So I know we love jewelweed, and I’m pro native gardening (and I also enjoy the wild look to a point), but it’s literally taking over my backyard, and behind it is unfortunately a whole bunch of Japanese knotweed.. my question is: what’s the move here? I can’t have my whole yard completely covered in jewelweed (it’s a very small lot) bc there’s no way to even go back there right now, but I also want to encourage that to maybe discourage the knotweed (if that’s even a thing).. any advice would be helpful!! I’m in an urban area in Connecticut if that helps!
by iamhyphenated
24 Comments
You could use a weed whacker to make paths in it. I am fairly certain it’s aggressive enough to tolerate some heavy trimming.
You could weed whack as another commenter suggested. You could also lay down stepping stones that allow you to access more of the lot (ideally for further gardening 😈). Even 5-10 dinner plate sized stones would help! I don’t know about your area, but in my backyard the stones double as habitat for salamanders, snakes, beetles, etc. You might be able to find stones for free on FB Marketplace:)
It’s an incredible year for these in my yard, too. It’s even growing like this in full freaking sunlight, not usual to say the least.
Jewelweed is really easy to pull. Just start pulling in a path like design and work your way through.
ans it appears so is tree of heaven.
do you have a positive ID on those trees in the background with the compound leaf?
it hard to tell, to me it looks like some have terminal leaflet and some don’t, but with how agreesively its popping up my thought is that it is invasive tree of heaven.
if so this is the best resource for removal
https://extension.psu.edu/tree-of-heaven
I think it’s the jewelweed’s house now. Sorry. 😂
pot some and sell on fb marketplace, people love jewelweed
Do you have an ID on the trees in the back? Because if it’s Tree of Heaven you’ll definitely want to remove those properly (don’t just hack it because they will pop up EVERYWHERE as a survival method)
Put down large pavers and you’ll barely have to weed, Lay them level with the soil soil you can mow over them if you want
My yard gets like this too, just string trim paths through it, could pot some up to sell or give away. I do not advise pulling them when they get taller than one foot as it will also remove a big chunk of soil. I say this as someone who is a professional plant puller lol.
Oof
*tree of heaven has entered the chat*
Smooth leaf margins, smooth bark = not sumac
The jewelweed will not stop the knotweed unfortunately. The jewelweed is also super easy to pull up so you can create paths where you need to in your yard and it will not change its ability to come back next year.
Here I am with Knotweed and this person has to worry about jewel weed..
Jesus, you’re practically starring in The Ruins. Can you see it grow?
Meanwhile I’ve been trying to get it to establish in my yard for years 😂
You are truly blursed, OP. I just got my first plant and I’m hoping to get it to seed to replicate exactly this look on a trail project I’m working on.
I’m jealous, but also glad it’s not my yard!
That’s 100% tree of heaven. 😣
I’d not worry *at all* about the jewelweed situation until I had the Japanese Knotweed and Tree of Heaven are completely eradicated. Like, the jewelweed being a bit overgrown is not even the slightest issue compared with those.
I’d go over to r/invasivespecies and ask for the recommended methods for dealing with JKR and ToH. They are both species where using the wrong method (and most methods are wrong) can make the problem much worse, so trust the experts on how to handle them. For example, cutting back JKR, or trying to treat it at the wrong time, can cause it to explode in aggressiveness.
Sorry to tell you but not only do you have JKW, but you also have ToH :((
Wow, that is insane amount of tree of heaven. You will definitely want to take care of those sooner than later, because they grow FAST but seem to also be very brittle. My neighbor has a huge one in their backyard and half the thing came down in a storm last year. Not something you want by your house / deck
Edit: assuming they are ToH anyway. But growing that densely with more popping up I imagine that’s what they are
I mean…you are allowed to cut a path.
I’ve heard jewelweed resists & fights invasives. I love seeing its gracious appearance holding back the throngs of oriental bittersweet next door.
Im more worried about all those trees of heaven… unless im dumb and its sumac.
Also in Connecticut. Tree of heaven is the preferred host for the newly arrived Lanternfly.
Time to destroy that before it starts shooting up — it grows very tall very fast and smells bad when burned.