Hi all,

hoping for advice from someone with a green thumb here... friend of
mine has a house that was vacant for a while before he bought it so all
the landscaping went to heck. One thing that still looks promising is
some thick hedges between his driveway and his neighbor's driveway. I
suspect that they are English boxwood but am not knowledgeable enough to
say for sure.) Unfortunately, there were all sorts of weeds and such
growing right up through them and choking them. Last fall he and I did
some serious weeding in there and literally removed a truckload of
undesirable plant matter as well as dead branches from the area, then
hit it again in the early spring, yielding much less mess.
Unfortunately, both times I broke out with what I believe now is a rash
caused by some nasty viney stuff... doesn't look like the poison ivy I'm
familiar with but now that it's late spring I can see it coming back
again and this time the new leaves are shiny making me hesitant to touch
it. There's some other stuff coming up in there as well that shouldn't
be there. The good news is that after all that work, the hedges
themselves are filling in nicely and I think after a couple years of
letting them grow and shaping them they will be back to their former
glory. Now that it's lawn-mowing season I've also been encouraging him
to toss his grass clippings under there to keep down any non-established
weeds, but apparently there's a few that we couldn't kill by
pulling/digging that keep coming back.

So the question. Now that we've done the heavy lifting, is there any
kind of herbicide that I could use that won't kill the boxwoods? I've
tried to pull everything that I could but apparently there are some
weeds with long-established, deep roots that might best be killed by
other methods.

Oddly, I've searched and found others asking similar questions, but not
getting any definitive answers. Is that because what I'm looking for
doesn't exist?

thanks,

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

On 5/12/2012 6:31 PM, Nate Nagel wrote:
....

So the question. Now that we've done the heavy lifting, is there any
kind of herbicide that I could use that won't kill the boxwoods? I've
tried to pull everything that I could but apparently there are some
weeds with long-established, deep roots that might best be killed by
other methods.
....

Not if you get it on the foliage of the boxwoods, no.

2,4-D or hyphosate (Roundup) if _carefully_ applied only to the leaves
of the undesirables won't hurt the boxwood as it won't be taken up
through the soil in enough concentration to hurt (as long as you don't
just drown stuff, anyway).

But there's no broadleaf herbicide that will get ivy or poison oak or
whatever it is you've got in there that won't also get the shrubs if
overspray.

Do not use anything that claims to be ground or root-acting; they'll be
the ones that are taken up through the soil and really hurt badly.

If careful you may burn a few leaves but likely will not do any
significant damage; there's so much foliage there that unless you really
cover a significant fraction of it the damage will be pretty well localized.

I'd still suggest actually identifying the weed species as well as the
shrub; contact a nursery or local county extension office and ask for
advice. Sight unseen diagnoses are risky despite generalities that are
so in general.

--

On 5/12/2012 7:31 PM, Nate Nagel wrote:
Hi all,

hoping for advice from someone with a green thumb here... friend of mine
has a house that was vacant for a while before he bought it so all the
landscaping went to heck. One thing that still looks promising is some
thick hedges between his driveway and his neighbor's driveway. I suspect
that they are English boxwood but am not knowledgeable enough to say for
sure.) Unfortunately, there were all sorts of weeds and such growing
right up through them and choking them. Last fall he and I did some
serious weeding in there and literally removed a truckload of
undesirable plant matter as well as dead branches from the area, then
hit it again in the early spring, yielding much less mess.
Unfortunately, both times I broke out with what I believe now is a rash
caused by some nasty viney stuff... doesn't look like the poison ivy I'm
familiar with but now that it's late spring I can see it coming back
again and this time the new leaves are shiny making me hesitant to touch
it. There's some other stuff coming up in there as well that shouldn't
be there. The good news is that after all that work, the hedges
themselves are filling in nicely and I think after a couple years of
letting them grow and shaping them they will be back to their former
glory. Now that it's lawn-mowing season I've also been encouraging him
to toss his grass clippings under there to keep down any non-established
weeds, but apparently there's a few that we couldn't kill by
pulling/digging that keep coming back.

So the question. Now that we've done the heavy lifting, is there any
kind of herbicide that I could use that won't kill the boxwoods? I've
tried to pull everything that I could but apparently there are some
weeds with long-established, deep roots that might best be killed by
other methods.

