Pachysandra, How do I get rid of most of it? 'Free" does not seem to be working.

[Paper Roses]

I have an area beside my house that is overgrown with this great ground cover. My late husband cared for the area but, because of physical limits, I cannot tend to this. Have yet to try Craigslist.
I have tried posting on local 'garage sale and 'free ' sites but have no takers.
Anyone have a suggestion as to how I can kill about half of this area?
It is about 25' by 10 feet. All the plants are healthy but I cannot dig them up . A landscape company would charge me an arm and a leg to do the job. I don't have the $$$.
As much as this bothers me, I must get this area done, It is a mess.
Any suggestions would be a help.
Live near me (MA)? Yours for free, you just need to loosen the soil and pull the plants and roots.
Bag plants and go, simple as that.

[femmocrat]

1. It you want to kill it, you can cover it with black plastic.

You could also spray it, but that stuff migrates, so it might kill the part you want to keep.

Black plastic takes awhile though.

[NJCher]

2. Definitely try craigslist with a picture

I think you'll get some results.

Do you have a weedwacker? I didn't do this, but some workers who were being "supervised" by my husband took a weedwacker to the pachysandra that had grown into a path. This turned it into some "nubs."

After you do that, you could put large sheets of cardboard over it and then mulch it.

If you need mulch, tell some neighbors. They might be happy to dump some grass clippings on top of the cardboard. Also, if you see some neighborhood landscapers working on a neighbor's property, you might ask them if they want to dump some clippings on your area.

The advantage to this method is that if you keep mulching it, in a year or so you'll have incredibly rich soil. Then you can grow whatever you want in there. I did it once on an area of lawn and I then planted cleome (spider flower) in there and I had one spider flower with a three-inch thick stem!

I really hate to see you do this, though, as pachysandra pulls in a nice price at the garden centers. Someone out there would definitely benefit from the starts. And it is a terrific, low-maintenance ground cover that adds interest to the landscape.

I wouldn't do plastic because if you don't get it up before it breaks into little pieces, you'll have an even bigger mess on your hands.


Cher

p.s. what about a sign at the curb: "Free Pachysandra" and your phone number or email address? With this method, neighbors might pass it along through their network.

[lululu]

3. evil suggestion

Is this near other plants? I often see it around trees.

If it is not near other plants, what I do as a less and less capable physically older person is...resort to spraying things with RoundUp. Yes, evil RoundUp. It can take a couple of weeks for stuff to start dying, despite their claims of one week. It comes in premixed spray bottles, so you can avoid the whole mixing and big sprayer effort.

You could also go the cover it with flattened cardboard boxes weighed down with bricks or somesuch. You can buy cardboard boxes at UHaul.

[MrMickeysMom]

4. Wow… I love it as a ground cover and my neighbor wants some… opposite!

Basically, it's a "runner", so you'd have to really till down to get rid of it. I just like to as a ground cover so much… It's so tolerant through the freezing winter, and adjusts well in summer.

Should I be worried?

[Paper Roses]

5. This plant has done it's job for years but:

It has overgrown a pathway between my house and that of my neighbor.
I can dig up the overgrowth but hate to just throw out the parts that I dig up.
Seems like no-one wants it. It has been great in the shaded area but now the tree causing the shade has been cut down and the sun has make this stuff grow like crazy.

I guess my weekend project is dig and get to the dump. The stuff has managed to grow thru the underlay and thru the stones. It now looks awful. For me this is a big project. Bad back and bad foot makes the job a little difficult but--I will spend Saturday having fun with shovel and trash bags. Oh Joy!