Red Rosa rugosa bloomed yesterday afternoon, despite the rain, but today's phenology topic is poison ivy. Back in the autumn of 2010 I promised e-friend Melissa Lawson an article about Green ways to get rid of poison ivy. The article was planned for release on Yahoo next spring, but in the spring of 2011 Yahoo e-killed me. Now that poison ivy is raising its beautiful, treacherous head again, here are five Green things to do about it:
1. If you're not super-sensitive to the poison, put on jeans that tuck into your boots and a shirt with sleeves that tuck into your gloves, and rip out the plant. Great way to release aggressive urges. You can stamp on the long rhizomes to compact them and stuff them into an incinerator (just be sure nobody will breathe the smoke, which carries the irritating oil). Or dump them in the middle of a highway and watch trucks run over them.
2. If you don't actually mind having poison ivy in a certain defined place, but want to discourage it from spreading, pour hot water on it--the hotter the better. This does not affect the rhizomes from which the visible plants sprout, but will kill the visible leaves.
3. An effective natural weedkiller that harms only plants can be made by dissolving salt in vinegar and pouring this solution on the target plants. This won't kill poison ivy rhizomes, and may slow down the growth of other plants as well as poison ivy.
4. If you are super-sensitive to poison ivy and want it completely gone for a good long time, hire a less sensitive person to rip it out for you.
5. Or, if you want poison ivy and other plants that aren't grass removed from your lawn, let a goat graze there. Goats typically avoid grass in favor of other plants that other grazing animals won't eat, and they typically love poison ivy.
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