I'm in the country. Over time, the periwinkle has taken over a large wooded slope, making it virtually unusable for walking, and it moves closer to my house by the year. Any suggestions for elimination would appreciated.
Thanks.
Hummingbear
07-05-2007, 11:13 PM
I'm in the country. Over time, the periwinkle has taken over a large wooded slope, making it virtually unusable for walking, and it moves closer to my house by the year. Any suggestions for elimination would appreciated.
Thanks.
We recently had our front yard landscaped, half of it had been covered with periwinkle. It all got rototilled, some new plants were installed, and the whole thing covered with about 4 inches of weed-resistant mulch. So far, the periwinkle has not returned.
However, before doing something drastic to a volunteer plant, I'd want to have a long conversation first with the local devas, to find out how they'd feel about it. We want a friendly relationship with our local ecosystem, in preference to the karma of perpetual meddling (because one intervention isn't likely to be the end of the story, unless it is done impeccably).
Hummingbear
Erika
07-06-2007, 12:33 AM
I'm in the country. Over time, the periwinkle has taken over a large wooded slope, making it virtually unusable for walking, and it moves closer to my house by the year. Any suggestions for elimination would appreciated.
Thanks.
I would love to take some of it off of your hands. I recently had to clear a hillside of dead scotch broom, etc. to clean up fire hazards and am now looking for something to plant to prevent soil erosion. I have actually purchased some Vinca fromthe store.
Call me at 632-5392 if you are interested.
Magick
07-06-2007, 11:41 AM
Here's Hoping ou will find a non-poisonous way to live with your neighbor the periwinkle. You may want to consider your use of the word invasive. It is what I call a "specist" word, encouraging prejudice, hatred and a desire to destroy.
You might want to think about who is invading who and how we could take the "war" language out of the dialog. If everyone tht doesn't want a certain living thing in a certin place decides to kill it and even worse poison it and the environment, the genicide i.e. Herbicide, Insecticide, rodenticide, etc.industry will continue to sell its product. to date we use 43 billion tons of genicidal materials a year in the US alone. I use the word genicide because pesticide is also prejudicial, no species should be categorized as a pest.
I of course believe you, as a part of nature, have an equal right to carve out a place for yourself in this world, please do it in a loving and conscientous way.
Sincerely and with respect, Magick
I'm in the country. Over time, the periwinkle has taken over a large wooded slope, making it virtually unusable for walking, and it moves closer to my house by the year. Any suggestions for elimination would appreciated.
Thanks.
Jonberger
07-06-2007, 08:55 PM
Periwinkle, also known as vinca minor, is a European ornamental plant that was introduced in the U.S. in the 1700's because it makes pretty flowers. If you don't like the word "invasive," then think of some other word that means "completely surrounds, destroys, chokes out, and kills all the native species that were there first and have a proper position in the ecosystem, and spreads faster than Orson Welles's butt," because that's what it does. It's incredibly destructive. It takes out entire swatches of forest by simply depriving any other close-to-the-ground plants of light and air. Oh, and by the way, that's not so nice for the animal species that were living in those close-to-the-ground plants. It's utterly appalling that they sell vinca in cute lil' six-packs at Costco as a ground cover; it should at least come with a warning label plastered with skulls and crossbones. Here's the writeup on it from invasive.org:
Personally, I happen to think that this is one species where the tradeoffs favor dosing it with Roundup. There are lots of things wrong with Roundup, but for my money, it's better for everyone concerned than vinca. However, we've found that it isn't necessary to go that far. Get yourself some large sheets of cardboard -- the boxes that big appliances like refrigerators and stoves come in work well. Get rid of any non-biodegradable stuff like packing tape. Whack the vinca back to the ground with a weed-whacker or your favorite low-carbon-footprint alternative; this won't even slow it down, but it will make your cardboard lie flat. Lay the cardboard down on the ground over the vinca, overlapping adjoining sheets by at least a foot. Cover that with about four inches of ground-wood mulch. Go away for about five years. When you come back, the rain will have turned the cardboard into wood pulp, the mulch will be decomposing nicely, and the vinca will be dead, because it was deprived of light and air for however long it took the cardboard to break down -- same thing it was trying to do to all the other plants, so serves it right.
This is the technique they use for controlling the capeweed (another highly destructive non-native species that someone thought looked pretty at one point) at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center. If it's organic enough for them, it's organic enough for me.
alphagrl
07-08-2007, 10:08 PM
Thank you! and not to mention all the nurseries that sell IVY, the companion plant of vinca. Ivy is El Diablo. Ban the further sale of ivy in sonoma county!
Thank you!
weary weeder.
QUOTE=Jonberger;32917]Periwinkle, also known as vinca minor, is a European ornamental plant that was introduced in the U.S. in the 1700's because it makes pretty flowers. If you don't like the word "invasive," then think of some other word that means "completely surrounds, destroys, chokes out, and kills all the native species that were there first and have a proper position in the ecosystem, and spreads faster than Orson Welles's butt," because that's what it does. It's incredibly destructive. It takes out entire swatches of forest by simply depriving any other close-to-the-ground plants of light and air. Oh, and by the way, that's not so nice for the animal species that were living in those close-to-the-ground plants. It's utterly appalling that they sell vinca in cute lil' six-packs at Costco as a ground cover; it should at least come with a warning label plastered with skulls and crossbones. Here's the writeup on it from invasive.org:
Personally, I happen to think that this is one species where the tradeoffs favor dosing it with Roundup. There are lots of things wrong with Roundup, but for my money, it's better for everyone concerned than vinca. However, we've found that it isn't necessary to go that far. Get yourself some large sheets of cardboard -- the boxes that big appliances like refrigerators and stoves come in work well. Get rid of any non-biodegradable stuff like packing tape. Whack the vinca back to the ground with a weed-whacker or your favorite low-carbon-footprint alternative; this won't even slow it down, but it will make your cardboard lie flat. Lay the cardboard down on the ground over the vinca, overlapping adjoining sheets by at least a foot. Cover that with about four inches of ground-wood mulch. Go away for about five years. When you come back, the rain will have turned the cardboard into wood pulp, the mulch will be decomposing nicely, and the vinca will be dead, because it was deprived of light and air for however long it took the cardboard to break down -- same thing it was trying to do to all the other plants, so serves it right.
This is the technique they use for controlling the capeweed (another highly destructive non-native species that someone thought looked pretty at one point) at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center. If it's organic enough for them, it's organic enough for me.[/QUOTE]