I'm in southwest Virginia. I'm so sorry for your problem. I have had the same problem minus the bamboo. I, too, could not call in the troops to do it for me. So year by year I would tackle one section at a time. It was brutal work to clear a section, clear out the grass, take a shovel and dig up the solid dirt, mix in peat moss and bags of good soil, plant prennenials and annuals, mulch and be patient. I've been in my house 6 years now and have transformed most of the yard but it is a work in progress....a section at a time. I would recommend a tiller but if you can't afford one then a pick and shovel. Cut back or cut down the shrubs you don't want. Someone told me to use Round Up and kill the grass and poison ivy/oak. I haven't done this yet but I'm seriously thinking of doing it this year. I've learned patience one section at a time. Good luck.

I try to go organic but drastic cases call for drastic solutions... If you are trying to save stuff in between your pest plants, prune them back to a manageable size and try Round Up (Monsanto) or Brush Be Gone (Ortho). It'll do a job on your on your Poison Oak and Bamboo. You can "paint" it on the leaves of selected plants with one of those spongey "brushes" and it will kill it all the way to the roots in most cases. Check for Poision Ivy /Poison Oak growing on nearby trees. These are often the mother plant and you will never get rid of her offspring if you don't killer her too.

If there is nothing you really care about and you want to start over from scratch spray the whole works. Wait a couple of weeks to make sure the evil pesties are really dead. You may have to spray again to get the remaining roots. Then till in as many leaves and grass clippings as you can get your hands on...

There is a marvelous product out for grasses now, also by Ortho, called Grass be Gone. It can be sprayed right on the grass in your border so long as they don't contain grass like plants like daylily or iris...I few applications over the spring/summer should eliminate any grasses seeds that remain as they germinate over the summer...This has become my bestest friend since I am having a time trying to convince my husband to mow with the grass blowing away from my borders.

Now for your concrete: If you have access to leaves you can till these right in the border or, (see Compost/Mulch post) you can mulch with these and work them in the soil between plants as you put new stuff in. If you can, pick corner of your yard and start a compost pile for the future. A 9ft ring of fence wire makes the perfect size that does not need to be turned. Just pile in your leaves, grass clippings and vegetive refuse. A couple shovel fulls of garden dirt and a couple of handfuls of 10-10- 10 make a perfectly good starter...You don't need any of the expensive compost starters. Keep it about as damp as a wrung out sponge...Most piles will stay moist enough unless you are having a very dry spell. I almost never water mine...Each spring you just lift the ring and use your completed compost. (I have a spring ring and a fall ring, but then I have a 1100 acre back yard...)If you find these unattractive you can always plant an annual flowering vine around the outside. I actually have 9 rings I use in my garden that I plant my tomatoes around. I thiil this in every fall when I put the garden to bed and then again in the spring. Looking at the garden now next to the unplanted field beside it you can see how much the soil has been improved over just the two years I have been planting there...

In the borders I always dig my holes for plants bigger than necessary and put a good thick layer of leaves or compost in the bottom of each hole...put a little dirt over that and then plant the plant as usual.

For a while you must be sure to use gloves and long sleeves in case you come across some still active oils in your poison oak roots. Sometimes they are worse than the leaves....and be aware that you can get the oils on your skin when you take the gloves and clothing off...Many people are unaware of this.

Your mess sounds like it is bigger than mine was, but mine had me kind of down last year, too. The thing is to take it one step at a time and don't expect to get it all done this year.

If I had the problems you mention, I would start two projects - plant murder and soil amendment. Both will take you quite some time, but by autumn, you may be in a position to plant some bulbs and you'll feel pretty good about that. You will also have developed some ideas about what you want your garden to look like.

I think you must kill the bamboo and the poison oak. You will be able to get rid of a good bit of it this year, but it may take three or four years of patrolling to get it all. Get started now. Cut down what you can and spray the regrowth with Brush B Gon or RoundUp. Cut. Spray. Cut. Spray. Don't quit in the winter - cut, cut, cut.

For the soil, if you live near horses or cows, you have everything you need. If you offer a farm manager $20, you can probably get him to load your truck with manure. If you haven't got a truck, you can use brown paper "composting bags" from Home Depot (about $2) and load your car. Maybe you can get the farm manager to deliver it for you. Don't be shy about walking up to strangers and asking for poop!

You can also walk up to strangers operating tree chippers and ask them to dump a truckload of woodchips on your driveway. Wood chips break down into excellent soil and most tree services are happy not to have to haul the chips to the dump.

Just start laying the organic matter on top of the soil. Lay it as deep as you can, but don't worry about digging it in. You can do this right up until the weather turns too nasty to be outdoors. Lay it on and wait until next year to start dealing with it more thoroughly.

Leave the shrubs alone this year and watch what they do. Some you may decide to prune. Others you may decide to cut down altogether. Don't be hasty to change a mature shrub's natural shape, though, because it will take you years to get it back if you change your mind.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/vagard/msg010826269231.html?50

I guess you've seen this.

Thanks for the support and encouragement everybody. I know all I can do is chip away a little at a time. You know how it is when you look at a project and think "where do I even start?"

