Hello!
Fight the war one battle at a time! Decide what bugs you the most and tackle only that, ignoring everything else. Then when you have a small amount of satisfaction over taking charge of one corner or one horrible type of plant, decide what to "KILL" next. I wish you luck, and maybe some good neighborhood kids might lend a hand to make a few bucks during the summer, even a few hours here and there, would at least have you feeling someone is there to lend a hand (your church or school guidance counselor are a good source for names).
For me, the area(s) that are most visible to me would be what I would tackle first such as near the driveway or the doorway most used.
Congratulations on your new home. Everything is always a work in progress in my home/yard!
Susan

This is manageable! You can do this!

Re: the knotweed. My strategy for management in my yard is to pull every shoot I see 1x/wk and bag it in plastic. I can't get the roots out, but I am exhausting the plant. The first year, it resprouted like crazy. The second year it resprouted less. This year it is sparse. I am sure this will take several more years, but I have the time! O -- also, in the fall, I paint remaining shoots with round up. I've heard fall is the best time for this as it is when the plant is pulling resources back down into its roots.

I'd pull the poison ivy too. I think it fights back less.

With bittersweet...I know you can get more of the root, but it sounds like it is woven thru mature plants so digging will be tough. I wonder if the same exhaustion strategy will work?

Looking forward to hearing more advice from others and then to hearing about your success.

Good luck!

In the fall, apply round-up with a paint brush to every leaf and stem on the

I'd probably pull the poison ivy first, myself, largely because I really dislike running the risk of a rash if I'm not paying enough attention.

So sorry that your yard is overwhelming you! I'd offer to come help (andover, ma isn't that far from me, presuming that's the andover in question), but we have a new yard, too. It's in good shape, but being my first yard, I'm still learning a lot!

You might have a local garden club to join whose members might be willing to help, too. (if you are in andover, ma see the link below)

Here is a link that might be useful: Andover, MA has three active garden clubs

Hi Froofycat, yes it is manageable and you don't have to spend all your time doing it, but eradicating invasive plants is a lot of work. It's a worthwhile effort however and it is commendable that you are conscious of this problem!

I feel your pain, as I am an organic gardener who has taken to using herbicides to control certain invasive plants. I have a 1.25 acre lot that was completely overgrown as the previous owner let it overgrow for over 30 years. I had no idea when I moved here 8 years ago, but as plant after plant was ID'd, my heart sank. Bittersweet, Buckthorn, Norway maples galore ($2K so far to remove them), Multiflora rose, Honeysuckles, etc. There is still some work left to do, mostly in back 1/4 of the lot.

Oriental Bittersweet - I had many vines growing here, the largest being 3-4 inches diameter. The previous owner told me she threw out the Xmas decoration decades ago and watched the vine climb an Oak tree. Thus the invasion began. I wage war on this vine and regularly cut it at the recreation area across the street, the neighboring school and woods, and my neighbor's lot (with his permission).

For seedlings and small vines, I usually pull. For large vines I cut at the base and quickly apply concentrated brush killer to the stump using a squeeze bottle. This will prevent resprouting from the base of many woody invasives. You don't need much herbicide for this, it doesn't require special gear (other than gloves).

After cutting the large vines, I usually leave them to rot in place. After a few years, they fall from the trees, or you can pull them out. Some of the vines I pull off smaller trees or plantings. The trimmings get burned! I consider it controlled if all the fruiting vines are cut and work on removing it constantly. (Seedlings sprout up but they are much less.)

Knotweed - this I don't have but similar to what Mayalena describes, my sister successfully killed a patch off by cutting it down, and continually removing the green shoots (over several years) until it crapped out.

Consider using Roundup for the more herbaceous invasives, like Loosestrife, Poison Ivy, Garlic Mustard, Ranunculus repens, etc.

thanks for the encouragement!

I went and bought some RoundUp poison ivy spray to get started on that first with a ready to use bottle.

Then I got a small bottle of Triclopyr 8% for vine stumps. Then I got a small bottle of Glyphosate 18% to mix and spray. The small bottles are way cheaper than the premixed and I figure I'll need stronger than the premixed (1 or 2%) anyway. Roundup sells a Glyphosate as high as 53% - but the bottle was huge! I guess I am optimistic that I won't use that much in a season and I'd like to give as little of my money to Monsanto Corp as possible.

So far I have a bunch of vine clippings in a large plastic garbage can and then a bunch spread out on the driveway. Some of what I was cutting might be Buckthorn too. And yes, there is honeysuckle too. I'd love to ask the neighbors if I can work on their side of the fence - vines and norway maples. But they seem like the past owner here - using a lawn service that doesn't recognize any of these plants anyway and throws all the clippings in the woods behind the house. In fact, those lawn services probably help the spread of weeds with their equipment all over town.

In fact, those lawn services probably help the spread of weeds with their equipment all over town.

