IS IT POISON IVY? - 7/1/20


 IS IT POISON IVY?

BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi

 

During this Covid-19 Quarantine many are using this time to revamp their yards and garden areas and we see them posted on Facebook.  I am also in full gardening mode trying to create not only a beautiful environment for my husband and I to enjoy, but also a welcoming place for my birdies!  Planting the right plants can supply food not only for birds, but also for butterflies and bees.  These insects not only help beautify our yard, but they boost our environment by being pollinators.  Butterflies are not as efficient as bees at spreading pollen.  Due to their long legs they do not dive into plants and get covered all over their bodies with pollen the way that bees do. But since butterflies are such show stoppers I am in search of plants that will draw them to my yard. Most people will stop whatever they are doing just to watch a beautiful butterfly!

 

I am highly allergic to poison ivy and so working in my woodsy yard is tricky because poison ivy easily sneaks in. There have not been very many summers that I haven’t ended up with a shot in my bottom to help me clear up my poison ivy!  Therefore I have been working very hard the past few weeks to make certain that I do all the right things to keep from one more “Calamine and Benadryl summer!” So as I garden I try to remember the poem that everyone quotes about poison ivy….”Leaves of three, let it be” or “Leaflets of three, beware of me.”  But, unfortunately from what I have read not all species of this plant have just three leaves, so this can make us “poison ivy haters” very nervous when around anything that resembles something that we are unsure of!  The oil from these plants when rubbed against your skin can instantly create an often painful, itchy rash.  This oil is called “urushiol” and up to 80 or 90% of us encounter an allergic reaction according to HGTV.com. This oil can get on our clothes, gloves, shoes, garden tools and pets and stay active up to a year! There is a plant that I have been pulling out of my flower beds because I wasn’t certain whether this five leaf running vine was safe, but yesterday I Googled it. It’s called Virginia Creeper and that’s exactly what it does.  It creeps through your flower bed and up trees. But, the thing that I discovered on the-natural-web.org site is that Virginia Creeper is for the Birds!  This vine is very showy in the fall with leaves that turn bright scarlet and the flowers have nectar and pollen that many bees love!  “If the bees are successful in assisting Virginia Creeper with pollination, berries develop and ripen in late summer and fall.”  The ripe berries turn a deep blue that’s beautiful against the scarlet leaves.  These berries are eaten by animals and birds that poop out and scatter the seeds.  Birds that love these berries are Woodpeckers, Titmice, Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, Thrushes, Robins, Catbirds, Eastern Bluebirds and Cedar Waxwings!  So as you are cleaning out your flower beds to rid them of poison ivy, you might not want to pull out Virginia Creeper if you love these birds.  I am thankful that as I “Look at the birds of the air…” Matthew 6:26 – I have found a plant that isn’t poison ivy and is a safe way to attract and feed beautiful birds that come to my yard.  My photos may be viewed & “LIKED” on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest - “Birdie of Mississippi”.

E-mail: birdieofmississippi@gmail.com - Read my Blog @ http://www.birdieofmississippi.blogspot.com

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