Sunday, April 26, 2009

Nightmare on My Street

 
 
I love to sleep. It is one of the things I do best. Because I get plenty of sleep, I remember a lot of my dreams. Last night I had a doozy. It was about the garden - imagine that. The whole thing was overgrown and lush, pretty much what it looks like each July. There was a beautiful mystery vine covering a little shed, that I do not have. Inspiration maybe. Then came the nightmare part. Everywhere I touched there was poison ivy. Vibrant, beautiful, red stemmed and horrifying. The whole garden was overrun with it.

After I woke up this morning and made coffee, I checked out the garden. Sure enough, in the usual places, poison ivy was starting to grow again. This afternoon, I will go outside with plastic shopping bags and pull the stuff up. The technique is simple and effective. Simply place the plastic bag over your hand, grab the weed and pull it out. Now turn the bag inside out and throw the noxious weed away. Ta-da poison ivy does not touch skin.

This is the only reason I would throw out plastic bags. I use reusable bags, but I cannot get Manly to do it. Instead of letting him throw out the bags, I save them to recycle or use them to carry my give away veggies. I have to make an exception when it comes to poison ivy. The stuff is evil and I must protect myself.

Do you have a poison ivy removal technique?
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22 comments:

  1. Thank you for the tip on getting rid of the bad, bad plant. Great title and really funny post!

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  2. That IS a bad dream! I also use cloth bags, but I do use the plastic bags, which I get occasionally, as trash bags. I've also used them as you do to pull PI!

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  3. Debbie ... you are bad girl ! I was expecting something really awful .. OK .. Poison Ivy is .. and I do recycle my plastic bags too girl .. and I do have special plastic handle ones for grocery shopping .. I really do try to be green ? LOL

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  4. My husband and I were just talking about poison ivy this morning. We found a bunch of it under some hedges and were discussing the best way to get rid of it. I would have never thought of this! Thanks!

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  5. I don't think we get anything like that down here Deb. Good idea with the plastic bags though. I am ashamed to say that we bought a heap of "green" shopping bags but I always kept forgetting to take them and now I don't know where they are. Must get some more and start again. I do recycle my plastic bags, I line all the waste paper baskets and bins in the house with them, and the rest get taken to the big supermarkets to put in their special reycyling bins.

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  6. We use the bags for backyard poop pickup patrol. Also, the bag the newspaper comes in - they are heavier. Don't want the bag to break while doing poop patrol!

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  7. No, I personally don't have one. But yours sounds good to me. If I can get myself to get that close to the evil stuff. Remember the horrid months long poison ivy debacle I endured last fall? Scared to death of the damned stuff. If I have a dream like that it will be of the nightmare variety.
    Brenda

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  8. Great idea Debbi! My neighbor has it I think wore gloves. I have know people who can just walk by it and start breaking out! Guess it's in the air. Yuk--and itch!!

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  9. Great idea! I haven't had to deal with poison ivy in my gardens-yet. I do recycle plastic bags. It's amazing how many ways there are to use them.

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  10. We have poison oak here and its basically the same effect I guess. Itchy red rash. I just dug up a clump today! It was just starting to grow. That is nasty stuff.
    CiNdEeS' GaRdEn

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  11. Thankfully I don't have to deal with poison ivy here. When we go for walks in the open spaces we have to be careful of poison oak though. Just as nasty as poison ivy. Your technique sounds like the only way I'd tackle the task. I hate when nightmares come true.

    Cindy

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  12. Thankfully we don't have poison ivy here. I'm having enough trouble ripping out the normal stuff that's taken over my borders :(

    Looks like your dream was a timely reminder to root it out early.

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  13. Poison ivy----AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!! It grows like kudzu around here. I've never seen a native plant so out of control. They say the extra carbon in the greenhouse effect feeds its spread. (Shudder) I'm extrememly sensitive to it, so I put on latex gloves as well as pulling it up and shoving it into the plastic bag, then tossing the gloves in there, too. If it's hot and humid, even though I wash up with Tecnu afterwards, I still break out! I try to pull it up as soon as I see it---the seedling stage is so much easier to deal with---so once it starts showing its evil face, I do a weekly P.O. patrol around the yard.

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  14. Ewwww. We had poison ivy once, managed to get rid of it all.

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  15. Thanks for stopping by Red Studio.

    Monica, they work great.

    Your welcome Momo.

    Sorry Joy, But think about it, that nighmare could come true.

    Foxy, it took me a while to get into the habit of keeping them in the truck.

    My littl family, we have used them that way to.

    Brenda, You need to get somebody else to take care of it if it shows up this year. I remeber how bad you felt.

    Linda, I am a little senstive, but not that bad. Still don't want the rash.

    Beckie, Yes there does seem to be a lot of ways to reuse them.

    Cindee & Cindy, Poison oak sounds just as bad.

    VP, I took it as a reminder to get out there and take care of it before it took over the garden.

    OFB, That technu soap is a life saver. Ever year it get into it without realizing it until it is too late. That soap helps so much.

    Kim and Victoria, I never seem to get rid of all of it. Durn.

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  16. I have the same problem as Our Friend Ben, so I try to stay far away from it, but every year i manage to get infected...somehow.
    I use tecnu too.
    Hubs pulls out the poison ivy around here, using your technique.
    Thank god for hubs. :)
    Wasn't the rain lovely?
    v.

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  17. Hi V. I wanted to tell you how well the fajita bell peppers are doing. Thanks again for the card and seeds. Yes the rain was wonderful. Glad you have a good man too.

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  18. yeah dont touch it at all and run the other way very fast!!! I am so allergic to this stuff. I am not a gardner at all AND I dont know what it looks like until last year when I decided to pull the ivy off the wall WITH my bare hands. my husband looked at me when he got home and said go to the doctor now! I was on steriods orally and a cream for about a month. I wont be touching that stuff anymore. Like I said RUN! I am Debras sister n law so I give her permission to make fun of me on her blog!

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  19. Hey SIL, I remember that mess last year. Yikes. I will now proceed to make fun of you right here on this blog. neener neener

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  20. Heh, my technique is avoid it at all cost! I'm very allergic-I'll break out touching old clothes with it on them! ~shudder~

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  21. You're welcome! I'm glad they're doing well for you. I'm only growing a few plants this year. Actually, 1 plant is plenty as they produce like mad!
    I returned today to finish catching up on your posts and just read "I married well..."
    You most certainly did! Good man, that!
    v.

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  22. Lisa, Courney, the SIL, has gotten poison ivy from contact with my borther's clothes.

    Thanks V. I have about a dozen of those peppers growing. I may be up to my eyeballs in peppers.

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