Oddly, I've searched and found others asking similar questions, but not
getting any definitive answers. Is that because what I'm looking for
doesn't exist?

thanks,

nate


I did the same kind of clean-up with hedges, but in Florida. One nasty,
nasty plant that got loose in Florida is asparagus fern. Not a fern,
and it is used a lot in planters and cemeteries. Got dense tuberous
roots, impossible to dig up. Pruned truckloads from the hedges, pulled
all the weeds that I could. Crawled on my belly to cut all the a.f.
down to the ground....when it sprouted a good little new growth I took
Roundup and a paintbrush to kill it. A couple of applications, but it
did the trick. Then mulch like mad...shredded leaves, if the owner has
a lot, are very good. Shredded cypress mulch was my favorite in
Florida. Grass clippings are also good, but don't last long.

Nate Nagel wrote:
Hi all,

hoping for advice from someone with a green thumb here... friend of
mine has a house that was vacant for a while before he bought it so
all the landscaping went to heck. One thing that still looks
promising is some thick hedges between his driveway and his
neighbor's driveway. I suspect that they are English boxwood but am
not knowledgeable enough to say for sure.) Unfortunately, there were
all sorts of weeds and such growing right up through them and choking
them. Last fall he and I did some serious weeding in there and
literally removed a truckload of undesirable plant matter as well as
dead branches from the area, then hit it again in the early spring,
yielding much less mess. Unfortunately, both times I broke out with
what I believe now is a rash caused by some nasty viney stuff...
doesn't look like the poison ivy I'm familiar with but now that it's
late spring I can see it coming back again and this time the new
leaves are shiny making me hesitant to touch it. There's some other
stuff coming up in there as well that shouldn't be there. The good
news is that after all that work, the hedges themselves are filling
in nicely and I think after a couple years of letting them grow and
shaping them they will be back to their former glory. Now that it's
lawn-mowing season I've also been encouraging him to toss his grass
clippings under there to keep down any non-established weeds, but
apparently there's a few that we couldn't kill by pulling/digging
that keep coming back.
So the question. Now that we've done the heavy lifting, is there any
kind of herbicide that I could use that won't kill the boxwoods? I've
tried to pull everything that I could but apparently there are some
weeds with long-established, deep roots that might best be killed by
other methods.

Oddly, I've searched and found others asking similar questions, but
not getting any definitive answers. Is that because what I'm looking
for doesn't exist?


I had some luck with blackberry in a laurel hedge using Roundup, by putting the
roundup (somewhat concentrated) into a flower tube (like a test tube) over the
cut end of the vine, and taping it in place with the vine bent to come into the
top so the liquid would stay put. Apparently, enough roundup was drawn back into
the plant to kill it.

If the vines grow faster than the hedge, you can use cardboard as a shield to
spray the vine and protect the hedge. The point would be to only get the roundup
on the "weed".

On Sat, 12 May 2012 19:31:03 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:

Check into Landscape Weed Control Fabric. Once installed, use mulch
to cover the material. Like a screen, porous and allows water to pass
into the ground.

http://www.preen.com/products/preen-landscape-weed-control-fabric

On 05/13/2012 12:32 PM, Oren wrote:
On Sat, 12 May 2012 19:31:03 -0400, Nate
wrote:

Check into Landscape Weed Control Fabric. Once installed, use mulch
to cover the material. Like a screen, porous and allows water to pass
into the ground.

http://www.preen.com/products/preen-landscape-weed-control-fabric

Thought of that, but the worst of this stuff is growing right up close
to the base of the plants we're trying to keep, hence my thinking about
chemical means. I might just pour some roundup into a mason jar and
crawl under there with an acid brush and try to get the leaves of the
offending plant life. I can't think of a better idea at the moment...

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

On Sun, 13 May 2012 13:00:07 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:

On 05/13/2012 12:32 PM, Oren wrote:
On Sat, 12 May 2012 19:31:03 -0400, Nate
wrote:

Check into Landscape Weed Control Fabric. Once installed, use mulch
to cover the material. Like a screen, porous and allows water to pass
into the ground.

http://www.preen.com/products/preen-landscape-weed-control-fabric

Thought of that, but the worst of this stuff is growing right up close
to the base of the plants we're trying to keep, hence my thinking about
chemical means. I might just pour some roundup into a mason jar and
crawl under there with an acid brush and try to get the leaves of the
offending plant life. I can't think of a better idea at the moment...

nate

Sounds like a project using a sponge brush (el-cheapo).

