Hi. I'm a relatively new homeowner in the Birmingham area, and I'm attempting to establish a garden made up mostly of native plants. This means that I have been trying to control and eliminate the exotics.

Normally, I'm dead set against herbicides, but we have shrub honeysuckle, Chinese privet, althea, English ivy, and a bad sleepydick infestation.

We pulled the ivy, and I'll treat that selectively by painting whatever foliage comes back with herbicide. I've been cutting everything else and painting the cut stumps. I'm looking for highly localized effects here, without much collateral damage.

The sleepydick has been giving me absolute fits. I've pulled it until I'm blue in the face, attempting to get all the bulbs I can out with a trowel. But it's been no use. So today, I went out with a nasty herbicide (Groundclear concentrate, a mix of glyphosate and imazapyr), and tried to paintbrush it selectively on the foliage. I'm not worried about the fact that stuff will kill all herbaceous foliage for a year. We haven't planted much I want to keep in those areas.

I did not spray at all.

But I got carried away, I think. I looked up after I was done, and realized I had been painting away well within the dripline of a giant old southern red oak, my favorite tree in the yard, including a patch or two right next to the trunk.

Now I'm absolutely terrified that I have killed this great old tree. Am I being paranoid? Irrational? Will the bark protect it from the worst of the assault adjacent to it? There are no surface roots nearby. I should know. I tilled the soil last year to a depth of 10-12 inches.

I just don't know what the heck I'm doing, and I could kick myself right now. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.