It is best to kill the poison ivy before planting. It is very resilient. Winter will not kill it. It has burried rhizomes that will run all over the place. They need to be starved. This can be done by poisoning any green shoots with roundup, or cutting off any new green growth. It will grow right through mulch.

Regarding the azaleas, you can plant them any time the ground is not frozen. If they come from a greenhouse or warmer climate where they have broken dormancy, then you must wait until after the last chance of frost.

I was hoping someone with more poison ivy experience would answer you - apparently it doesn't thrive in rainforest conditions, I've never seen it :)

I might just add that azaleas do best in soil that is very high in organic content (compost). You don't say what type soil you have, but if creating a new bed you'd have the perfect opportunity to work more into your soil. The coffee grounds are a good start, other components are available by the bag if you haven't made your own compost. i.e. the composted steer manure from Home Depot @ $1 per bag has been weed free and decomposed to the point of being odorless, seems to have an amount of well broken down wood chips in it too.

Once you've taken care of the poison ivy, if you do rototill, you might think about planting high to allow for settling of your 'fluffed up' soil....

Hi Morz8. If you recognize poison oak, you will recognize poison ivy. They look different but enough alike that you will pick it up. Poison ivy will climb trees. If you see an oak tree with a nice crop of white berries, it is poison ivy.

The roots are insidious, each little piece will start a new plant. That is the reason that rototilling doesn't help; it just makes it worse. It is almost as bad as bind weed. You have to either starve it or poison it.

Even the roots are poisonous. I used to pull poison ivy roots out when I planted Christmas trees. Some of the rhizomes went over 10 feet before they hit a plant. Of course I wore gloves and scrubbed and showered and prayed after doing that. Never, never burn it. The smoke will cause an alergic reaction in places you don't want it.

At the end of last season I did use Round Up on it. Also a friend of mine advised me to once it looked brownish to take a razor and scrape it where I could and also spray it with bleach so it would go down into the roots.. I also did that.. I don't think it will come back this year and if it does I'll be on top of it..

Yes if you burn it, It can even be fatal to some. It will go into your lungs and If it turns skin red and causes major discomfort imagine what it will do you lungs.

My other plan may be done simultaneously as the planting of the azalea's. I had a large tree stump in the center of my back yard from a tree that was apparently cut down years ago. The removal of it was one of the first things I did when I bought the house. Reason I mention this is because of it, I don't have a Flat yard. That and the fact that I have I'd say 1/4 of the yard with Zoysia grass and the other 3/4 you can call grass or weeds... What I was going to do with this is take the 1/4 that is Zoysia grass and remove it and 2 inches of ground under it and put it on my deck. (yes I know Keep it moist) then rototill the entire back yard and side yard (where the Azaleas will be)... Once I turn it all over, rent one of them 500 Lbs rollers from local Rental shop and drag it across the yard and flatten it. (Yes, I know slight slop away from house...) Once this is done if my wife hasn't killed me for making the largest mud pit I want to take the Zoysia and make plugs from it and spread them around to cover the back and side yards. Once the plugs are all in, I'll take some regular bluegrass seed and spread it over the rest. then finally cover it all with hay. My hopes are that with in 2 to 4 years to have the full back yard in Zoysia and most importantly Flat.

From what I've read Zoysia likes 20/20/20 does anyone here know where I can get some cheap?

Where are you located? Zoysia is considered a turf grass most suited for southern locations as it has a great deal of heat tolerance and very little cold tolerance. Generally, it doesn't fair very well in any area that gets real winters, which I imagine would include anywhere in zone 6. That might be a good reason why yours is looking so poorly.

And despite what you might have read, no turf grass needs a 20-20-20 fertiizer. Any slow release, high nitrogen lawn fertilizer will do the job handily - the excessive amounts of phosphorus and potassium in a 20-20-20 formulation are not utilized and will just leach into groundwater. Apply at 2# of nitrogen per 1000sf and don't fertilize until May.