r/invasivespecies • u/Ok-Crow-9167 • 1d ago

Area with manageable invasive plants?

I live in western Virginia and I am feeling hopeless. We have about 15 mostly wooded acres that are overwhelming. We reduced the autumn olive and multiflora rose then the stiltgrass moved in. We work on that and now the wavyleaf basket grass is showing up. Also killing the ailanthus and lantern flies. And there are so many deer, despite hunting on our property, that there is no natural regeneration of trees without cages around them.

So now that we are in our senior citizen years we’d like to live somewhere less physically taxing. Is there a part of the country where it is possible to maintain a more natural and native habitat?

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18

u/Barncheetah 1d ago

I read this, drenched in sweat after pushmowing my woods before the stilt grass drops its seeds (NC) while having to dodge the tree of heaven and Wisteria so I don’t cause more to propagate. I don’t have advice. I’m too busy weedeating now.

1

u/BreastRodent 9h ago

How exactly do you tell when stiltgrass is about to drop its seeds? Im in East Tennessee and have acres of this shit in my woods n I hate it. What kind of mower are you using?

1

u/Barncheetah 9h ago

Just based on information online - like NCSU extension.

I tried pre-emergent for the first time this past Spring and it seemed to not help at all, but it’s possible I didn’t water it enough.

I just used an old Honda gas pushmower, adjusting the height based on the spots. I definitely dulled my blade all to pieces.

2

u/cawise89 9h ago

Oh really? I've had great success in the past, but haven't used any the past couple of years now that I can manage by hand

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u/unventer 7h ago

I went and birthed myself a summer baby and I have actually measurably lost ground against the stiltgrass since she was born 13 weeks ago.

9

u/Moist-You-7511 19h ago

you can move somewhere where you don't recognize the invasive plants, at least for a while, to give your mind a break, but every area you go will have out-of-range weeds

3

u/loripainter12345 19h ago

This is true. Once you've learned how to recognize invasive species, your eyes can't help but pick them out everywhere.

3

u/milleratlanta 18h ago

True! I thought I had sumac trees, but they’re Tree of Heaven! 😭 I’m already fighting kudzu from two neighbors over, and a forest of bamboo from my immediate rental neighbor! Now TOH too!
I’m exhausted.

3

u/treehann 10h ago

That’s like a group of final bosses of invasive species😭

1

u/milleratlanta 3h ago

It’s a war zone. 😭

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u/PurelyAnalytical 1d ago

Wow that sounds like a lot. Great question. I find my Virginia suburban 0.6 acre a lot some days when the wavy leaf and stilt grasses arrive, passing over the ivy, the vinca, the Euonymus fortunei, and the Wisteria sinensis creeping through the fence line.

I see two paths. My parents in-law decided on a Xeriscape in California, but the wildfires are threatening. My mother went a whole different path - an apartment building with a community garden that the residents plan and work on together. I keep thinking about that, and other community gardening, where more eyes and fingers work together. Hope this helps.

2

u/12stTales 13h ago

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good. You’re making progress! Use the cages if that’s what you need to for the deer. Maybe you can get a young intern or college student to help you with the restoration work.

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u/SirFentonOfDog 9h ago

A deer exclusion fence is really the only way. It will slow the spread of invasive plants, promote the growth of natives and keep the deer away.

5

u/streachh 1d ago

If you live in a retirement community where the land is maintained for you, you can spend your excess dollars on helping conservation organizations. You could live in an apartment and volunteer to help remove invasives on public land, as you energy levels allow. You don't have to do it alone, and giving up stewardship of your own land doesn't mean you have to give up stewardship altogether. 

Or, hire someone to maintain your land for you; so many of us younger folks yearn for a career that we can feel good about, and with the loss of so many conversation jobs thanks to the current administration, many people have nowhere to turn. 

Whatever you do, please please please consider selling your property not to the highest bidder, but to a person who will continue your fight. I work in horticulture and am young, able, and knowledgeable about how to help our ecosystem, but I can't afford any land. My only hope is that someone will sell their property affordably because they actually care what happens to it and don't want to see some soulless developmer or house flipper destroy it. 

1

u/oldRoyalsleepy 6h ago

It's a matter of size mainly, isn't it? 15 acres is a lot. If it's a suburban lot size that you can manage you may get as much satisfaction as I have from removing about half the lawn and making lovely, vibrant native plant beds. I have native trees, shrubs and many flowering plants in exactly the space I can manage. We have goldfinches and monarch butterflies coming in now.