September 18, 2018 – Kudzu eradication started September 11, 2018
I
have a growing problem – yes growing - as in Kudzu. They say “Kudzu ate the South” and I agree
with that statement. I failed at cutting
it back completely last year and this year with all the rain it is extremely
aggressive. I had every intention of getting it under control when my Hamstring
pull shelved that idea. I am healed now
and the situation is worse than I first wanted to admit. It is ghastly as the below pictures attest.
I
have a back property line measuring 313 feet which borders a KUDZU patch. Twenty years ago, there wasn’t a 100% cover of
Kudzu on my neighbor’s property and whatever decided to grow over my line I
could keep it in check every few years by pulling it back to the property line
and chopping it off.
But,
then one year, my neighbor bush hogged along
3/4th of the mutual property line and his Kudzu growth simply
exploded. I have been terrorized for
years now by his fast growing lush green vine that I find has no redeeming
qualities.
I do
my best pulling the vines down from my sugar maple trees – I’ve a couple dozen
I planted along that property line the first few years we lived here and my
neighbor’s Kudzu climbs on his various vegetation and then it leaps into the air
and grabs ahold of my maple trees. Turn
your back on it and two weeks later – the vine is 20 feet up a tree on a vine
that is a thick as a women’s wrist.
It
is a tug of war. You can literally grab
the vine and hold on and lift yourself off the ground and it doesn’t come down
out of the trees. I’ve a picture of my
hand on a vine that is now attached to one of my maples and I’ve tried to pull
it from that tree with all my weight with no luck.
Sunday I walked the
property line and noticed it is almost 40 feet deep in one section from property
line to my lawn – forty feet of Kudzu both vertically and horizontally. I figure I’ve lost one-fourth of an acre of
my land to my neighbor’s invasive Kudzu.
Stolen
from me – unusable to me – looks dreadful – has decreased my land value . . .
need I say more? I simply couldn’t stand it any longer and I made the
decision. Work at it every day for 3 or
4 hours and eventually it will get done.
It
is hard work and I had a choice of three methods to eradicate it:
Rent goats that would nibble it down to
the ground.
Herbicides – would cost me a fortune and I
really don’t like using chemicals on my land. Besides – it would kill
everything under the Kudzu and probably not make a dent in the Kudzu. Even if the vines were dead, I’d have to
remove it to get to the bare ground in order to reclaim my property.
Or, Manually eradicate it. YUP I can do that – a lot of work – but I’m
retired and I enjoy working out in the yard especially when I am reclaiming 1/4th
of an acre of my land. It is green now,
will be easier to cut than when it is frosted and dries and the vines become hard.
First
thing Tuesday morning I took my coffee cup, clippers and a chair down to the worst section. My objective was to eradicate
the Kudzu vine from the edge of the lawn to the area behind the tree that you
see in the photo. I have Napoleon
Cyclamen’s planted there and like clockwork they bloom every September. I wanted to see them and I couldn’t even walk
into where they were as the Kudzu was chest high. Area before I started:
I
worked half a day Monday, and never did get to my Cyclamen’s. I made it to the tree and hardly made a
walking path to my property line post to the right of the tree. Property line glimpse - notice my neighbors Kudzu.
Day one progress below:
Day
two, I cleared it to the right of the tree and to the property line then turned
toward the Cyclamen patch and made it through that and then further to the
East. I can see progress. Yes, the Cyclamen’s show signs of possibly
blooming soon. I don’t think they appreciated being in the almost total shade
all year. Day two progress:
This
project will take some time – little bit every day for many, many days is the
theory I am using.
I once saw an old
movie - I don’t remember the title or any of the actors in it, but the Japanese or
Chinese closed a harbor by fisherman rowing out daily and dropping large rocks
over the side of the boats near the entrance until one day – they’d achieved an
underwater barrier that thwarted a ship coming into the harbor.
That
old movie gave me the idea and courage to tackle this one-quarter of an acre of
Kudzu.
Below are links to a wonderful website article(s) on how to eradicate Kudzu being done by a group in
Spartanburg, South Carolina – which is about 45 minutes south of my home. I will be using the Kudzu Chop method to get
the crowns out. I will keep you posted
on my progress.
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