r/GardeningAustralia • u/patgeo • Nov 10 '24
I hate the previous home-owners... Bamboo, Agapanthas, stupid spikey tree thing... 🙉 Send help
These damned root monsters the previous owners planted everywhere are destroying my sanity.
The bamboo is spreading into a garden bed over a metre away from where they planted them. The agapanthas destroyed a retaining wall and took over two full garden beds killing everything in their paths and of course are popping up everywhere. There are these two weird spikey trees that are now attacking the same retaining wall the agapanthas I removed did, they are also shooting all through the lawn and ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE HOUSE from what appears to be a shared root system between all of them.
I'm tired of digging up miles of root systems and root/bulb bound garden beds to get things other than these weeds growing...
Any tricks?
My electric cultivator helped with the agapanthas after I'd cut most out with the shovel, making it easy to shift the loose soil and get most out. But the bamboo roots and tangling it.
I'm trying to avoid salting the earth since I want to grow stuff there. But it's getting really tempting ... I've been painting the roots I cut with roundup if I don't pull them.
It just seems hopeless and my back hurts.
Edit:
The hopelessness is now more about the fight to prevent regrowth. I've ripped a lot of agapanthas and all the bamboo now.
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u/artLoveLifeDivine Nov 10 '24
Agapanthus did me in too from previous owners. It is everywhere. I have spent a year trying to get rid of it. I can’t
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u/patgeo Nov 10 '24
I've been here 3 years and I just never have the time to beat it all.
The vast, vast majority is gone, but the spot fires will take years to stamp out, especially when the neighbours all have them as well.
I just dug out a 5m row of bamboo, I took the area down about 40cm where most roots seemed to have disappeared and went wide until I either ran into something I couldn't dig or ran out of visible roots, and then shifted the soil with a rake and my cultivator to remove as many visible roots as possible. Any roots I couldn't get at due to being under structures or plants. I dipped in roundup, or poured it straight down the hole of a few I left open for that purpose that were butted up against things.
As with the 2 15x1.5m plots of agapanthas I've already removed, I'll watch for new shoots and eliminate with extreme prejudice.
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u/georgeoo00 Nov 10 '24
Not sure if this is a possibility - but if you’re really desperate we had major plumbing done and they used a small Bob cat - they did me a solid and ripped out three massive agapanthas with one swoop - left one because it was too close to the plumbing- but solved 80% of our agapantha problem in less than a minute
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u/Tygie19 Nov 10 '24
I’ve killed all the agapanthus on my block with round up. Bought a 5L concentrate and have been dousing it with a strong mix for several months. I’ve now started to remove the rotted bulbs and whatever is left. It takes patience as it’s a several months long process, but it works.
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u/gyreandgymble- Nov 10 '24
The vacant house next to me has bamboo, English ivy, cordylines, and privet all attempting to move into mine and destroy the fence. I'm like those game ads that pop up on Reddit trying to kill 8000 zombies.
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u/TheMoeSzyslakExp Nov 10 '24
I can’t help much here, but to lighten the mood a bit I always enjoy watching and sharing this stand-up video when people are dealing with that awful monstrosity agapanthus.
Horrible stuff. Good luck!
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u/Artichoke_farmer Nov 10 '24
It’s a great clip, laughed my head off…. My agapanthus patches I mostly just roll with
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u/treeslip Nov 10 '24
I'm doing a bamboo job at the moment. First we went through and cut everything down and poisoned the cut stumps. A few months later we have gone through and cut all the fresh shoots and taller bushy shoots poisoning the cut stumps. Then going through and clearing smaller shoots around native plants, poisoning the cuts and then spraying the leftover small bushy shoots. We will have to go through again to get more regrowth later on but that is the method we are using. We are using glyphosate and this method will have very little to no effect on nearby natives and doesn't stay active in the soil. I also noticed a lot less regrowth under plant canopy, so if you can shade out the area with other plants it should hopefully help reduce regrowth. I am to use as little poison as needed and spray as little as possible but unless you have heaps of time and resources this is my method. Unfortunately work contracts are usually about efficiency.
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u/patgeo Nov 10 '24
The spikey thing is a robinia of some kind.
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u/utterly_baffledly Nov 10 '24
Oh yeah we have that bastard too. Very pretty as long as you don't want to go anywhere near it.
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u/patgeo Nov 10 '24
I seem to have to cut it back to the stump every year to prevent it from growing nuts.
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u/rigger80ffy Nov 11 '24
Drill a hole 100mm or so down the stump after cutting it off and use a syringe to fill it up with glyphosate. It won't come back in that spot after that.
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u/patgeo Nov 11 '24
That's the plan, I'll go with a weaker mixture so hopefully it can get through the suckers a bit. Too strong and it just kills that spot, too weak and it doesn't kill it at all.
