A couple of weeks ago I cleared out some nandina domestica that was growing in our backyard. We hadn’t planted it, and I learned that not only is it invasive, the berries are poisonous.

Actually clearing it out went fine. In an effort to prevent unintentional spread, I planned on putting it with the garbage instead of the yard waste. Our yard waste is mulched and composted by the county, and residents can request deliveries of either. I didn’t want dormant seeds or rhizomes to spread through this system. I bagged it up in heavy-duty “contractor clean-up bags.” I know our collection people don’t like heavy bags, so I split it among four and put one out by the curb for collection with the rest of our household trash.

That one bag got left behind. I called the county to see how they recommended to dispose of invasive plants so that they wouldn’t spread through the mulch service, but they couldn’t get past the fact that it’s yard debris so it should get put out with the yard debris.

So I spent today moving the plants from the bags, putting the berries in the household trash so at least those will be kept out of the mulch, and putting the roots, stems, and foliage in our yard waste can.

Next Time

Next time, I’ll clip the berries into a plastic bag first, because they had fallen everywhere by the time I got to processing things today. I’ll put that in the household trash. And I’ll dig up and put the rest of the plant in the yard waste.