Grass is not going to grow underneath the pine tree (at least, not for long, although you might get it to sprout).

However, you really can't let the poison ivy continue to grow under there. We don't have a good wide view, so I'll assume it's pretty widespread under there and you can't isolate it.

Your only choice, then, is to take it out. And that pretty much means Round Up--probably several times--to make sure it's gone and not coming back. Poison Ivy can be pernicious stuff.

Once you're sure it's gone, you can replace it with more vinca, or another deep shade and drought-tolerant ground cover that will do well under a tree and in that area. So vinca, in other words. :-)

You could also mulch the area under the tree and keep it as an area with no plants, or let the pine tree mulch the area with dropped leaves. Grasses, however, tend not to do well under pine trees and any other heavily-leafed or -needled tree. The shadowing doesn't do good things for them.

Thank you! I tried to post better pictures but they didn’t post for some reason. So what I am understanding is that if I were to spray (with triclopyr) and kill everything, then I could grow grass everywhere except beneath the tree. And if the poison ivy keeps coming back it would be only in the tree area, correct?

I do have kids running around the property all the time and personally react horribly to the poison ivy so I just want to make sure it is gone as much and soon as possible!

thank you again for your advice!

Point. Use Brush Killer or Poison Ivy Killer. I tend to get to the stuff as a baby when RoundUp works fine.

Grass should grow fine except under the tree's drip line and a bit beyond, although that will depend on the size of the tree (I can't tell from the photo). Very large trees will have a lot of influence past the drip line. Medium sized ones, less so. Smaller ones, only to the drip line or so.

Poison ivy is pernicious. If a scrap of root survives, it can re-sprout, and that can happen anywhere. Likewise, it can re-grow from seed in any locale. Keep an eye out. I'm very fortunate not to be allergic to it at all, but I certainly feel for those who suffer.

It is best to kill it. When we moved in to this house 8 years ago we had the best crop of poison ivy in eastern Carolina. I used the Bayer Poison Ivy killer on it and now have the problem under control. Poison ivy is a continuing control problem, as it can be seeded I believe by birds, so every time you see it you must get rid of it.

With poison if you must remember that it is the oil in the plant that causes the irritation, so even after the plant is dead it can still give you poison ivy, For one or two new plant it can be controlled with the lawn mower or trimmer. ie weed eater, not hand clippers.

Just a comment. While I believe you have made the proper Identification of the plants growing in the picture, remember that Virginia creeper a harmless plant looks quite similar. The two plants grow in the same environment, and can be found growing side by side. In those cases, I kill every thing in the area

In the meantime you're still going to have to keep a reign on the kids. And after you start spraying they shouldn't be going where the chemicals have been applied either.

Or where there might be venomous snakes or spiders, and so on.

Just to be pedantic, what you have there doesn't look like a pine. It looks like a fir.

Fir is murder!

Oh. Sorry. Fur is murder.

Carry on, then.

For anybody who gets a poison ivy rash, I highly recommend Zanfel. It works like a miracle! It eliminates the itching completely within 60 seconds but has to be reapplied two or three times a day until the oil is gone. It's a bit expensive but you don't need to use as much as they tell you to use to be effective.

Kids should be able to figure it out. I used to play with my cousins in a woody area of Altoona, PA. They knew what to look for and simply avoided it.

Yes thank you. My older kids can watch out for it However it is in so many places including in the flowers and bushes of the landscaping around our home that if my toddler’s ball bounces into the wrong bush for example, I would rather not have to worry every time we are outside our home. Camping or hiking is expected that we must all be on the lookout but our own property I would prefer to take some proactive measures, especially since it is within many other similar looking vines.

The thread finally mentioned what I thought when I made my post. If you do not live in the concrete canyons of a city, you should become familiar with the animals and plants in the areas. If you have children you should start teaching them of the bad items in your yard, followed by those in the community that the children will be playing.

We live in a fairly rural area. We have the full complement of animal life in our immediate yard opossums, rabbits, foxes, etc. We have many different birds, every thing from humming birds, cardinals, goldfinches, to hawks and vultures. What we don't have is chipmunks, we are east of the chipmunk line which runs through western Raleigh. While there was recently a sighting of a bear near my daughter's house, living next to a large wild wooded area with a swamp creek running through it; it would not surprise me to see one soon. We have a full complement of snakes. every thing from small green snakes, to main types of rat snakes, with some copper heads. As I remember this area was the traditional habitat of rattle snakes, so would not be surprised to see one.

