# Elephant grass - is it only my family that believes this?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 9, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338 "2012-03-09T22:12:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/21 "2012-03-11T19:07:15Z")
> [@The\_Vorlon](#):
>
> You realize that they frown on home use of thermonuclear devices, don’t you?
GODDAMN nanny state!
😃
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/22 "2012-03-11T20:38:18Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#):
>
> Has she tried eating it?
This is, of course, the best advice on how to get rid of anything you want to in your yard. Have her spend several hundred dollars on learning the best techniques on the preparation and use of mint in her kitchen. Now that’s she found and invested in an actual \*use \*for mint, she’ll never find a single stalk again.
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### Author:  [@RoniaBorkason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RoniaBorkason)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/23 "2012-03-12T16:18:34Z")
> [@Rick](#):
>
> Mint. Ha! Elephant grass who cares?
> Try removing blackberries.
> Woody, spreads underground, resistant to chemicals, and sharp fucking thorns to boot.
Goats. Rent a herd, blackberries will be gone in a weekend. Love it.
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### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/24 "2012-03-12T16:35:40Z")
Rental goat herds are fairly rare here in LA.
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### Author:  [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2012, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/25 "2012-03-12T16:42:56Z")
You need to start hanging out in the halal markets. Casually mention the tons of blackberry bushes you have, that you’ve heard goats love 'em and it makes the meat tasty but it’s just too bad you don’t have any goats…
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/26 "2012-03-13T19:27:42Z")
There’s a big big difference between “invasive” (i.e. spreads into the neighboring “natural” environment) and “sinks roots down to China so you’ll need blasting caps to get it out of there”.
Some ornamental grasses (can’t speak to S. ravennae) develop good-sized clumps over time that are hell to dig out if you decide you want something else growing there. I am still pissed about busting a nice British-made shovel trying to dig up a switchgrass clump (which itself survived the crude surgery quite well). If I wanted another go at it I’d probably use a chainsaw and a lot of caution.
Yucca glauca (a common garden plant in many parts of the country) is another of those things that resists eradication, resprouting from any tiny piece of root you leave behind. A flamethrower, some hand grenades and a few gallons of Roundup might work, but I wouldn’t count on it.
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/27 "2012-03-13T20:51:51Z")
Warning! Pointless Boring Mini-rant alert! DNR, DNR, DNR! !
We have an [Empress tree](http://www.treewalls.com/images/empress-tree-13.jpg) next to our garage. The things take three years to blossom, and everyone I’ve ever known who had one cut it down before that happened, so I’ve always wanted to see one in bloom. GD landlord cut it down the Spring before it would have happened.
But I got my revenge, because an Empress tree left to it’s own devices will stand quietly and dig deep roots. Cut it down though, and you’ve got yourself an Empress forest in the making. It put out several shoots, all of which were attached to the same healthy root system and grew higher than the house in the first season. Idiot has tried cutting them down three years in a row, and I’m not about to clue him in. Jerk.
But yeah, roundup is the right answer.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/28 "2012-03-13T23:16:54Z")
Warning. I’m about to reminisce about the row of elephant grass from the OP.
At one time it must have been a line of 4 to 6 distinct plantings of evil, razor-edged malice, waiting for someone to brush against their trailing and innocent looking leaves. But the separate clumps had long since grown together into a mass that was about 40 feet long and 10 feet wide.
Their cutting bulk separated my driveway from our neighbor’s driveway and it was starting to get wide enough to make anyone getting out of the car on that side wish that they were wearing long sleeves, not to mention long pants and enclosed shoes. I was renting the house from my parents while I went to UC Davis. (Re-entry student with 3 kids.) So when I got tired of repeatedly hacking it back, I asked for permission to remove it.
The re-entry thing felt like it was dragging on forever, I said, and I needed a project where I could see definite progress. I was going to experiment with the idea that you can accomplish anything if you do it for 20 minutes a day (or 20 minutes at least 3 times a week)\* I knew that they didn’t like elephant grass, so did they mind if I removed it?
They were thrilled at the idea and were very supportive. As I hacked away, starting with heavy gloves and pruning shears, they would often enquire about how it was going. I had started on the driveway side of the clump, I said. And now I could get in and out of the car with no problem. Great, they said. We’re pleased. Keep at it.
Of course, in the beginning, it grew back. A co-worker in the Environmental Health Department (of UCD - student job) mentioned that Roundup was pretty environmentally safe and fairly effective, so I got some. When I cut back a section, I’d spray roundup on the cut stubs left behind. It didn’t come close to killing the clump, but it slowed re-growth. Cool.