LOL, Years ago I had a fungal problem on my lawn I believe it was red thread which is as contagious as the common cold. It took a couple of dry summers, fungicide, and cutting the lawn high (much to Joe's dismay) to finally get rid of it. The following summer I tried to hiring a reputable landscapers lawn crew to do my lawn (this lasted 2 weeks). I was hyper-virulent about their mowers being disinfected which they said was something they did as a matter of course. I do however wonder if this is a common practice.

Over the years I have had the same concern with house cleaners using their own vacuums and not changing the possible flea filled bag between homes.

A big hello to Mayalena. How did your landscape project along your driveway turn out? Are you still chasing rainbarrels?

Welcome, FroofyCat! I live not far from Andover, in Chelmsford. I can sympathize with the feeling of being overwhelmed by invasive flora. When we bought our house, there were bittersweet and multiflora roses climbing up nearly every big evergreen, and poison ivy thriving at the edge of the lawn. Rome wasn't built in a day--focus first, I'd say, on controlling the edges of whatever lawn you have. My priority was beating back the poison ivy (I don't even try to pull it, personally, because I am so horribly allergic); I like the sprays that leave foam where they land so you know you've covered the leaves, and walk around every spring to spot where birds have "seeded." "Tecnu" is the brand name of both a protectant lotion to apply beforehand and a soap to use after possible exposure; I recommend them if you will be working anywhere it could be growing. I check under big trees for sprouting bittersweet, another plant seeded by birds, and pull them when small. I deal with big vines the ways others have mentioned--cut, herbicide to the open stump, let rot.

I researched Japanese knotweed a couple of years ago when I realized I had a small grove (about 10x15 ft!) developing. It is very persistent ("Godzilla" was invoked!). According to other GardenWeb posters, it was most sensitive to Roundup or the chemical equivalent, poured into the hollow stems after the plants are cut off at the base. It was then recommended to cover the area with sturdy tarps for several years, "stomping" on the plants trying to come up underneath. I have a few shoots that come up beyond the original area treated every year, and give them the cut and herbicide treatment unless they are in the lawn, in which case the DH can mow, over them weekly. The advantage of the tarps is just that I can avoid using so much herbicide year after year, after the initial treatment. I would just throw bark mulch over it, except that I would like to grow SOMETHING there, eventually, and planting through groundcloth is a real PITA:). Good luck!

I can sympathize as I have tons of woody invasives, especially buckthorn, along with invasive vine and shrub honeysuckles and bitterweet. I also have lots of poison ivy which I eradicate where I will be near it, but let it go in areas I seldom am. (We have an old farm, so I don't expect to finish this task in my lifetime, but I would like to get things enough under control so that they aren't getting worse.) I have found that in wet weather like this, a sturdy pair of adjustable pliers is a great tool for ripping out buckthorn, barberry, multiflora rose, shrubby honeysuckles. Often I can rip out a buckthorn as tall as I am if things are soggy enough. Then I stamp the ground back down. The pliers save my hands and ripping things out reduces both my herbicide use and my resprout rate.

hmmm... so maybe with all the rain we just had I should try to dig up the knotweed. it's a really small stand - for now. It's about as tall as me now too. On mother's day it was only about 2 feet tall. Maybe I should have dug it up then?

I was going to wait till the rain stops and spray the heck out of it.

I figured the roots will still be there and viable even if I dig a lot. But I thought the spraying might be more likely to kill it. Overwhelming! I guess I can dig, if it grows back more, spray, and repeat next year.

I feel your pain. We bought our house 4 years ago. In January. So also didn't know what condition the yard was in. Since then, I have been battling poison ivy, multiflora rose, oriental bittersweet, cat tails, purple loosestrife, buckthorn, garlic mustard. Which is probably why I don't care that much about all the weeds in my lawn - clover, violets, buttercups, indian paint brush, shepherds purse, etc - I just go after the dandelions and wild plantain.

When I decided to tackle all these invasive, I decided it was going to have to be a 5 year plan. In my case, I started with one side of my property - tore out all the brush, sprayed thee dickens out of the poison ivy, then planted what I wanted. Year 2, I would go out on a regular basis, spray any new poison ivy appearing, and yank any new shoots coming up. It is now year 4 for that side - no more poison ivy, though I still get a few bittersweet shoots showing up. It is very manageable.

I've also had a skating pond to deal with - which was slowly becoming a swamp. So reclaiming that ended up at the top of the list. I'm happy to say that it is now a nice pond, and I'm about half way done with the plantings around it. Hopefully we will get a little dock built for it this summer.

I just finished clearing the back of the property this spring, so I've been on weekly poison ivy sprays. I should finish getting it raked out this summer, which means I can start some planting this fall, and finish the planting next Spring.

My biggest advice is to admit to yourself that this is going to take a couple years. And then decide what is your highest priority. And just do as much as you can.