Zen and the art of pulling weeds.
At least one of the Island’s four most-prevalent invasive weeds is likely to appear on any landowner’s property.
Himalayan blackberry is that shrubby mass of canes taking advantage of a derelict fenceline or other property feature left unattended for long.
Scotch broom is the deep-green, wiry upright shrub with yellow flowers that likes to colonize any field or ditch that hasn’t been mowed.
English ivy is the well-known escapee from gardens and yards that loves to spread across the ground, smother native plants, and climb native trees, potentially killing them.
English holly is another easily identified runaway that often grows into an understory shrub or small tree in native forests, its seeds spread by birds eating the holly’s bright-red berries that contain them.
Controlling these weeds can seem daunting, especially in areas of high infestation. But, like many things, it becomes doable if the control work is considered more a marathon than a sprint. Though full eradication of the invasives is the platonic ideal here, management is probably what’s, in fact, possible, especially given the perennial re-infestation of your property from adjacent areas. (Birds will carry holly seeds for miles.)
A landowner may be tempted to use herbicides like the ubiquitous glyphosate (the main ingredient in Roundup) to gain control, especially when facing a wall of blackberry canes taller than you are. But mechanical removal is safer, saner, and not as hard as it seems.
The best method of control is to pull or dig out the entire plant. Weed wrenches work well on Scotch broom. A field of broom can be leveled in no time using a wrench. (The Vashon Tool Library has these in stock if you prefer to borrow rather than buy.) Ivy and holly need to be dug; a mattock works best on them if the plants are small. Larger holly plants—the ones resembling small trees—can be cut down but will re-sprout unless the roots are also grubbed out. A tractor or excavator may be required to dig really large specimens.
If ivy has climbed a tree, the vines can be cut at the ground level to rid the tree of its chokehold. Roots still need to be dug out, though, or they will likely re-sprout.
The best way to address overwhelming patches of blackberry is to cut the canes into two-foot sections with hedge trimmers or loppers so that the resulting pieces fall to the ground and allow you to step on them rather than get tangled up in them. Once the leaves on these pieces have died, you can go into the former blackberry stand and grub out the relatively easy-to-dig roots using a mattock.
Again, the realistic goal here is control rather than total eradication. Weed management is with us to stay. But once you accept its forever nature, the practice proves weirdly satisfying.