I have an area that is fairly covered with english ivy and I did plant some impatiens for color in the bare spots in that. That area isn't too bad, but what shrubs are there are overgrown as well. That area is getting my attention first because it's 'doable'.

The shrubs in the real problem area are no longer really shrubs. They're trees. You know how certain varieties do that if they're not tended, and these haven't been tended in a long time. They really need to go. That area is just infested with poison oak as well and is kinda shared between mine and my neighbors' yard. One side is theirs and one side is ours.

I can tell by talking to the woman that she's hoping I'll clean it all out but that is probably not going to be a project for this year. What I'm going to work on is what I can, within reason.

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement and tips.

Just a thought, but are you sure it's poison oak and not virgina creeper? a link: http://www.noble.org/imagegallery/Woodhtml/VirginiaCreeper.html
I didn't think poison oak was common here.

I agree with the soil amendment replies. One method we have used is putting 6-10 sheets of newspaper over any vegetation and topping it with shredded leaves (since that's what we have). If it sounds interesting, look into "lasagne gardening" in the Soils forum. The Garden Restoration forum may be helpful as well. When summer arrives , you'll welcome an excuse to be in the Planning, rather than Laboring stage in your garden!

Good luck and try not to be overwhelmed. One thing I've found helpful is to keep a photo album--since a landscape is never finished, in a few months or a year, you'll have a gratifying record of how far you've come to balance your mental list of how much you need to do.

Good news: it's not poison oak.
Bad news: it's poison IVY.
More good news: there isn't as much as I originally thought. I did buy some Roundup specifically for poison ivy (and friends) so I'll hit the area later today. Since it's in the problem area I don't have to worry about getting it on other plants, so there's that at least.

Yes, good luck! I have had good results using Brush-B-Gone to kill off poison ivy, but the Roundup stuff should work as well. I have posted on the other thread about my battle with bamboo. A Pick Mattox was the most useful tool, but I don't think I could have won the battle without full strength Round Up concentrate. A jug is around $40 but worth every penny!

Here is a tip...take plenty of pictures. This has happens to me. At the end of the season I feel completely exhausted and feel like I accomplished nothing all year. Then I look back at the pictures and realize all the things that I did accomplish. Tackle a few projects a year and in no time your yard will be transformed.

- Brent

Why not plant a container or two of pretty plants to brighten your spirits while you're tackling the yard this summer? Could be annuals , or if there's a shrub or some perennials that you want to put in this fall or next spring, buy them now and grow in a big planter.

I'm mostly a veggie gardener, and I'll give another vote for growing in containers. You'd be amazed at the production you can get in containers. Peppers, tomatoes (determinate), strawberries, broccoli and lettuce are among the food items we've eaten out of my containers. It's a relatively easy project, especially once they're planted, and may give you encouragement as you take on your tougher tasks.

Be careful how you dispose of the poison ivy. Don't burn it or it can get in your lungs and cause serious problems. Wear gloves, preferably throw away ones, and wash thoroughly when you're finished and launder your clothes.

Good luck!

I have a friend, a man, who foolishly cleared quite a lot of poison ivy, and then went indoors and used the bathroom BEFORE washing his hands. I leave the image to your imagination.

Brenda

Little note about using Round-up type products- I've found that adding a few drops of dish soap to a gallon helps. It will stick to the shiny/waxy leaves better. It really helps with English ivy.

Also- I checked with the manufacturer, and Grass-b-gon is OK on liriope, which is in the lilly family. I've used it with no problem on liriope and ophiopogon (sp).

My little brother as a small boy ran away from me while in his birthday suit into the woods when we tried to give him a bath. He was exposed head to toe to poison ivy and he suffered badly...everywhere. My father is a doctor and he had to sedate him a few times. PI is no laughing matter if it is bad enough.

Hate to say this but, round up never worked for us in Virginia. Sure, it will kill what is obvious but, unless you pull it by the roots, it will come back every single year.

We had 16 tall pines surrounding our house and every single one was covered in poison ivy. First year we tried the round up. Second year, we did both the round up and pulled some up. The round up ones STILL came back and I finally had to level the trees and we backhoed the yard.

Yes, I'm THAT allergic to poison ivy as it will put me in the hospital every time I get it. The trees were also loose from 2 hurricanes coming through so it turned out to be a win win situation. I've re-planted maples and poplars where these stood so eventually they will grow and be a haven for the wildlife.

Elaine

I never had great success using Roundup on weeds in Houston, come to think of it. Maybe I'm too light handed with the stuff.

The poison ivy is mainly in the overgrown area and spraying it did absolutely nothing. Honestly, this year it's probably going to stay right where it is. There are other areas in the yard I can work on with satisfying results and that scraggly bamboo-poison ivy area is providing a screen of sorts... And we're likely only going to live here for a couple of years. As much as I hate it, that area is probably going to be someone else's problem. There is plenty of work to be done in the rest of the yard just to get it fairly up to snuff.

In other words I'm not choosing to do nothing, but you all know when you have a large gardening project you have to start somewhere. My starting points are the areas closest to the house that we can see and are likely to spend more time in.

And I will be taking pictures. That was an excellent suggestion.