If you haven't felt hops before, it's like very fine velcro. It sticks to everything and that's how it grows. It twists around itself and can grow 4-5 inches in a day.
It's crazy!
We had been talking about keeping it under control this year.
Usually we do well at keeping it controlled, then it rains for a few days and when we get outside again, it has taken over our pathway. It sticks to your clothes, scratches your skin (I'm allergic so it leaves marks for weeks on me and now Jude too) and hides BIG spiders! Once it's that big (mid July usually) I don't go anywhere near it. I'm afraid of spiders and it narrows the pathway too close for my liking.
We decided last night to just rip it out.
Easier said than done.
There was NOTHING here before we left for 5 days to Canmore.
Not even a tiny bit of green, I checked. A little bit of rain, a bit of sun and BOOM. Hops explosion.
C digging them out for me.
The green is what was left above ground when we cut it down.
Look at those roots. It was like pulling out a tree by hand!
Amazing. No wonder they did so well.
lol! I was just admiring how crazy fast our hops have been growing. So far we are still loving ours since we don't walk over to that side of the deck for the most part. I just love their bright green color.
ReplyDeleteToo bad you did that, lol. I was thinking of seeing if I could get some from you for our back fence. I want something that grows quickly and gives privacy and thought of you! Not too sure about the spiders though... we already have a village of them back there!
ReplyDeleteAhh, that is too bad, although once we pulled it out, I don't think it would have transferred well. The root ball was surprisingly tiny so it couldn't have been divided and the roots themselves were so long, you'd never get them back in the ground.
ReplyDeleteI think each plant was only $7. We got our at Home Depot. I think we had them in a great location, their roots were shaded by our deck and stayed cool and the tops got lots of hot sun. It was only two plants and the amount they grow each year is INSANE! You cut them down totally to the ground each year and they come back 150%.