Ed. — From the Sunday, June 25, print edition.
VIRGINIA BEACH — Container gardening is full of pitfalls, and I seem to fall into all of them. Like in-ground beds, plant containers can become infested with weeds and grass, and this winter’s mild weather encouraged invasive growth.
The weather, coupled with my failure to weed regularly, resulted in some very hardy weeds that threatened to choke out my perennial herbs and ornamentals.
I was particularly appalled to notice a lush vine wrapping itself around a lemon verbena plant. Its identity was obvious by the clusters of three glossy leaves. It was unmistakably poison ivy. I suppose the sensible thing to have done was to just discard the entire container.
I rarely ever do anything sensibly, though, and I don’t like to discard a viable plant, particularly lemon verbena. I set about trying to figure out how to rescue it.
The poison ivy had become so well-rooted that I could quickly see that digging it out of the container would be impossible without also destroying the lemon verbena. So I sliced open the plastic container in several spots with my gardening knife, but the poison ivy roots were so entwined that the root ball failed to crumble when the container came apart.
Those poison ivy roots were tougher than leather and reminded me a little of Medusa’s snaky hair, but I fought aggression with aggression and sliced them mercilessly until they broke my knife. Then, I began slashing away with the pointed end of my trowel until I knocked off enough dirt to extricate the lemon verbena.
I was pretty frustrated and probably a little careless by this time. Although I was wearing long sleeves and gloves, I somehow came into contact with the poison ivy because within a few days my wrists broke out in an itching, stinging rash.
It’s like that with poison ivy. If you’re outside very much, more than likely you will get into it at some point. It grows and spreads quickly, and, unfortunately, it isn’t always easy to spot and is very difficult to get rid of. Virginia Cooperative Extension notes that it can grow as a bush, groundcover, or as a vine growing up on trees. The easiest way to spot it is by its characteristic leaves of three. The middle leaf is usually a little longer than the others, but the leaves can be either glossy or dull and can have either smooth or toothed edges.
If you identify poison ivy growing on your property, don’t burn it because the smoke can be extremely harmful. Virginia Cooperative Extension provides a list of approved herbicides to eradicate it, but, if you want to be chemical-free and it’s only a single plant, you can try carefully digging it out. Choose a day when the ground is wet, and wear gloves, long sleeves, long pants, and boots. Place a plastic bag over your gloved hand, dig the plant out by the roots, place it in the plastic bag and then seal the bag tightly.
If there are no plants that you want to keep growing around the poison ivy, you can also try killing it with dish soap or vinegar, but remember that these products will kill all surrounding plants. Interestingly, poison ivy isn’t poisonous to all animals, and, in fact, goats are said to have quite a taste for it. So, if possible, you might consider using goats as a form of poison ivy control, and don’t worry if they’re milking goats. North Carolina State Extension says that it’s safe to drink the milk because urushiol, the oily substance that causes the itching, doesn’t transfer to the milk.
If you come into contact with poison ivy, make sure to shower as soon as possible in cool water, and wash your clothes and gloves immediately in warm, soapy water. Begin using poison ivy sprays, calamine lotion, or whatever your favorite home remedy is. If I’d done all of this immediately, I might not still be plagued with this irritating red rash.
As for my lemon verbena, it’s been transplanted into a flower bed. Unfortunately, I had to handle it a little roughly in order to save it, so it’s a little banged up.
Still, I have confidence that it will survive and adapt to its new home.
The author is a contributor to The Independent News. Her journalism has also appeared in The Virginian-Pilot.