our garden is FULL of environmental weeds

[spiralgirl]

warning plant geek rant to follow.

the house we have bought looks out onto a lovely backyard of trees which was a major selling point,

on closer inspection it turns out most are environmental weeds!!

We have HEAPS of yellow oleander(TOXIC EEP!) umbrella trees, common Indian Hawthorn, chinese elm...it goes on and on. Almost every understory tree has to go! GRRR

All the big trees are native, but I have so much work to do. I have spent the last 3 days removing singapore daisy and purple succulent and now i discover i need to regenerate almost everything else in the yard too.

Im thinking i will remove some trees and replant , and then remove more trees and replant, rather than making it all bare all at once...is that a good idea or shoudl i remove all the weeds first? And how the hell do i get ride of the oleander safely? I want the yard safe for kids and stick chewing dogs so they have to go pronto.

Im thinking of going to the local landcare nursery for some plants tomorrow

[Meridith]

I'd prolly talk to a local garden person about getting rid of various things, they might even lend a hand. All I remember about oleander is how darned near impossible it is to get rid of entirely. There is some lifecycle to follow that helps but many people use poison.

[battlecrumpet]

OK this is the word from my DH (he used to work for the Environmental Protection Agency in a botany-type area).
Oleander is toxic but not massively so you should be able to remove it safely as long as you don't let pets / bubs chew on it, or lick your hands etc. But you should wear gloves. Google "Yellow oleander" - the first link that comes up is from Qld Health poisons info service.

DH reckons if you're replanting with Aust natives, might be better to make it all bare then replant all at once, so you'll have a garden full of natives sooner, otherwise might take a long time till it's all sorted.

Umbrella trees he reckons are native to SE Qld but they grow as a weed outside of their home territories. So prob'ly not much of a concern and perhaps even not worth removing. They don't reproduce like rabbits unlike Chinese Elms which is an invasive species i.e. it grows aggressively in new areas so you should get of it quick.

HTH

[DePome]

We have bloody umbrella trees too. We think one is causing problems with our drainage trench off the septic tank too DH levelled one about 12" above ground and it's shot new, now large branches. Gonna have to level that at ground level at the very least. Everything in our garden is fully mature which makes it really hard to get rid of things like this.

In your shoes I'd be asking advice at a centre too.

[spiralgirl]

thanks so much for tyour advice! There are seriously about 20 or 30 umbrella trees in the yard, and more in the neighbours yard. I know they are technically a native, but in weed proportions here! I know they arent as bad as the damn chinese elm.

I think i will need a plan of attack - think we might have t have someone help look after tahleya one weekend so we can get out there and get stuck into the damn oleander first.

[mummabare]

what is a chinese elm? We have the damn castor oil plant in plague proportions around here...a lot of work was done getting rid of them from the reserve and creek behind our home...to my horror the neighbours have let one grow in their yard right against our fence :(
And now its going to seed....problem is they dont speak english and Im having a hard time communicating to them what is wrong with it....might have to write them a letter I feel.

Good luck with replacing them all...it takes alot of time and effort but its well worth it

xx

[kermi]

Tahne,
Kidsafe House in Brampton Tce, Herston (right behind the RCH) have examples of plants to avoid with kiddies in their (well secured) garden... as well as information.

HTH!

[Neek]

Sounds like our garden when we moved in! The purple succulent is Callisia fragrans and dogs are extremely sensitive to it. Ours came out in nasty red hives so better to rip it all out asap. I'm going to email you the plant lists and nursery info I pulled together when we lived there.

[IndigoViolet]

Oh I know how you feel. We are renting and have been fighting an uphill battle with the hideous vine with the yellow flowers (cat's claw creeper I think it's called?) for years here. We also have a bit of oleander, chinese elm, fig trees, lantanna and umbrella trees that sprout everywhere. I got a lovely coloured poster of BCC declared noxious weeds once - I think we had about 8 of them growing here. I feel like I can keep them all under control except the VINE. It comes from the back neighbour's yard as well and has totally engulfed the back fence and half way up the sides and up in all the trees at the back. It is now covering the chook houses in both yards as well. It sprouts EVERYWHERE in all the gardens (not helped by me using chook house mulch where seeds have undoubtadly dropped into chook house). I have to constantly pull it up in the vege gardens. If you have any of this vine I would definitely get rid of that first. Also if anyone knows how to control it without chemicals I would love to know. I don't think it would be possible to get it out of all the neighbours trees etc. and it grows back so fast it is hardly worth to try to pull it out. Whenever it gains too much ground I fight back - but that's about it.

[spiralgirl]

might explain our dogs scratching like mad Vanessa! Ive been pulling that damn succulent out for days and there is stilll sooooooooooo much work to do

we have discovered that their is only 2 oleander trees but they are fairly big ( like trees)