I told the parents about the Roundup, and how I was starting to see exposed roots. Very good, they said. You’re really making progress. I found one rhizome growing above ground and cut it off with a saw. That sucker was an inch and a half thick. It started to be a toss-up over whether I’d spend 20 minutes cutting tendrils or shoveling dirt away from the roots.
It would take more than one 20 minute session to remove a ball of roots. Just starting in, it would take one or two sessions to excavate and expose and then another session or two to remove. I’d alternate between the shovel and the saw to break a decent-sized chunk off.
Davis has curbside yard waste pickup. Yard waste doesn’t have to be in a bin, because they have a fleet of modified bobcats that snag the piles and lift them into trucks. So I let the kids join in. That is, I enslaved them and forced them to take the piles of whatever I had removed to the curb. Hey, it was a short driveway and I let them use the wheelbarrow. Kids like wheelbarrows. And it kept them from getting into trouble while my attention was on our alien overlords.
Actually, they didn’t complain too much. In fact, they started to get a little invested in the goal of defeating the vegetation beast when we started finding old balls and pop bottles down in the clump. When my parents called, the kids would list what we had found recently and tell Grandma and Grandpa that they were helping. My folks were always encouraging.
## (I’m going to pause here, in keeping with only spending 20 minutes on the project.)
\*((20 minutes a week, at the very least))
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2012, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/29 "2012-03-14T13:17:59Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> Yucca glauca (a common garden plant in many parts of the country) is another of those things that resists eradication, resprouting from any tiny piece of root you leave behind. A flamethrower, some hand grenades and a few gallons of Roundup might work, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Do not do this. All you manage to do is spread tiny bits of yucca around your yard, which then take root and spread. It’s best to just dig out 5 feet of top soil in a 3 foot radius and ship it off to the incinerator.
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### Author:  [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/30 "2012-03-14T13:30:42Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#):
>
> Has she tried eating it?
The average backyard mint patch _in one summer_ could fuel several hundred years’ worth of lemonade flavoring or mint-julep making. It will not die. Ever.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/31 "2012-03-14T20:19:11Z")
Ah mint. I make iced tea from it all summer. Yes, it is probably impossible to eradicate, but why would I want to. And I just wish blackberries would grow here. When I visit my son in Seattle in August I eat blackberries constantly. They seem to come back forever, but they don’t seem to spread spontaneously, since I see them in the same places year after year, not spreading.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/32 "2012-03-14T20:34:49Z")
> [@Yllaria](#):
>
> As I was growing up, my parents made occasional reference to the stupidity of planting [elephant grass.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharum_ravennae) They were completely convinced that once it “became established” it could never be completely removed.
>
> They also thought that the fact that it had razor-edged leaves and dropped lots of puffy floating seeds at least once a year also made it unsuitable for landscaping near sane people. But its unstoppable invasiveness, which to hear them talk was nearly supernatural, was what made it taboo.
>
> I was always a bit skeptical and there’s a small story to my experiment proving that, no, it’s not impossible to remove. But I’m still curious. Do other people believe that elephant grass is impossible to remove, or was that just something that my parents happened to have exaggerated?
Look on the web. Everything they said is true.
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/33 "2012-03-14T21:17:29Z")
Yllaria - You weren’t using the RoundUp correctly. It gets absorbed through the leaves and then prevents the plant from . . . well, synthesizing something, or absorbing something. . .I forget. But the poitn is that spraying the stumps won’t work, you have to spray it on the leaves and then take out the rest after it’s competlely dead.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/34 "2012-03-18T12:51:56Z")
There was always at least a foot of the leaves left as the stump. There was usually also full-length grass right behind what had been removed. So there was plenty of leafy surface area to absorb the Roundup ™.
Even if I had been able to afford enough to spray the entire mass, with rhizomes that large, it would have taken multiple sprayings and perhaps not worked completely, or at all. It never killed any section that was sprayed, so I have my doubts about it killing multiple, well-rooted full plants. The point wasn’t to kill it. The point was to keep it from re-growing long enough for me to dig out the roots.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2012, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/35 "2012-03-18T12:54:24Z")
> [@astro](#):
>
> Look on the web. Everything they said is true.
And yet it is gone. It was completely removed and stays gone to this day.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2012, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-grass-is-it-only-my-family-that-believes-this/615338/36 "2012-03-18T13:26:19Z")
When I were a lad, my dad used to pay me 20p to mow the lawn, and a secret extra 5p if I ‘accidentally’ mowed through my mother’s rhubarb plantation. I would mow that shit down to nothing, and within a couple of weeks it was all back, but this time bigger and armed.
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