Zone 7b
We recently bought a house with a great backyard. I have ambitions for creating a nice native garden in the back. But when we moved in the first thing I noticed was how overrun the boundary of the property was with what looked like one species of plant.
After some research I think it is an invasive honeysuckle.
My plan is to cut them all down close to the ground, dab the stump with glyphosate and then cover the area with mulch.
My question is with what and how should I restore the area to native plants? I'm not looking to make it ornamental or manicured, I'd like it to more closely represent a healthy natural forest boundary.
Appreciate any advice.
by downup25
7 Comments
definitely garbage bullshit trash honeysuckle, but fortunately it doesn’t look that dense. your removal plan sounds solid. i personally prefer prying them out of the ground but these look to be at the age where that’s not always possible lol.
prying them out has the benefit of producing a perfect little planting hole for whatever new shrub you want to put there. i do a direct replacement with Smooth Sumac this way
First understand what is honey suckle there. Remove it without spraying glyphosate on the honeysuckle for removal. A lot of people recommend using glyphosate to remove the roots of honeysuckle. Those people don’t know (or believe) the empirical evidence about glyphosate causing cancer and destroying soil health for generations to come. Had to give my 2 cents. First step get rid of the honeysuckle. Don’t use glyphosate.
Someone posted on here that covering the stump of the honeysuckle with black plastic (or a turned over bucket) blocks out the sun and kills them.
Since you probably aren’t removing the trees, I’d look at edge land underbrush/native plants to replace once you have the honeysuckle cut & stump treated. Elderberry, maple leaf viburnum, hazelnut, spice bush, and some smaller stuff like coneflowers or rudbeckia would be how I’d do it in Ohio, not sure if their ranges extend down to you in TN. I know the appalachians can have some nice understory magnolias & azaeleas that look gorgeous, maybe do some looking to see if your area can support them?
Following
Either rip out all the honeysuckle and be cognizant that it’ll grow back from the roots, or cut it all down to like 3ft and paint eh stumps with glyphosate solution, remove in spring once it’s apparent they’re all dead.
Keep cutting back the bush honeysuckle and any other bushy non-natives you encounter (we had a lot of privet, which expands swiftly). If you’re inclined to use chemicals you can mix glyphosate (Roundup) and tryclopyr (Garlon). An online search will turn up several native plant nurseries in TN and I’ve used Growing Wild nursery for mail order plants (they were all received very well packed and all were transplanted successfully).