Re:OT-BIO: Melissa Hellen

Dear Melissa,

I"d like to add a hearty "Welcome" also.

You're not the only one confronted with a ton of poison ivy.  When my stepson
bought this property five years ago it was an unbelieveable run-down jungle.
I went to work with him on pruning and cleaning up old shrubs, getting
plantings, once rather nice, I think, back under control, and developing a lot
of new and attractive areas of presentation so the place looks sharp from the
road.  The biggest pests here (then) were privet gone crazy and poison ivy.

We have done a lot of very selective brush-strength (half-again stronger mix)
*Round-Up* spraying with hand spray bottles on poison ivy.  It took three of
the last five years to get rid of it all, but it is gone now.  Some of it I
had to chop loose from big old trees with a long, unnamed tool.  I'd cut the
ivy vine's trunk near the ground, then spray the new growth everytime it got a
few good healthy leaves.  All those old plants are dead, and bit by bit the
vines are falling out of the trees.  We are very careful how we dispose of
them of course.

The pests of major problem now are moles.  They are plowing the lawns and get
into the iris at times.  I poke into or step down the runs and use pesticides
to try to get rid of their food supply.  That sorta works but not nearly as
well as I'd like.

For what it's worth......In any event, let me repeat the welcome!

Neil Mogensen  z 6b/7a near Asheville and Hendersonville, NC in the western
mountains

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