as far as i know these are native wild blackberries so we welcome them with open arms, but i'm not an autistic pedant redditor about every single organism around here (also a better comparison would probably be southerners with multiflora roses; at least kudzu is almost completely edible and doesn't have bloodthirsty thorns that still shred your hands after the cane has been dead for years).
are the vines really fuzzy, especially at the ends? if they're flowering, do they smell like artificial grape flavour? do you live in an area by a tree line that's otherwise wide open and sunny? if you answered yes to these questions, you might as well just lay back and think of england, such as the case with all invasive vines unless you have the time, energy, and patience to either hack down new growth until the root system starves or dig out the fucking thing entirely.
We have a Himalayan blackberry problem in my neck of the woods; they've supplanted the native blackberries entirely and they quickly grow into these impenetrable thickets if they're left unchecked. ...Impenetrable except for the most tenacious of bums, who slowly carve out tent spaces within the blackberries like an amphetamine-powered Bre'r Rabbit.
that's fucking genius because it's both a free defense system and a testament to how you shouldn't mess with that specific bum because they're unhinged enough to do this.
first of all, haha no mountain mint nigger. second, i originally meant the roses, but after looking up himalayan blackberries i think they got stiff competition. kind of want to see an invasives thunderdome now where these shitass plants are put together in the same plot so they have to dogpile over each other for resources.
the vines are so thorned I don't remember if they're fuzzy too but I don't think so? I do have fences and trees (150 ft x 100?) and it's hella sunny. the goddamed long chopped off branches are flowering, white flowers. I haven't smelt them as I am not convinced they're not zombies, that flowering on dead vines shit ain't normal.
Dealing with invasives is like ER triage. Ya have to deal with the biggest and worst first and hope that you have enough time and energy to deal with the smaller and less worst. And for me, that worst status changes almost every summer. To the point where I'm considering getting a battery powered sawzall just to knock back the fucking burning bushes that got huge while I was waging war on other invasives.
They do like to take over and they smell odd, but they are native and my best bug plant, no contest. Every wasp, bee, fly, (and even some beetles) at my place love that stuff. When it's blooming the bug activity is impressive.
I use a long handled carpenter adze for multiflora roses, burning bushes and barberry. It's like an axe but the head is a scoop that you can sharpen with a file. Two or three swings with that at the base, a quick pull and shake, and they're toast. I cut back the rose and barberry branches first using one of those long pole tree pruners. It has a funky pulley set up that closes the blade when I pull on the cord. From 6 feet away. Heh. Then once they're naked I go at 'em with the adze. Multiflora roses have a knob just below the soil line. Cut below that knob and they don't come back.
The worst offending burning bush is the winged euonymus (Euonymus alatus). It has distinct brownish ridges along mature trunks and branches. There is a native one (E. atropurpureus). If E. alatus is forbidden for sale in your state, the developers/landscapers may have plugged in E. atropupureus. They look pretty similar. Asking is always a good idea. But if it's not officially Invasive in your state good luck getting them to rip them out and replacing them. If your area is anything like mine, development plantings are one and done. They don't even go back to take the tree supports down which end up strangling the trees. I'm always cutting old rubber support bands (or worse, wrapped wire) off deformed trees. That shit makes me nuts.
Coffee!
I got Van Engelen & John Sheepers fall bulb catalogs in the mail today. No German iris. Just Dutch.
If you look at the return addresses on both those catalogs, you will discover a secret.
Feel you. I'm out there having a coffee in my bathrobe screaming at Japanese knotweed. You're not alone!
would you be interested in perhaps eating the japanese knotweed, provided it isn't exposed to runoff and doesn't get sprayed with pesticides? from what i've read it's like a crunchy vegetable with loads of vitamins that you can freely harvest the shit out of. ever since i heard it's a good forage food i've been curious to try it, but there aren't any stands of it in my neighbourhood and it'd be cool if another kiwi could personally back up its edibility. meanwhile i'm stuck with. like. mimosa trees and japanese stiltgrass, and you can't do much with those (except i do want to try making tea from mimosa bark since it's apparently high in tannins, which helps with wasp stings).
I know the secret, LOL. Van E is JS’s wholesale catalog. Sheeper’s seed catalog (a separate gig) gets bigger every year. No cheap thrills but they offer some unusual varieties. And I’ve never had a mid season disappointment from crossed seed with them.
AFAIK the time to forage knotweed is in the spring when it sends the initial shoots up. Harvest & eat like asparagus. Supposedly. Even though my patches are as pristine as you can get I’m not willing to try it. Just because ya can eat some invasive or another doesn’t mean it’ll be tasty. And even if it was incredible to eat I’d still keep trying to kill it. TID.
May I recommend some hardy aroid varieties? I think a vigorous grower like the Prince of Orange would look sublime here! Maybe even a Pink Princess?