We have many types plants from jasmine, virginia creeper to poison ivy.

My point if you live in this type of area, you need to learn the good things and the bad, and teach your children to recognize which is which.

Again, I do appreciate the help I have received on this thread. My question was more on the best ways to eliminate the poison ivy from my landscaping and less about what to teach my children. But since it seems to keep coming up, I assure you that we already teach our kids about the good and bad things to look out for. Since this is an advice forum for ground cover and lawn care, I do appreciate the advice and suggestions I have received for the poison ivy. Thank you to you all for your time and expertise. it is much appreciated.

I live in the suburbs.

need to address a misconception repeated here: a proper strong dilution of GLYPHOSATE (the real non-proprietary name of roundup, which has become a genericized trademark), with a proper spreader/surfactant...will most definitely kill poison ivy. It just kills it more slowly than Triclopyr, and is thus perhaps less 'satisfying'. Whether the "roundup" one buys at home depot etc is strong enough at label dilutions, I have no idea. I haven't bought that sort of thing in 15 years. A product like commercial Rodeo with Methylated seed oil at 4 oz. a gallon works.

You can fake that by purchasing the RoundUp concentrate and using it at 4 oz per gallon as well, just following the instructions for hard to treat weeds.

The stuff in the ready to spray will be 2.75 oz/gal or so, which is correct for easier weeds.

I'd also be inclined to add excess non-ionic surfactant as well, in addition to what the concentrate already has in it. Poison ivy is waxy-leafed stuff.

One minor incidental that I hadn't mentioned before is that vinca is considered an invasive species in some areas of the country, so you might consider something else depending on where you are.

I got an organic herbicide last year (before the price skyrocketed) under the brand name Biosafe weed control. It contains Ammonium Nonanoate, I notice Ortho is now selling this under the name Ground Clear OMRI and it does work on poison ivy. It only kills the portion of the plant above ground that has been sprayed. Killing all the foliage a few times will kill it off over time. It seems to work best when the plant is recieving the most sun it gets during the day. Just the other day I gloved up, put on long sleeves, and manually pulled out a lot of poison ivy vines (I am very allergic). I dont spend more than 20-30 minutes manually pulling before I wash up with dish soap and cold water. I have successfully used cut stem roundup concentrate applied with a foam brush on large poison ivy vines as well, cutting a segment out first with long handle loppers and using the loppers to handle the vine. I get kind of paranoid about spraying triclopyr around trees.

I agree with David. I've never had any problem killing off poison ivy with just plain old Round Up. I use glyphosate from Home Depot as well, and it takes it right out.

I like morpheus's idea of adding about 1/4 teaspoon (a few thick drops) of dish detergent per gallon; from what I remember the HD/lowes store bought stuff doesn't spread very well on leaves like oxalis. Even though it already contains some kind of built-in spreader.

I'd seriously use non-ionic surfactant (spreader sticker from the big box store) or, at worst, Jet Dry from your kitchen cabinet (also a non-ionic surfactant and totally harmless to people) rather than dish detergent in this case.

Although dish detergent is OK if you're going to use all of the mix immediately, it's just that glyphosate does deactivate over time a bit in anything with a charge, and dish detergent has a charge.

Yes a true non-ionic surfactant would be best, of course, but what most people have on hand is dish detergent!

In that case, pre-spray with soapy water (put soapy water in a hose-end sprayer and spray at light dilution) and then spray with RoundUp. That way, you don't have to risk deactivating the entire gallon (or however much you just mixed) and don't have to hose-end apply the RoundUp, where it's a bit less controllable and exposure is far more likely.

I know you want to get a good a kill as possible with poison ivy, but I really don't think surfactants matter that much wrt poison ivy. Clover absolutely needs it due to the little hairs on the leaves, but I've never found the ivy to be any issue at all. I have spreader sticker so I'd use it if I had a lot of ivy to kill, but the OP shouldn't get too confused about everything needed to do it properly. Just get some Round Up or glyphosate and go spray it. Wait a week or two and spray whatever isn't dead yet.

Personally, I add surfactant to everything, including the Desert Rose seeds I just started soaking to plant this evening. But I also make soap, so... :-)

Seriously, what Daniel said. Just spray the dang stuff. Even clover goes down without extra surfactant in the mix. Then nuke it again 14 days later. Fourteen days after that if anything is still moving on the field of battle.

No herbicides! Use this stick instead and just keep working your way in from the outsides of that patch.

Interesting video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oyoDRHpQK0