A Portland homeowner shared pictures from the front lines of their ongoing battle with a pesky foreign invader.
The snaps, posted to r/NativePlantGardening, showed the results of days spent manually removing invasive ivy from their yard.
"I spent the weekend hacking away at the ivy that was tearing apart my fence. What should I plant in its place?" the opening post asked.
The enemy combatant appears to be English ivy, a highly aggressive species first introduced to the United States in the late 1800s. Like other invasives, it spreads rapidly and outcompetes native plants. It can also harm trees by covering them and blocking out sunlight, causing them to decline and die slowly.
The only real remedy is manually removing the ivy at the root. Oregon State University recommends starting with ivy-free circles around trees and avoiding the temptation to add pulled-up ivy to compost.
The discussion shows how much of a pain dealing with invasive plants can be. To avoid all that rigmarole in the first place, rewild your yard with beautiful and helpful native plants instead of introduced ornamental flora. Similarly, upgrading to a natural lawn means using much less harmful chemicals and water than a dull grass lawn.
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The comments were a mix of empathy, sage advice, and some jokes about the situation in Portland.
"My yard looks like a battle zone, too, with all the creeping Charlie I'm trying to remove from, well, everywhere. My wrists already hurt, but the dent I made is still quite small … who knew that if you left those cute little plants alone, they'd replace everything! Well, now I know," said a commenter going through a similar ordeal.
"You've only just begun, unfortunately. You have to kill the root, either by pulling out or by cut/paint with an herbicide. It's an ordeal," one commenter advised.
With tongue firmly in cheek, a commenter said: "I wish the National Guard would come pull up the English Ivy that I'm constantly battling in my yard."
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