Poison Ivy Time Again

The other day, I took the little weedeater out and got rid of a lot of the poison ivy that was coming up along the fence, and today, I weedeatered the other side of the fence; so I think that I got most of it cut back.
It isn't dead, and I will have to keep working at it as it grows back again; but at least i can now work in the flower beds along that area and not worry so much about it.
A worse place is right in the front yard, where I have a little flower bed beneath one of the trees. There is poison ivy growing in there and it was mixed with some of the other wild vines and my flowers that also come up all over in the spring.
The Virginia Creeper is the main other vine we have, and one that has pretty heart-shaped leaves and sharp thorns. That one I also have to cut and not just pull out since the thorns are hard to miss and I am not usually wearing my gardening gloves (shame on me !).
I am pretty sure that I got some poison ivy on my hands today, and they are burning. I came in and washed them good with soap and hot water to get the oil from the poison ivy off, and next I will put coconut oil cream on my hands, which is supposed to stop the itching and help the skin to heal.
I looked it up to see if coconut oil helps, and apparently, I was doing the right thing. Next time, I will try to remember to wear the gardening gloves, and then I can just yank out the poison ivy vine as long as I am careful.

http://www.truthin7minutes.com/treat-poison-ivy/

 

That stuff has long roots, and a tendency to pop up somewhere else. While I was ridding my yard of it, I found that - as I was as a child - I still don't react to poison ivy.

 

I think it's about ten percent of the population that doesn't. I told the story here somewhere, but my older brother tricked me into walking into a patch of poison ivy once and then laughed at me after telling me what it was. Figuring I'd be hurting anyhow, I pulled some of it up and rubbed it on his back. He was wearing the calamine lotion while I had no problem at all.

 

I do not react to it as bad as some people do; which is why I can pull it out if I am careful, and also don't get too much of it on me. I try not to touch the leaves, and if I know I am going to be working in it, I do usually wear my gardening gloves.
We also have Virginia Creeper, which looks very similar, except it has smaller, 5-pointed leaves, and the poison ivy has a 3-pointed leaf that is a brighter green.
The first experience I had with it was back when I lived in Missouri.
Robin and I were traveling to Kansas City where my son lived at that time, for the Fourth of July weekend, and we passed some kittens on the side of the road.
They were just little ones, and so we stopped to try and rescue them.
The kittens were afraid of us, and we had to follow them around through the weeds and finally caught the two which we saw.
Apparently, there was some kind of either poison ivy or poison oak, or something similar, because by the time we got to KC we were both itching. However, we thought it was from the mosquitoes, which were also all over.
By the time we had gotten back home, we were both covered in red blotches, and itched all over because we had both spread it on our arms and legs.
The next week was terrible, and I thought it would never go away; but it did finally heal up. Since we didn't know that we were in the poison ivy, we didn't even know what it looked like to be able to watch out for it again, and I didn't learn that until we moved here, and the neighbor told me what it was.
Here is a picture of what it looks like and how to identify poison ivy.

http://m.wikihow.com/Identify-Poison-Ivy

 

I hadn't seen any poison ivy in my yard until we spent a couple of spring-summer-fall seasons up north. Although I drove back to mow the lawn and stuff, I didn't pay much attention to it beyond not wanting to get a letter from the town. When we returned home for the summer, I found that poison ivy had found a place along my fence line on both sides of the back yard, and around the stump of a tree that I had cut down near the center of the yard.

Since I don't react to it, I pulled it up by the roots wherever I could and have pretty much gotten rid of it in most places. The only place I still have it is along the fence separating my yard from my neighbor's yard. On the other side, the neighboring house is empty so I can go over there and pull it up as well. But my other neighbor isn't particularly friendly, and he is somewhat odd, so I don't talk to him. He rarely uses his side yard that borders mine, and the poison ivy is growing over there so it keeps crossing the fence into my yard.

The first summer he lived here, I guess he didn't have a mower because his yard was long enough that I was afraid he'd get a welcome letter from the town about mowing his law, so I mowed the small part of it facing the street, knowing they wouldn't go after him for the back or side yard. He got all weird about it, so I haven't talked to him since, except to say hello if he'd outdoors. So I'm afraid that if I told him about the poison ivy, he'd think I was interfering. It's not a big deal, I suppose, but where he has it growing, it's on the other side of the fence from my lingonberry patch.

 

Lingonberries are a great plant for anyone living in cold weather country. I have a thread on them here, and I'll add a more current photo tomorrow because they having gone a long way toward filling in the new section of the lingonberry patch, which is along my driveway.

 

I have two that I use, and both are battery operated. I still have the Featherweight gas weed eater, but it got to be just too hard for me to get it started.
One that I use now is a Black and Decker rechargeable, and the other one is a Worx. The B&D has the charger built-in and just plugs in to charge, and the Worx has a little square battery pack that comes out to charge, and I also have a small leaf blower of that brand (they came as a set).

 

The B&D is definitely larger and heavier to use, but does do a more powerful job if it is heavy weeds. I usually just use the little Worx one, and keep the battery packs charged. Either one will work for about 15-20 minutes, depending on how heavy the weeds are, and that is about the length of time i want to spend with a weed eater at one time anyway.
Then, it can recharge, or with the Worx weed eater, I can just change the battery pack and go on weeding , if I want to do that.
I found a better picture on Amazon , and i see that the set is about $169 for the weed eater and leaf blower. I got mine for about $15 at a yard sale.
I also have a little cultivator that works with a battery pack, and it is great for small use around plants.
This is the Worx set.