. While she is generally accepting of organic methods, her
love of green grass is overcoming her reluctance to using herbicides to
get rid of the ground ivy. Since I am reluctant to strip and reseed the
area, I need to find the least harmful alternative for getting rid of
ground ivy.

What ways of eliminating ground ivy are there that do not harm other
organisms?

Thanks for you help

Western Virginia (zone 6) where a second crop of spinach has just
sprouted in my hoophouse due to above normal temps, in part.

Dave

--
Julia/David Alleman
1245 Upland
Harrisonburg, VA 22802

540/433-4008

Laura McKenzie on mon 16 jan 06

Joel, I followed the link at the bottom of that page and it was dead.
Talking off part of the tag took me here:
http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/cespubs/hyg/html/

University of Illinois Extension page is for subscribers only! For $20 a
year you can read information. I thought extension agencies were funded
with tax dollars and I'm surprised a university could start charging for the
information. Its worrisome actually.

Laura

Susan Setzler on mon 16 jan 06

I asked this question to Organic Gardening years ago and got this
formula, Use this only once a year for a couple of years, and best time
is in the fall and only on the lawn. It didn't do much for me, and I
have creeping charlie BAD!!

Mix 2 TBSP Borax with 1 quart of hot water and stir well. Apply this
solution with a sprayer to exactly 25 sq. ft. of ivy infested lawn,
covering as much of the ground ivy leaves as possible. Resist the
temptation to use more Borax, it might damage the lawn. I was spraying
this around my garden, but didn't get much satisfaction. I think I'll
try again

Also Moira suggested you mulch it HEAVILY and then when the charlie
appears on top, as it will, it LOVES mulch, you remove all the mulch
and ivy with it and discard.

susan

Joel Gruver on mon 16 jan 06

Hello to anyone considering using boron to control ground ivy (Glechoma
hederacea) ,

I recommend that you read the following before making any applications:

http://www.pesticidesafety.uiuc.edu/newsletter/html/200105d.html

Joel

Susan Setzler on mon 16 jan 06

thank you Joel, I didn't know that, of course, but am glad to find out.
Guess I'll just cover it up with cardboard and newspaper as I have been
doing

susan

Laura McKenzie on mon 16 jan 06

Ground ivy is all through my garden here. We mulch and then pull it off the
mulch when it starts to grow over it. Its a real pain but easy to pull
anyway. If I had it in the lawn I'd use a rake pull out what I could. The
back yard's lawn area is too poor for ground ivy to want to grow! It likes
the paths between the beds and the beds instead. We pulled a huge pile of
it today until the rain came down just too hard. Our scuffle hoe doesn't
handle ground ivy well. If I had been smart, in October the paths would
have had rye planted in them and I'd have no problems to speak of.

Laura

Kimm Miller on mon 16 jan 06

David said;
My experience with this is that getting the soil here it grows built up with
enough organic matter is enough to control it. It grows most bestest around
here in soil that is low in organic matter and all I need do is plunk some
good compost there and it stops growing, after a while.

Kimm

jim allAn on mon 16 jan 06

That is how I like to mow, but how do you convince better educated people
that it should be done that way.
There excuse is "it doesn't need mowing every week," or "it's to high at
two inches. Cut it down to one inch in one pass because gas prices are to
high."

Libit Woodington on mon 16 jan 06

-------------------------------1137465716

In a message dated 1/16/2006 2:47:04 PM Eastern Standard Time,
jgruv@HOTMAIL.COM writes:

recommend that you read the following before making any applications:

http://www.pesticidesafety.uiuc.edu/newsletter/html/200105d.html

Joel,

I read the article and probably wouldn't use borax anyway but this article
sounds like they're pushing registered pesticides more than they are natural
methods. The additional statement about not using vinegar to kill weeds
because it might harm the plants around it was just too much for me. Any
"registered" pesticide, regardless of how much research has gone into it, can also
harm plants around it if misused to say nothing of harming a whole lot more.

I'm tempted to try borax and vinegar now--but not together.

Libit
in South Carolina

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kathryn marsh on tue 17 jan 06

Bet they take the mowings off as well thus reducing the fertility and
making it an ideal ground ivy habitat as Kimm said. So if they use
chemicals it will come back anyway because that is the sort of place
it likes to grow

kathryn

jalleman on tue 17 jan 06

Kimm Miller wrote:

We've been doing that after taking over the lawn from a dedicated
chemically oriented grass lover.

It grows most bestest around
> here in soil that is low in organic matter and all I need do is plunk some
> good compost there and it stops growing,

I am reluctant to use compost to grow grass--my prejudice. But have put
some down, plus corn gluten.

We mow fairly long with a mulching mower.

Thanks for your suggestions.

--
Julia/David Alleman
1245 Upland
Harrisonburg, VA 22802

540/433-4008

Libit Woodington on tue 17 jan 06

-------------------------------1137554252

In a message dated 1/16/2006 11:58:47 PM Eastern Standard Time,
jgruv@HOTMAIL.COM writes:

Good luck if you decide to try experimenting with using borax to try control
ground ivy.

Joel,

Thanks for the explanation. Yes, it did rub me the wrong way to find what I
considered "chemical pushing" on this list. And I'll certainly admit to being
the type that goes out of my way to do just the opposite of what Big Pharma
and Agro Chemical companies appear to want me to do. I guess those of us who
were afraid to rebel in our youth have to get it out some way in old age!

I do understand the effect of boron on plants and as I said in the earlier
post, I'm really not likely to try it. I'm not the one with ground ivy and
when I can't cover weeds with mulch, I tend to hand pull them to use in the
compost pile. Still I want to try it because somebody said that I should use a
commercial herbicide product instead! I do pay attention to what you say on
this list and I think that just a note coming from you, about the problems
that can occur from using too much boron on plants, wouldn't have set me off as
the Illinois article did.

Libit
in South Carolina

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