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u/rigger80ffy Nov 11 '24
I've found injecting it undiluted was no problem on robinia suckers that came up amongst roses and perennials.
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u/patgeo Nov 11 '24
On the suckers themselves undiluted is supposed to be great, but I've been told to dilute the one I put in the trunk and hopefully it kills more suckers.
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u/Natural-Function-597 Nov 10 '24
I have successfully wiped out agapanthus by having a large dog
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u/larvioarskald Nov 10 '24
Can confirm this works. Our Irish Wolfhounds had puppies, 7 haven't found homes yet and they're now 12 weeks old. They have done an amazing job of killing the unwanted agapanthus in our garden
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u/General_LozFromOz Nov 10 '24
Hire a small excavator for a weekend? We did that for agapanthus, one of the little ones you pick up on a trailer. If you hire on Friday arvo, you usually get them for the weekend for the cost of one day :)
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u/patgeo Nov 10 '24
The spots also happen to be hard to access. The bamboo was along a small gap between a raised garden bed and the fence.
It's largely done now. The agapantha fight started last year and I've removed two full beds of them. Only a few randoms left and the new shoots.
The bamboo got ripped today over about 3 hours on the end of a shovel.
The spikey trees will go down soon. I'm thinking of contacting the council weeds guy and seeing if they can inject them with something.
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u/General_LozFromOz Nov 10 '24
Could you drill into the spiky ones and put some blackberry poison in?
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u/OzzyGator Natives Lover Nov 10 '24
Get the professionals in. That's a huge job.
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u/patgeo Nov 10 '24
Out of two 15x1.5m plots of agapanthas, 5m of bamboo and a bunch of random spots of agapanthas. Only the random spots are still standing. I've been here 3 years now and started on my elimination project last year.
Could've done it a lot faster by paying someone, but I'm broke/cheap
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u/rawdatarams Nov 10 '24
Can you get your hands on some dark coloured metal sheets? Like Colorbond roofing, second hand and rusty is fine. Plonk on top of whatever you want to get rid of and just let the sun cook them underneath.
Downside is you gotta cut down the plant first, hard to put anything on top four meter tall bamboo shoots 😬
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u/quokkafarts Nov 10 '24
FUCK AGAPANTHAS all my homies hate agapanthas. One literally broke my arm in multiple places when I was trying to remove it. Here's how I got all mine out in the end:
Step 1) attempt to pull one up, fall over onto right arm, break arm badly.
Step 2) be too injured and depressed to water garden for months over peak summer.
Step 3) have hot water unit break, spilling hot water into the garden for weeks.
Congrats! Now they are dead and can be pulled up with ease, along with your cherished passionfruit vine.
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u/Traditional_Judge734 Nov 10 '24
Boiling soapy water on bamboo runners. Keep the foliage cut back hard and it'll start to starve
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u/Important-Bag4200 Nov 10 '24
Are the spikey shoots robinia? Yeah we bought our house unknowingly knowing what a robinia was. We cut it down, ground the stump down then I poured a whole container of roundup in the hole (sacrilege in this sub but you gotta do what you gotta do). The first summer we had suckers absolutely everywhere and was thinking we'd angered some kind of robinia god. Sprayed all the suckers in our yards plus our neighbours at least 3 times a week. Second year the suckers dropped off considerably but still there. Cue some optimism. Third summer I probably had about 5 suckers. I haven't had to deal with them since and now have a nice camelia growing in its place. It's a shame as it's such a beautiful tree.
We also inherited golden palms and a yukka so feel your pain.
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u/patgeo Nov 10 '24
I believe so, yes.
My plan is to cut them to the stump, drill some large holes, and fill them with mixed up roundup. Because the root system is so massive using a weaker mix, let's it get through more of the root system, hopefully limiting the suckers in future seasons.
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u/Epsilon_ride Nov 10 '24
Removed a ton of agapanthus this weekend. Was pretty fine... Pruning saw + spade + gloves = done.
I dont envy anyone dealing with bamboo though.
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u/brittnotbot Nov 10 '24
BUY A PRONG TOOL.
I also hate agapanthus. The prong tools make light work of digging them out because they have the leverage.
We have a huge forest of bamboo also. But it’s contained to one area so I figured picking my battles
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u/GinkandTonic Nov 10 '24
Ooh ooh I can help! Our previous owner planted like a 3m long bamboo hedge too, the type that grow 6m in height!
We cut down 2/3 of it all the way to the base, then hired a stump removal guy in who ran around the area on his ride on stump removal machine. He then dugged a trench around the last 1/3 that we kept to prevent them from spreading. This has worked really well so far.
