Quote Originally Posted by Maurice Mcmurry View Post
I doubt those were planted by anyone other than Mother Nature. Around here if you do not mow, trim, cultivate, or (heaven forbid) spray. you will soon be in the brush, followed by the woods.
Around here you will soon be in the thicket of evil imported/invasive species like bush honeysuckle and privet. When we bought this property some of the wooded areas had growth so thick under the big trees you literally couldn’t fight your way through them with a machete. There was privet outside the 2nd story window on the house and so overgrown that on the first visit I didn’t know there was a barn 30’ from the driveway!

I’ve declared war on these and some other species (especially alanthus trees, hard to kill but I have a secret weapon) on our 27 acres. Cutting the various nasties down is almost a waste of time - they will just get mad and come back stronger than ever. Best to pull them up by the roots. The 1’ bucket on the excavator with a thumb is perfect, I can target individual plants and leave the desirables alone. In the last few years I’ve cleared out maybe 3-4 acres, bush honeysuckle maybe 15’ high and wide, some privet at least 25’ tall and so thick it was almost dusk underneath. (The biggest diameter privet “tree” I ever found was about 8”, big enough to cut some into woodturning blanks. Oddly, the wood looks very much like dogwood, small dark heartwood, creamy white sapwood, fine-grained and very hard and dense.)

Bush honeysuckle, btw, inhibits the growth of other plants around it. I had large areas taken over by the bushes with nearly bare dirt beneath and between them. Not even good for bird nesting. Sure smells great in the spring, though!

Another challenge is bittersweet vine choking out native trees. My local forester puts it near the top of the kill list.

Fortunately we have no kudzu.

JKJ