Reclaiming space from the knotweed

Southeast corner now (facing south)

The southeast corner is the second of three areas that I'm focusing on this year (the first is the rose beds). When we bought our house, this corner - the furthest from the house - had a couple of old plum trees, a few shrubs, and some weedy but nicely trimmed grass. Obviously the previous owners had a landscaping crew chop everything down before putting the house up for sale, because it soon turned into a wild mess of noxious weeds.

The worst was Japanese (or possibly giant) knotweed, spread from the neighbor to the south. At one point, their entire back yard was filled with knotweed, which grew 12-14 feet tall each summer and loomed over our fence, shading the entire south side of our back yard. In our corner, the knotweed mixed with blackberry, English ivy, and plum shoots to become an impenetrable maze.

Then the neighboring house sold, the new owners cleaned up their yard, and one of our plum trees fell over in an ice storm. The remaining plum tree was in danger of falling and taking out the fence, so we had it cut down and then chopped out everything else that was growing around it. Last spring, I covered the whole area with cardboard and as much mulch as I had available, planted a wildflower mix as temporary cover - and then spent the summer chasing after knotweed, plum shoots and blackberries.

In the fall, I planted bulbs along the side of the lawn (in the foreground of the picture above): daffodils, bluebells, muscari and anemones. Then I replanted after the squirrels (or raccoons?) dug them up, and sprinkled stinky cat litter on top. That seemed to keep the animals out, and the bulbs are coming up nicely now, but I don't know what got eaten - the daffodils at least did not.

Daffodils!

As soon as it warms up, I will plant hazelnuts along the east and south fence lines, to meet the existing hazelnuts further up the south fence line. That'll eventually screen the back alley and the neighbor's parking spot. I'd also like to plant a larger tree, maybe a cherry or fig, but not until the knotweed is completely gone.

My main work this year will be maintenance - continuing to pull out the knotweed as it comes up, poison it only if I have to, and pull out any other noxious weeds that try to grow. I scattered more wildflower seed mix this weekend, but I don't care too much what grows there this year as long as it's easy to mow down.