Got rid of 8 Japanese yews, 3 burning bushes and a patch of orange day-lilies. I think I’m gonna solarize with a layer of cardboard with tarp on top for a few weeks then remove the tarp put a layer of mulch then soil then mulch to make sure these invasive plants don’t come back up especially the lilies ( I’m not entirely sure if the cardboard, mulch, soil, mulch is an effective method but I’d think so). Also does anyone have a good method of getting tiny rocks out of a plot without it being tedious or am I just gonna have to rake them and pick them up.
by HermesLyre2
20 Comments
Are you located in the USA? Fine to get rid of the non-native plants but what about the non-native car? If you are going to be a purist to the extent of yanking up all your shrubbery then you need to get rid of the 928, too.
What’s the soil going to do?
Get some 2x4s and hardware cloth and build a sifter for soil
I’m also battling day lilies and landscaping rocks. I’ve been removing the rocks in patches before I dig the lilies which is incredibly tedious, but at least they’re not mixed into the soil haha. In your case I’d just leave them and remove them in patches as needed when you plant things!
These photos are why people don’t like native plant purists.
You ripped out a bunch of yews that aren’t native, but also aren’t invasive. You do know that many native bird species will build nests inside a Japanese yew?
Cardboard mulch method works. I did a similar project in my front/side yard. I wouldn’t bother adding soil or moving the rocks personally.
You sound like you had the same previous owner as me. Good luck! I wet cardboard and then covered it with mulch from chip drop. It’s pretty good, tho we’ve got goutweed that just will not die. For those tiny rocks, start from the edge and dig the whole are out. Use a sieve (we used an old window screen that we reinforced with a wood frame but I’d bet there are better options) and get the rocks out that way. That’s also a good way to get rhizome roots out. I don’t know about you, but just trying to dig was nearly impossible. The day lilies were in a bed I got rid of and replaced with some native grass seed, yarrow, and buffalo clover. I’ve been mowing it and they are gone.
Those orange daylillies are beasts! I yanked out a couple last fall and let them dry on a log near the compost.
They sprouted this spring.
Japanese yews are non invasive (non native) but still not bad to have for curb appeal especially that they are evergreens
There is a big Japanese yew tree in my backyard, I can see it through my WFH window and there is so much bird activity in it. What are you planning to replace them with eventually? Hopefully there were no active nests in them (although you’d probably know!)
The tiny rocks are sent straight from Hell. I have them all over too
Been there! Removed a ton of day lillies, Asiatic lillies, yew, and burning bush form my yard. A few things:
– solarziing with tarp is great! No need to do tarp AND cardboard to eradicate though. I find tarp or other semi transparent plastic works great to solarize for 8-12 weeks, if you can, ideally when hot and sunny.
– when you go to plant stuff, lay down cardboard, cut holes in it for your plants, plant there, and lay down 3″+ of mulch around the plants and on top of the cardboard. The solarization works great to kill, then the card oard mulch suppresses anything left in the seedback while your natives get established. TRUST ME, the natives will push through 😉
– every time you walk around and look at your plants, keep your eyes open for tiny little baby vestiges of these beasts. You may see some trying to come back, and just pull/dig them right up. 1-3 years they will be totally gone 🙂 weeding is best done in small steps when you are walking around/enjoying the yard. Just take the time to do like 5 mins of checking each time you go by.
Good luck!
I don’t think anyone has addressed it yet, but you can’t solarize something with cardboard on top blocking light and heat. I think it would probably be fine to just skip to using cardboard and then putting mulch on top. You don’t need to put soil on top either.
Re: rocks
I’ve been on that journey for the past month. At the end of last summer I dig up 3 Japanese yews and a burning bush myself – roots and all. Can’t imagine doing 8(!)
Anyway. The previous owner of our house put in *so much* landscaping rock. To get rid of it I dig out a section onto a compost sifter, sift the dirt though (I also put a tarp under the sifter so I can move the dirt easier), and dump the remaining rocks out. To be clear – there’s still some rock left but my buddy who owns a native plant shop says that won’t hinder plants or shrubs from growing. It’s slow progress but I’m able to plant some stuff now.
Gods I LOVED doing that at my house!! So cathartic
Such a bizarre set of responses on this thread that I had to check what sub I was in.
Yew Crew rise up, I guess
OP, can’t imagine the level of work this was, fucking kudos to you. I’d be wiped. Looking forward to seeing what you do with this clean slate! Wish I had tips for the decorative rock; I’m pulling dense, compacted pea gravel mixed with clay out of one of my beds & it’s annoying af & I swear it’s regenerating on its own bc there’s always more 🙄
Instead of winging it, do some research on best practices. You aren’t the first person ever to attempt this, and I can tell you with certainty that your idea of solarizing will be ineffective.
oof people are being really harsh on you here, in the native plant gardening community, for getting rid of non-native plants on your own property. (??)
I’ll go against the tide and say I disliked japanese yews for years before I got into native plant gardening. I think they have an unattractive form and they’re basically always planted somewhere really inconvenient by the previous owner / builder who didn’t google mature size. if you want a generic green evergreen shrub, at least you can hard prune back a holly to whatever size you need it to be and it’ll leaf out and look okay again in like 2 months. I would’ve gotten rid of them as well just for happiness in life
Thank you for the hard work 🫡
Extend that downspout out, can see where it’s just draining right into your foundation.
Love the updates