Beauty from Chaos: Repurposing Nature’s Unruly Invaders

By Jessica Driver, The Nonstop Naturalist, Southside Master Gardener, Southwester Piedmont Master Naturalist It’s a warm spring day, and you’re out tending your garden-the same one you’ve nurtured for years. The sun is on your neck and dirt is on your gloves. Then you spot it. How did that English Ivy creep into this bed? Is that a wisteria tendril reaching for your tomatoes? We’ve all been there, battling plants that refuse to stay put. Turning lovingly planned gardens as well as natural areas into weedy patches, wreaking havoc on your carefully curated private ecosystem.

Once these resilient plants get their roots dug down in the soil, sometimes you are left with the realization that you are stuck with mitigating the spread rather than completely getting rid of them. And since you have done all the hard, back breaking work of pulling and cutting, why let the plant go to waste? It didn’t choose to be here after all, it grew where the seeds happened to fall like the rest of your garden plants. You can however, make something that is helpful or beautiful for yourself. Chinese or Japanese Wisteria’s cascading purple flowers make it a beloved ornamental for trellises, but it’s fast growth and ability to spread via runners can quickly get out of control, overwhelming trees and structures. When cutting back the vines, look at how flexible and smooth they are. After removing the leaves, you can repurpose the vines into wreaths, baskets, or decorative garden orbs. English ivy is planted just about everywhere and is notorious for smothering native plants and damaging brickwork. When ripping up this ivy by the handfuls, separate the leaves for later use as a household cleaner. The leaves contain saponin, which is a natural foaming cleaner. Just boil 40 or 60 leaves in 3 cups of water for 15 min, let cool overnight, strain the leaves, and you have a wonderful and free counter cleaner. For those unfortunate souls who have Japanese knotweed which is one of the most aggressive invasives, capable of breaking through pavement, your battle is going to be a courageous one of herbicides and repeated cutting. But since you already have your hand pruners out, the strong hollow stems are very similar to bamboo but easier to cut when fresh. These are ideal for native bee hotels which are structures to support some of your native bee species. Or let them dry and use them as trellises or plant supports. If you get really adventurous, you can even make jellies, inks, clothes dyes, and paper from some of these never-ending natural art supplies! While using invasive plants can be both creative and sustainable, it’s important to do so responsibly. Always research the plant, correctly identify, and make sure you are disposing of any material as to prevent accidental spread including not throwing them in the woods. By thinking beyond eradication, we can turn these troublesome plants into valuable resources. Whether crafting with wisteria, making ivy soap, or creating bee hotels from knotweed, repurposing invasives offers a practical way to balance control with creativity. Just always remember, the best way to fix a problem is to never have planted it. Research before your next trip to the garden center to make sure you are not planting something that will give you headaches in the future!