The Green Solution

Comments: 43

JOHN BECK Aug 6, 2009, 7:43am EDT

Kudzu and Sarah, the great invaders!
How 'bout a voodoo doll?

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Netty B. Aug 6, 2009, 8:56am EDT

I had to use Swagbucks and look up "kudzu"..OH! I "get it" ROFL!

Sarah A. (I KANZ B UH RITUR!!!!) , YEZ!! Aug 6, 2009, 9:01am EDT

You're not from around here, are you?

Sarah A. (I KANZ B UH RITUR!!!!) , YEZ!! Aug 6, 2009, 11:31am EDT

In kudzu country, one doesn't want to linger too long smelling the roses, lest one be enswathed...

Leo Lemmer Aug 6, 2009, 11:46am EDT

I had to look it up too. I keep learning on Gather.

Sarah, good job!

Tracy Fabre Aug 7, 2009, 12:50am EDT

Y'all need to spend time in the south.

You know how to grow kudzu? Throw some down and run like hell.

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Vicky Duggins Aug 6, 2009, 9:01am EDT

Not Kudzu! You're one evil woman when p.o.'d.

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David W. Aug 6, 2009, 9:35am EDT

And your revenge will be sweet, as sweet as your poem.

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Ina ♥ Tagline Free Since September '09 ♥ Aug 6, 2009, 11:19am EDT

Oh, please don't get mad at me!

However, I have a next door neighbor that I would pay you to get pissed at.

Sarah A. (I KANZ B UH RITUR!!!!) , YEZ!! Aug 6, 2009, 11:29am EDT

No worries. I'll be happy to mail you cuttings at no charge, cuz we gots plenty!

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Barb (Gather Site Ferret) Carlson Aug 6, 2009, 11:46am EDT

LOL! That's pretty darned funny. We've had a terrible time trying to keep grass on our lawn. My husband actually thought about putting in kudzu. He said at least it would be green.

Sarah A. (I KANZ B UH RITUR!!!!) , YEZ!! Aug 6, 2009, 11:53am EDT

May I suggest fescue? Grass you can drive on...

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Sarah A. (I KANZ B UH RITUR!!!!) , YEZ!! Aug 6, 2009, 11:51am EDT

Kudzu:

Said to smell like grape Nehi's...

Sarah A. (I KANZ B UH RITUR!!!!) , YEZ!! Aug 6, 2009, 11:52am EDT

That's a HOUSE, by the way...

CC Miranda the artrat (or am i?) Aug 6, 2009, 11:53am EDT

i know it's a pain in the butt to maintain, but it really is a beautiful plant and the vines are perfect for basket making.

Sarah A. (I KANZ B UH RITUR!!!!) , YEZ!! Aug 6, 2009, 11:56am EDT

Maintain? Maintain? One does not maintain kudzu. Unless you do it with a flame thrower.

(It's also nutritious and great food for cattle...)

Barb (Gather Site Ferret) Carlson Aug 6, 2009, 12:09pm EDT

So it looks like the South needs more cows.

CC Miranda the artrat (or am i?) Aug 6, 2009, 12:19pm EDT

it needs to be clipped back daily, which unless you have a full time gardener is unlikely to happen. that's how it stays ornamental in places like Japan because it's been maintained into a certain shape and form.

Sarah A. (I KANZ B UH RITUR!!!!) , YEZ!! Aug 6, 2009, 1:22pm EDT

It also dies back - there is no way that a vine could be as invasive as kudzu is here and still be kept in check - it 'escapes' the garden, and then there is no one to clip it... Japanese honeysuckle, bush honeysuckle - to name but a few, are taking over wild spaces all over the south. Other alien species invade the north. It's a huge problem.

In the case of kudzu, help may be on the way in the form of a fungus.

Kris M. Aug 6, 2009, 4:57pm EDT

I've heard people say they've fried and eaten the leaves, but I'm not tempted to try it unless the apocalypse comes and I can't catch a cow.

Sandy (Site Psychic™) Knauer Aug 6, 2009, 5:26pm EDT

Looks like my garden!

Mark Jepsen Aug 6, 2009, 8:40pm EDT

I was going to make a crack about my house being under there, and then I read you comment about there really actually being a house under there! Oh oh my!

Tracy Fabre Aug 7, 2009, 12:51am EDT

I second that "oh my!"