On 5/13/2012 10:51 AM, Oren wrote:
On Sun, 13 May 2012 13:00:07 -0400, Nate
wrote:

On 05/13/2012 12:32 PM, Oren wrote:
On Sat, 12 May 2012 19:31:03 -0400, Nate
wrote:

Check into Landscape Weed Control Fabric. Once installed, use mulch
to cover the material. Like a screen, porous and allows water to pass
into the ground.

http://www.preen.com/products/preen-landscape-weed-control-fabric

Thought of that, but the worst of this stuff is growing right up close
to the base of the plants we're trying to keep, hence my thinking about
chemical means. I might just pour some roundup into a mason jar and
crawl under there with an acid brush and try to get the leaves of the
offending plant life. I can't think of a better idea at the moment...

nate

Sounds like a project using a sponge brush (el-cheapo).

put on a couple nitrile gloves, then a cloth gardening glove. dampen the
gardening glove with roundup, then just handle the leaves with the gloves.

no overspray to go anywhere.

On 5/13/2012 12:00 PM, Nate Nagel wrote:
....

Thought of that, but the worst of this stuff is growing right up close
to the base of the plants we're trying to keep, hence my thinking about
chemical means. I might just pour some roundup into a mason jar and
crawl under there with an acid brush and try to get the leaves of the
offending plant life. I can't think of a better idea at the moment...
....

I on occasion will put some in a windex or similar type spray bottle w/
an adjustable nozzle so can control the stream for such purposes. Or,
buy a small quantity prepackaged that way primarily for the sprayer if
don't have one.

As long as you don't get large amounts of the desirable foliage you'll
be fine--it isn't picked up effectively on woody stems, etc., nor from
ground. And, unless what you're trying to save is something that is
_extremely_ sensitive (and I don't know about boxwood specifically as
it's been too long since had any) it won't hurt significantly if a few
leaves do get burnt back. But since you indicated you aren't even sure
if that's what it is I previously suggested you probably ought to get
the actual species identified if you're really concerned--that shouldn't
be hard to do at a local nursery and/or the county agent (repeating yet
again).

--

On May 12, 7:31*pm, Nate Nagel wrote:
is there any
kind of herbicide that I could use that won't kill the boxwoods?

First, the hedge make/model isn't important. Throw some plastic over
whatever you don't want to over-spray.

What you need to ID is the weeds to make sure whatever herbicide will
kill it.
-----

- gpsman

On May 12, 7:31*pm, Nate Nagel wrote:
Hi all,

hoping for advice from someone with a green thumb here... *friend of
mine has a house that was vacant for a while before he bought it so all
the landscaping went to heck. *One thing that still looks promising is
some thick hedges between his driveway and his neighbor's driveway. *I
suspect that they are English boxwood but am not knowledgeable enough to
say for sure.) *Unfortunately, there were all sorts of weeds and such
growing right up through them and choking them. *Last fall he and I did
some serious weeding in there and literally removed a truckload of
undesirable plant matter as well as dead branches from the area, then
hit it again in the early spring, yielding much less mess.
Unfortunately, both times I broke out with what I believe now is a rash
caused by some nasty viney stuff... doesn't look like the poison ivy I'm
familiar with but now that it's late spring I can see it coming back
again and this time the new leaves are shiny making me hesitant to touch
it. *There's some other stuff coming up in there as well that shouldn't
be there. *The good news is that after all that work, the hedges
themselves are filling in nicely and I think after a couple years of
letting them grow and shaping them they will be back to their former
glory. *Now that it's lawn-mowing season I've also been encouraging him
to toss his grass clippings under there to keep down any non-established
weeds, but apparently there's a few that we couldn't kill by
pulling/digging that keep coming back.

So the question. *Now that we've done the heavy lifting, is there any
kind of herbicide that I could use that won't kill the boxwoods? *I've
tried to pull everything that I could but apparently there are some
weeds with long-established, deep roots that might best be killed by
other methods.

Oddly, I've searched and found others asking similar questions, but not
getting any definitive answers. *Is that because what I'm looking for
doesn't exist?

thanks,

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.http://members.cox.net/njnagel


If the undesirable is growing up out of the boxwoods
enough so that you can spray a good bit of it, then
you can kill it with Roundup/glyphosate. Just pull it
to the side when you spray it or use a shield of
cardboard, etc, so that you don't get the spray on the
boxwoods. I'd use it at about 6% concentration so
one application should kill it.