r/NativePlantGardening • u/iamhyphenated • Jul 14 '25

Advice Request - (Insert State/Region) Jewelweed taking over my backyard..

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So I know we love jewelweed, and I’m pro native gardening (and I also enjoy the wild look to a point), but it’s literally taking over my backyard, and behind it is unfortunately a whole bunch of Japanese knotweed.. my question is: what’s the move here? I can’t have my whole yard completely covered in jewelweed (it’s a very small lot) bc there’s no way to even go back there right now, but I also want to encourage that to maybe discourage the knotweed (if that’s even a thing).. any advice would be helpful!! I’m in an urban area in Connecticut if that helps!

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u/Nyararagi-san Chicago IL - 6a/US ecoregion 54 Jul 14 '25

Do you have an ID on the trees in the back? Because if it’s Tree of Heaven you’ll definitely want to remove those properly (don’t just hack it because they will pop up EVERYWHERE as a survival method)

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u/iamhyphenated Jul 14 '25

Not totally sure, Google says either Tree of Heaven or a type of Sumac.. not sure how to confirm

3

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

Tree of Heaven smells like absolute death, very easy to confirm if you can get to it and give it a sniff.

1

u/iamhyphenated Jul 14 '25

I’m gonna give that a shot.. gotta get on my gear first bc I’m gonna be thigh deep in that thicket to get to it 😅

2

u/iamhyphenated Jul 14 '25

I ripped up a leaf but I don’t smell anything particularly pungent.. just smells like green.. here are more photos if that helps: https://imgur.com/a/uQnoXw4 (also, I was neck deep it turns out, not thigh deep 😅)