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CC Miranda the artrat (or am i?) Aug 6, 2009, 11:52am EDT

ah yes, the plant that ate the south. i'm not sure how well it would do up north, but i've seen plants adapt before.

Sarah A. (I KANZ B UH RITUR!!!!) , YEZ!! Aug 6, 2009, 12:00pm EDT

For the Love of God, woman, bite your tongue!

(Honeysuckle also makes great baskets. There must be something about being really, really invasive.)

Janna R. Aug 6, 2009, 7:46pm EDT

"ah yes, the plant that ate the south. i'm not sure how well it would do up north, but i've seen plants adapt before."

We've got it here in Pittsburgh...

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Duckie 1 Aug 6, 2009, 12:06pm EDT

So... ye stop smoking and yer start getting wicked idears, eh?

Sarah A. (I KANZ B UH RITUR!!!!) , YEZ!! Aug 6, 2009, 12:17pm EDT

I've always had wicked ideas. I just couldn't afford to implement them.

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CC Miranda the artrat (or am i?) Aug 6, 2009, 12:21pm EDT

i once threw pumpkin seeds all over the yard of a place i lived at right before moving to pay back the landlord for being a jerk. i never found out if they took root, but i like to think they did.

Duckie 1 Aug 6, 2009, 12:34pm EDT

Try Morning Glory or Cleome seeds, CC. Those are rampant re-seeders and will take over a yard if left unchecked!

CC Miranda the artrat (or am i?) Aug 6, 2009, 12:38pm EDT

i did the pumpkin seeds because i carved a ton of them for my birthday that year so they were handy. i wasn't looking to go out of my way to poke at him as he wasn't worth that much effort on my part.

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Duckie 1 Aug 6, 2009, 12:40pm EDT

Did you send Ina some of your Green Solution??? She looks like she had some growing under her tree. Hehehe.

Ina ♥ Tagline Free Since September '09 ♥ Aug 6, 2009, 1:02pm EDT

Nah. That's English Ivy, which isn't nearly as invasive, but it certainly has some of the same annoying properties.

You've given me some evil ideas about throwing seeds and certain cuttings over a certain fence this year. ;o)

Sarah A. (I KANZ B UH RITUR!!!!) , YEZ!! Aug 6, 2009, 1:24pm EDT

We once devised a solution to the Cold War that involved planting kudzu, blackberry and poison ivy/oak all around the borders of the USSR...

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JOHN BECK Aug 6, 2009, 1:29pm EDT

I won't complain about quack grass or crown vetch or mustard or wild grapes again. Well, maybe wild grapes.

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Mark Jepsen Aug 6, 2009, 4:34pm EDT

We have some kind of woody rope-y vine that is taking over in the college-owned woods that back up to the backyard. My erstwhile spouse has started an annual project wherein she pulls down the vines that are still manageable, usually in 20 to 30 foot sections, and weaves them into natural wreaths. If only all of the neighbors would start such projects we might be able to keep it somewhat in check, but that's not happening. Many of the native birch trees are getting strangled out by these things, which eventually grow to a diameter of 3 or 4 inches! The wreaths do make great gifts, which can be shipped all over the country, and so it continues...

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Nippy Katz (not his real name) Patriotic Troll of Gather Freedom Aug 6, 2009, 4:53pm EDT

Hmm...I've drunk grape Nehi, not since I was little, but I live in an area that's kudzu free so far. I know it's like killer bees or herpes and don't expect that it won't make it to N CA. :)

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Kris M. Aug 6, 2009, 4:58pm EDT

James Dickey has a poem called "Kudzu" that opens with the line "Japan invades."

I've literally stood in a room and watched it choke off a transformer behind my old apartment.

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Lance L. Aug 6, 2009, 5:37pm EDT

It's also the perfect camouflage against those aging Japanese pilots who have yet to be told they lost the war. ! BANZAI !

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Dannielle S. Aug 6, 2009, 7:30pm EDT

Sumac. I allowed one to grow, because that seemed like a good way to get some shade on our porch, but when it got out of hand and we cut it down, no fewer than 100 little sumac trees grew -- overnight! -- from its root system. At some point, there will be nothing left up here but sumac...

Sarah A. (I KANZ B UH RITUR!!!!) , YEZ!! Aug 6, 2009, 9:17pm EDT

Yeah, I've got sumac too. And honeysuckle. Only the blackberries we had in Oregon don't seem to take over here. Too bad - at least you could love them one month out of the year.

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