Poison Ivy Pullers

Along with the greening up of all the wonderful trees, shrubs and flowers that we like we also have the greening up of that hateful but wonderful native plant - poison ivy. Because the garden was built in an area that had been left to run wild, we have a poison ivy problem.

Inside the garden we've about got the old poison ivy vines removed. Outside the garden, behind the shed and along the back fence, there is still lots of old poison ivy that is leafing out. However, there are still a lot of seeds in the soil and the birds keep depositing more seeds. When you weed under the pecan tree, weed with caution.

Poison ivy does have its uses (gorgeous foliage in the fall, beautiful flowers in the spring and it is a favored source of food for birds)  but it does tend to grow where you don't want it. We've come a long way with getting rid of the poison ivy in the garden, but it still pops up from time to time.

The best way to deal with poison ivy is with respect and caution. I believe in pulling and discarding poison ivy because dead leaves can still cause poison ivy for those who are highly allergic. If you use an herbicide on the plant, it kills the leaves but then the leaves fall off and are in the leaf litter. When you rake up leaf litter/debris, those dead poison ivy leaves are still in there waiting to cause misery.

Hairy Rope - Don't be a dope

Leaves of three - Leave it be

Pulling poison ivy will transfer the oils in the poison ivy plant onto your gloves. You can always use plastic gloves but I much prefer newspaper or bread bags. It is one way to recycle that unending stream of bags. Using the bag method, I'm protected up to my elbows and I've got something to put the poison ivy in after it has been pulled.

If I know I'm going to have really long pieces of poison ivy, I have grocery or garbage bags to stick them in. This protects me as well as the garbage men who deal with my trash.

The leaves on seedling poison ivy are not as big and can be confusing to recognize because the poison ivy doesn't quite have the same kind of leaves that go with the poison ivy sayings below. If you don't know what poison ivy looks like, memorize these sayings until you do.

Leaves of three, leave it be.

 

Hairy rope, don't be a dope!

In other words, if you don't recognize the plant and it fits one of those two sayings, don't touch!

 

This is baby poison ivy. It doesn't quite have 3 leaves

yet and looks very similar to other desirable plants.

If in doubt, leave it be.

 

There are lots of good plants that have three leaves or have hairy vines. Don't destroy them until you know what you have. You could be tearing out a highly desirable native plant.

If you want to learn to identify poison ivy on your own, just ask, we can show you many great samples of poison ivy in the woods and the hairy rope as well!

Special thanks to Kitty for being my assistant with these photos.