The ongoing poison ivy war

As we continue our trip back through the past weekend, we come to Saturday morning. We inherited quite a bit of poison ivy when we bought this property. Over the past nearly eight years I've been slowly waging war against it, cleaning out a section and keeping it on maintenance while moving to the next section. It is a slow process. It is also a job that falls to me because J. reacts so very badly to poison ivy that he daren't go near it. 

So Saturday, because the morning was overcast and cooler seemed the perfect time to do battle with an area I had previously cleaned out, but for some reason never did the spring maintenance on last year. It was bad. Here is the before picture.

This is behind the back patio. There is a lot of poison ivy in there; you can see it climbing up the cement wall as well as the trunk of the maple tree. There's a lot in there. Everything that is not poison ivy is honeysuckle, another plant that I routinely battle. At least I can do that without donning battle gear.

That battle gear includes long pants, long socks, long sleeves, and gloves leaving no skin exposed. It's definitely not a height of summer outfit. It then all goes straight into the laundry. Appropriately clothed, I entered the fray. 

The after pictures.

I've been in a quandary about what to do with this space. It is shady and often damp because of the slope. I have some ferns starting to grow outside their designated areas and transplanting them here could be just the ticket. 

This is the brush pile I ended up with. It's a combination of honeysuckle and branches from the ever-shedding silver maples.

And that very large and very full contractor bag is all poison ivy. I'm very happy to see it go. 

We also received the back porch from the chaos of winter which consists of only spending as much time as it takes to dump and run. By spring it is a little... unpleasant. So the cleaning and gardening have turned it back into a pleasant place to be, and we've had teatime out there all week. 

But back to that protective clothing. I usually wear a button down shirt that allows me to button the cuffs. I had on a zip up hoodie, so thought... My arms are covered. I'm not going to go through the bother of changing shirts. 

Well, dear readers, I should have taken the time to change my shirt. A buttoned cuff cannot ride up on your arm in the same way a hoodie sleeve can. And if that sleeve happens to ride up when you are pulling out a particularly long piece of poison ivy which is going every which way... Well, you get this. 

And before any writes to say we should just poison it, save your time. I despise toxic poisoned such as Round Up and am morally opposed to its usage. Yes, the poison ivy rash is the better of two evils in this case.