five observations regarding poison ivy

Now, if you know me, you know that I am a firm believer in finding low-cost, all-natural (typically labor intensive) solutions to your lawn and garden problems. So when I saw the poison ivy just beginning to leaf out this spring, I suggested that I don long sleeves and gloves and dig it all up, from the roots, and be done with it. But my loving husband, who knows how acutely allergic I am to poison ivy, talked me out of it. Instead, we bought poison ivy poison last night, and today I emptied a 1.33 gallon jug of the stuff on our property. I have no delusions that I got it all - after a while it all starts to look alike, so I'm sure there's some I got twice, and some not at all. And I only covered the area right around the yard. But maybe it was enough to make a dent.

Some observations:

• Why does poison ivy love the same living conditions as wild muscadines, blueberries, blackberries and other somewhat useful wild plants? No matter how selective I was as I sprayed, I kept hitting other plants. Oh well - I also discovered as I worked today that we have a truckload of baby muscadine plants!!
• If you have dreams of buying a wooded lot and clearing an area in the middle to build your house, I can tell you from experience: Don't expect to have a great lawn right away. The forest wants your lawn back, and will creep back in if you let it.
• Poisoning poison ivy seems ironic.
• If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we come up with a varmint that eats only poison ivy and fire ants? Maybe I should just buy a goat. They don't eat fire ants, but pretty much anything else.
• You can't drown a cow ant in poison ivy poison. Cow ants are like the Chuck Norris of bugs.

Oh well. That's done, and also the garden is nearly ready to plant. I think we've probably had our last frost, so the planting will probably take place next week!