All the bonus was we had a whole bunch of bamboo stakes and trellis to use, plus after the stump removal chops up all the root, the soil was nice, loose and aerated ready for planting 🥰
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u/GinkandTonic Nov 10 '24
And the left over 1/3 is just the right amount left for when we need some more stakes
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u/deadrobindownunder Nov 10 '24
I slaughtered a large patch of tiger grass (it's called that, but it's effing bamboo) late last year with zero. It's still shooting up where it can, it's traveled under the bricked area and pops out every few months. But, i've avoided that issue for the most part by covering the gardening bed it was in with black builder's plastic. Only needed one roll, it's held up incredibly well under the sun.
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u/Normal-Usual6306 Nov 10 '24
I'm just here to sympathise and tell you that the previous owners of the house I'm renting planted multiple golden cane palms that drop branches everywhere constantly, plus frangipani and azalea plants that drop at least several hundred flowers during their blooming periods. It's so irritating!
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u/Extension_Drummer_85 Nov 10 '24
You could try to soviet method. Drill into woodier parts of the plants and pour kerosene, repeat a couple times or until you can't be fucked anymore. Drop a match. Wait until the winter though.Â
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u/New-Video1507 Nov 10 '24
A mattock is the best tool to get Aggies out. Not sure about the spikey thing, but you might just have to resign yourself to having to deal with bamboo long term. Persistence against weeds is the best tool.
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u/Ok-Pundet9273 Nov 10 '24
Agapanthus are a weed, clog our waterways and are a threat to some endemic species. They should be removed and seeds destroyed at every possible opportunity. Typically they exist to hide incompetent landscaping or gardeners who don't want to water the outside of their property.
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u/Tygie19 Nov 10 '24
OP if you have patience, glyphosate will kill agapanthus. I’ve killed all of them on my block with a strong mix over several months. I bought a 5L concentrate and have been hitting it every few weeks. Now I’m easily pulling out the rotted bulbs and roots.
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u/RuncibleMountainWren Nov 10 '24
Wait, what’s wrong with agapanthus? I get them being a problem in bushland in some areas, but contained in a garden? Last time we had some, I had to keep them alive…
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u/patgeo Nov 10 '24
Containing them is the problem.
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u/ChileanRidge Nov 10 '24
No, agapanthus can be contained, the problem is that far too many homeowners think that you can plant a garden and that's that. They don't do the maintenance. The OP says that the agapanthus broke a retaining wall. For it to do that, it has to have been left to its own devices for decades. If you don't do garden maintenance, pretty much any perennial can take over. The problem is the people not the plants; the people don't do the maintenance, they don't lift and divide, they don't cut back before they go to seed, let everything hang about drifting in the wind and then wonder why they're getting things popping up everywhere.
Every garden is an artificial environment, it all needs to be maintained, just because you throw in natives doesn't mean you can sit back and do nothing. A lot of novice gardeners who are ripping out the agapanthus now will be coming back in five or six years wondering what to do with the native this, that or the other that has taken over. Even low-maintenance gardens need work, it's right there in the name...
If you have agapanthus and like it: cut down the blooms before they go to seed. Lift and divide every few years and when disposing, be sure to do so in a responsible manner.
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u/patgeo Nov 10 '24
I'm the OP. They were like that when I got here.
Yes, it can be maintained, but very few do it, and they spread like wildfire when unchecked.
The place I bought changed hands quite a few times in a short period, and the gardens and lawn were an absolute mess all over. I knew I had my work cut out for me.
While it is somewhat unfair to blame the plant for the lack of care taken by various owners, it is a problem to the point of councils banning it to limit the environmental impact because too many couldn't do that.
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u/ChileanRidge Nov 10 '24
No no, you misunderstood, I saw it was an inherited issue, I'm not saying it was you. I meant whoever owned the place before you likely was one of these that put everything in and said, "great it's done" and that was that, and just let the things grow out of control without maintenance -- which is what happens about 80-90% of the time.
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u/gaza2230 Nov 10 '24
Agapanthus are the greatest plant ever. I’m putting them in.
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u/Consistent_Yak2268 Nov 10 '24
Had no idea people had issues with them until I saw this thread lol
We pulled ours out and replaced with native grasses but it wasn’t a drama. They haven’t come back or anything
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u/Cat_From_Hood Nov 14 '24
Ideally I could afford 20k for landscaping and an excavator. Alas, I battle on by hand with few tools and much persistence.
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u/EliraeTheBow Nov 10 '24
I feel you, the previous owners planted bamboo, agapanthus, yukka and golden palms. It was a shit show and it’s taken us almost four years to get rid of them all and now we’re finally beginning to plant a functional mostly native garden (also doing patches of herbs and veggies).
Bonus was we found a lemon Myrtle and mulberry strangled by the bamboo, so that was a nice surprise at least.