How to clear poison ivy and deep roots without digging up the whole yard
Clearing an overgrown area filled with deep-rooted poison ivy is physically exhausting and dangerous for people with severe allergies. The deep roots and large patches make it hard to remove by hand or shovel without spending hours digging up hundreds of square feet.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Spraying the area, layering with fabric, and covering with decorative rock.
- 2spraying with glyphosate
- 3digging them out with a shovel
- 4laying clear plastic over the area to solarize over fall and winter
- 5covering the area with wood chips
- 6laying pavers directly on top of leveled dirt and planting moss or clover in between
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I’m working with a neighbor to make their backyard useable after years of neglect from a prior resident.”source ↗
“Today we pulled up tons of various vegetation that’s taken over onto of old landscape fabric and stacked a punch of paver stones.”source ↗
“It’s very overgrown and has a ton of poison ivy. I’m allergic to it as is my youngest. I want to be able to make this space look nice but I’m having a hard time coming up with ideas.”source ↗
“Secondly, I went out today as it all looks to be dead (per the brown picture) but when trying to remove it, it feels very much alive and dug in very deep.”source ↗
“The roots are very deep and I was struggling to get the clumps out. I can dig them out with a shovel I suppose but it’s probably about 2-300 square feet so id rather not if I can avoid it.”source ↗
“I’ve never laid pavers and were trying to keep costs down to reuse what I dug up.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 52How to get rid of creeping weeds without breaking roots
- 5How to clear thick grass overgrowing a paved driveway
- 5How to kill invasive vines without killing the trees?
- 4How to get rid of English ivy without losing your mind
- 8How to clean up acorns from loose gravel without losing stones
- 3How to prep a garden bed after removing weeds and gravel