Last night my friend and I were admiring the giant yucca stalk that will soon be covered in flowers, when we discovered my nemesis.
Mixed in with the 100 or so yuccas was poison ivy. Argh!
Do you know how much it sucks to pull out poison ivy while being stabbed by needles? Not only did it hurt like heck, but each little stab put a hole in my gloves, risking further poison ivy exposure.
I wasn't able to dig out all of the ivy, since some of it was in the middle of the yucca bed, so I'll just have to keep an eye on it and regularly trim it back. I think I'll also look into trimming back that yucca. I'm not sure which will be harder to get rid of.
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I can honestly empathize. Last year I had poison ivy everywhere and being the "true" organic gardener, I tried to get rid of it organically. I ended up with 8 weeks worth of rash, even after treatment from my doctor. Not 4 weeks or 6 weeks, but 8 FULL weeks of itchy h*ll, and the cortisone didn't work!
Make sure, if you touch it, that you wash the area within 10 min. of exposure.
Did you know poison ivy oil can still potent on the dead poison ivy up to five years? I learned that last year.
Good luck! Laura
Sorry to hear the cortisone didn't work. I had to get a shot last time and luckily for me it did the job.
I had no idea about the 5 year potency. I'll be sure to be very careful when hacking at those yuccas.
Laura, sorry to be so late to see this. In your heart, you know what has to be done. Not now, but when it cools off. Dig up the yucca. Double-glove yourself and dig up the poison ivy and then re-plant. Perhaps you've already done that. I am highly sensitive to poison ivy too, so I feel your pain. But cutting it back just means a dangerous job forever.
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