Part 2 of 3 Japanese Knotweed.

     My mind wanders from the dahlia (from Part 1) to another plant I am very familiar with. Japanese Knotweed. This ‘weed’ is lacking in the beauty and desirability of the dahlia, it does share characteristics of strength and determination. Knotweed, I’ve realized, is a solid example of resilience.

     My journey with Japanese Knotweed started a few years ago when this pesky plant kept popping up in a flower bed that I had painstakingly arranged with my desired decor and plant life. This determined pest didn’t fit the profile for what I had planned. My husband dug the root out and burned it, only to have it grow back quickly. The first summer I was mildly annoyed at it. By the next summer I was too busy to worry about my flower beds, therefore the persistent plant was allowed to grow as it wanted. Our third spring with our unwanted guest was a new story for me.

     As the new growth of the season began to sprout up out of the ground, I decided to discover what this species of plant life was and eradicate it for good. My iPhone revealed to me what we were dealing with. Japanese Knotweed. Wanting to learn what I was up against, I dove into finding out about this invader. My soft investigation on the  web yielded enough information to know this plant would be a challenge to rid my yard of. Determination drove me to try nonetheless. Advice from the web was mixed. Some said don’t mess with it. Others gave simple detailed instructions as if it were an easy thing to do.

Web details about Japanese Knotweed:

~ It’s considered one of the world’s 100 worst invasive species. Its bamboo-like stems can grow up to 15 feet tall at a rate of up to four inches a day.

~ Live Knotweed is practically immune to burning and it releases chemicals into the soil that can stop other plants from growing.

~ Shoots can grow through weak spots in walls, asphalt, and concrete.

     I set out determined to win this battle. No plant was going to defeat me. I would dig every last root out of the ground. My first attempt seemed like a win, briefly. My husband and I dug up many shoots, laid them on boards to dry out and be burnable. This was a defeating exercise! Each root we dug out revealed more below the surface. Every small win seemed to be a bigger loss. Hours upon hours of digging resulted in more and more shoots coming up out of the ground within 48 hours. I lost sleep. Japanese Knotweed became a topic in most of my conversations and even a blog post or two. I wanted to warn everyone about this extreme invasive plant that was near impossible to eliminate. 

     Feeling defeated and at my wits end, I called an organization that deals with invasive plants. The expert on the other end informed me it’s best to leave it alone or hire a knowledgeable landscaper specially trained to uproot/destroy it. This at a cost of about $100.00 an hour with a time frame of 5-10 years to be completely rid of it and no guarantees it would be entirely gone. Our other option was to personally spend 5-10 years treating the plant leaves each fall with two potent chemicals, at a cost of around $125.00 a year. None of these options seemed doable to me. I lost more sleep. Hiring someone wasn’t an option we could afford. The thought of putting strong chemicals in the ground where our drinking water comes from wasn’t an option I was in favor of either. I decided to concede to the knotweed. It will just grow in the yard, untampered with by me.

     Through the course of battling this formidable opponent, I began to ask God, “What do you want me to learn or take away from this experience? There’s got to be something good in this.”

Look for the conclusion in Part 3.