All blogs must have an initial post, sort of a “make the page not so white” entry that frees the mind from the ponderous task of saying something of importance. So here’s the starting post for this blog. If you’d like to become a poster, drop me a line and I’ll set you up as a member. Here we’ll post about feats of gardening in Newfoundland, share photos and tips about what will grow and how and discuss failures and tribulations in the hopes that a collective wit will yield solutions.
The subject? Gardening in Newfoundland, Canada. Labrador, too.
You don’t have to be a Newfoundlander to post, but I’m guessing it’ll help! Gardeners of all sorts (flower, veggie, water, herb, etc.) and levels of expertise are welcome!
Please need advice on how to get rid of what we call Bamboos…. taking over whole yard and I don’t know what will stop them other then removing roots. Any advice welcome
Hi Debbie,
What you have is actually Japanese knotweed (polygonum cuspidatum). It is (and I do apologize for saying this) one of the hardest blessed things to eradicate and is also known as “killer bamboo”.
They were originally introduced as an ornamental plant for landscaping and have taken their landed immigrant status waaaay too far.
It propagates primarily through root segments, so when you haul out roots, you must get every little tiny chunk and rootlet vigilantly.
The best advide I could find on getting rid of them is on the following pages from about.com:
http://landscaping.about.com/cs/weedsdiseases/a/knotweed.htm
http://landscaping.about.com/cs/weedsdiseases/a/knotweed_2.htm
http://landscaping.about.com/od/weedsdiseases/qt/remove_knotweed.htm
They seem to cover the gamut. I really hope you have some luck. How big is the patch with which you are dealing?
A bit more for you on Japanese Knotweed….
The Botanical Gardens is launching a programme called Eyes Across the Province:
* http://www.mun.ca/botgarden/plant_bio/Invasive_Alien_Species/eyes.php
which is a study of the dispersal of invasive alien species:
* http://www.mun.ca/botgarden/plant_bio/Invasive_Alien_Species/
* http://www.mun.ca/botgarden/plant_bio/Invasive_Alien_Species/posters.php
of which Japanese Knotweed is one:
(pdf file)
* http://www.mun.ca/botgarden/plant_bio/Invasive_Alien_Species/WANTED_Japanese_knotweed.pdf
I’m willing to bet that they would have some information for you on eradication.
Caesar’s brother looks like siberian iris (Iris sanguinea) reference: http://www.badbear.com/signa/signa.pl?Iris-sanguinea – and the lily is Lollipop (Asiatic) reference: http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/BLILO.html